A DoFollow Solution For Killing Spam, Rewarding Commenters, Saving PageRank

Posted by Kevin in October 22nd 2008

Recently I’ve been reconsidering the all inclusive use of the rel=”nofollow” attribute that originated and was popularized by Google back in 2005. This tag was put into action in an attempt to curb the overwhelming comment spam that was effectively gaming Google’s system of ranking websites in their search results. That is, Google’s ranking system takes into account the number of links to a website and uses that as an indicator of authority for a given site. Thus if a spammer was to comment on many sites leaving a link back to their own site it would raise their authority to rank higher in Google’s search results. With the nofollow tag, the spammer will still get the click through traffic but won’t receive the boost in PageRank.

Nowadays with the implementation of counter spamming measures such as Akismet and captcha, comment spam isn’t that big of an issue. Hence, this brings me to my point; do we really need the nofollow policy anymore? For Google, it’s an absolute yes because their dependent upon it to recognize authority and therefore create rankings. However, more and more bloggers these days are moving to an an amended dofollow policy with the help of WordPress plugins like NoFollow Free that encourages comments. While I think that this maybe a little too radical, I think it’s at least a step in the right direction in that it gives back to your commentators, the ones truly responsible for driving a spirited discussion.

I’ve seriously considered an all inclusive dofollow policy on TM but here’s some of my concerns with it:

It would attract a lot of lackluster comments that may be similar to “Hey, nice post. Check out my site”
It doesn’t attract the kind of commentator that you want
It drowns out the good comments/commentators you are seeking
Tons of short non-relevant comments dilute your post’s worth

So what’s left? Well, I think a multifaceted approach that tempers the strength of a dofollow policy with some constraints and rewards for bad and good behavior, respectively, is optimal. Thus I have decided to implement such a strategy here on ToMuse. This entails the addition of the following plugins and strategies:

Lucia’s Linky Love plugin - commentators can achieves dofollow status only after X number of comments
Top Commentators Widget - promotes great commentators by showing them in sidebar
Comment Karma plugin - provides peer to peer regulation of commentators via vote up/down for good/bad comments, respectively
Comment Luv plugin - adds a link of the commentator’s latest blog post below each comment he/she makes
Dofollow Trackbacks plugin - the easiest way to get a dofollow link to your site; simply create a link on your site that point to ToMuse and the trackback that automatically appears on ToMuse is given the dofollow status
Social Profiles plugin - lets commentator show links to his/her social media accounts (i.e. Twitter, Digg, etc.)
Minimum Comment Length plugin - helps prevent the “check out my site” kind of comments by requiring a comment length of X characters
Comment Info Tip plugin - as you mouseover a commentator’s name you will see a tool tip appear displaying some information about that individual (i.e. their latest comment, blog post, etc.)
Limited number of links allowed within a single comment and do NOT follow them
Semi-manual comment moderation - comments are allowed to be posted without approval but the moderator is notified of every comment too
Mandatory registration and login for commentators prior to commenting
Adding Recent Comments and Recent Trackbacks to sidebar - encourages comments and trackbacks, puts your comments and nofollow trackbacks infront of thousands of ToMuse visitors

While this may seem like a bit of overkill to some, I think it does offer a pleasant and rewarding environment for encouraging loyal commentators, worthy comments, and spirited discussions. This is just a starting point and it’s likely to be revised based on your input and according to how things go from here. There may be a few little hiccups that we encounter along the way as we implement these plugins and policies, so please bear with us and bring them to our attention if you see them. For now, however, I have taken the position that “we promote commentators and follow trackbacks“.

So go ahead and kick the new tires, take it for a test drive, and let me know what you think about our new commenting system and its policies. Your thoughts and ideas are the driving force towards finding the best solution and helping us reward you appropriately for your insightful comments!

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SEOAly on October 23rd, 2008 7:54 am

Find me at Digg | Flickr | StumbleUpon | Twitter

I clearly do support the use of DOFOLLOW links for those taking time to participate in the conversations at SEOAly, but I do take issue with one thing: “…moving to an absolute dofollow policy…”. I absolutely don’t (and don’t AT ALL recommend) that all NOFOLLOW links be removed.

As indicated in my post, I use the NoFollow Free plugin, which allows a great deal of control over the removal of the NOFOLLOW attribute from links. I highly recommend that blog owners utilize that plugin, as well as Akismet (or the SPAM prevention plugin of their choice) to help to reduce SPAM.

I also use the CommentLuv and Social Profiles plugins to encourage a sense of community, and agree wholeheartedly with your efforts to reduce SPAM and still reward your regular commenters with links that are followed by bots.

One suggestion: add links within your post to the various other plugins you recommend (like “Lucia’s Linky Love”) so we don’t have to hunt them down for ourselves. Whether you decide to “FOLLOW” or “NOFOLLOW” those links is totally up to you!

By the way, I also completed your survey above, but never received any indication of whether or not the submission was successful. Let me know if it wasn’t and I’ll gladly fill it out again. Well done on the post…it appears we are in agreement with regard to removing the “NOFOLLOW” argument, as well as steps that can be taken to help reduce its abuse by would-be spammers!

Kevin reply on October 23rd, 2008 11:51 am:

Hi Alysson,
Sorry about my choice of wording there. I changed the text to read “amended” instead of “absolute”.

I also updated the text to include the plugin links as requested.

Yes, I did get your survey. Thanks so much for filling that out! Did you have any problems viewing it? I embedded it as an iframe and noticed that Firefox and IE handle it differently. I had the option of placing it as javascript but I know many Firefox users block that.

By the way, it’s great having you here. You provided so much helpful info. Thanks for visiting and don’t be a stranger!

SEOAly on October 23rd, 2008 12:09 pm

No worries! I wasn’t suggesting you should change the verbiage of your post! I just didn’t want anyone thinking I was a complete idiot and offering a free-for-all removal of “NOFOLLOW” from my comment links.

I didn’t have any problem viewing the survey, aside from not getting confirmation that it was submitted…though I don’t know if I was supposed to. I use FF and it worked just fine. Thanks for letting me know it came through okay.

I’m glad I could provide some useful info. Sharing our knowledge and experiences is the best way to learn. Looking forward to seeing your future posts as they’re delivered to my Google Reader.

Kevin reply on October 25th, 2008 12:00 am:

Thanks for subscribing Alysson I’ve been a reader of your blog for a couple weeks now and logged your feed under “SEO”. Have you tried using Feedly? It’s a FF based reader that integrates with Google Reader. I actually prefer using it over GR.

SEOAly reply on October 25th, 2008 7:44 am:

Sure thing, Kevin! I’m all about learning and sharing information. Thanks for subscribing to my blog. I’ve been woefully neglecting it for the past couple of weeks (sidetracked by the upcoming elections), but I’ll be back on track and back on topic shortly.

I had not heard of Feedly. I just checked it out. It’s got a great design! I’m thinking probably developed by a MacHead?? That was a great tip…I owe ya one!