An Updated Look At Do-Follow And No-Follow Comments

In January 2010 i published what has become the most popular Search Engine Optimization (SEO) posts on Spice Up Your Blog (SUYB).The post titled 'Building Backlinks, Do-Follow Comments And Information To Increase Google Search Rank And Page Rank' has consistently been in the top 10 in terms of views and to date has 117 comments.I guess the reason it has been so popular is it covers a number of topics related to improving your blogs performance in search, especially Google.The original intention of the post was to explain Do-Follow comments, what they are and how they work.I wont explain the whole do-follow process again you can check out the post linked above for more on the subject.

To explain Do-Follow i ended up covering why Back Links are so important and the whole Back Link process.The points covered in the post are still valid and i stand behind the information but in the 19 months since published some of my personal opinions have changed.In this post i want to explain how my opinions especially of Do-Follow comments have changed.

To Follow Or Not To Follow

At the time of writing that post Spice Up Your Blog had Do-Follow comments.I have since switched the comments back to no-follow in an effort to reduce spam which was getting out of control.I said in the post i thought Do-Follow comments would help build a community.While i still think this is valid for a new blog or growing blog once you blog is established it becomes less feasible.

At the moment i receive about 10-20 spam comments every day along with 20-30 valid comments.If the SUYB comments were still do-follow the spam number could grow towards 100 daily.I simply don't have the time to sort through this and that is the reason i switched back to no-follow.If you think this is a bit of an exaggeration check out the article by Web Pro News on how professional SEO company's actually pay people to work full time leaving comments on blogs - Why SEO Disgusts Me.

Another piece of advice i gave in that post was to use the Name URL format when leaving a comment.This would mean when published your name beside your comment is a direct link to your blog.I would still recommend this were possible but unfortunately i have had to switch this option off on SUYB.The reason for switching it off is because this also opens up the comment as Anonymous option.Once again as SUYB has grown some fools have found it entertaining to leave whats best called rude comments.I'm sure you have seen the types that spend their sad lonely existence on places like YouTube commenting on every video just to say how 'F***ing S**t' it is.

I guess to sum up my opinion has changed over the last 19 months as far as my own blogs are concerned.Taking both these steps (i only turned off the Name URL and Anonymous comments last week) has seen a serious decline in spam.But if you are trying to entice comments maybe on a new blog do follow comments are something to consider.

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