Welcome Back! This is a DoFollow blog using using both KeyWordLuv and CommentLuv, so please leave a comment and get a link-back to your blog. Ana
Blog commenting is a great way to drive targeted traffic to your site, as well as create great backlinks.
However, the question that I get asked a lot is “What’s the point of commenting on NoFollow blogs?”
There is obviously a lot of uncertainty on the subject, so I decided to give it some attention. If you need to brush up on the basics of NoFollow/DoFollow concept, read my previous post Juicy Blog Traffic: Want Some? DoFollow!
To level with you, there is no right and wrong answer here because nobody really knows for sure. There is evidence to support both claims.
My job today is to provide you with some food for thought regarding commenting on NoFollow blogs. What you do with it is up to you.
There are several studies posted on the subject and they all bring different value to the table.
My favorite one was done by Michelle MacPhearson for its simplicity and transparency. I am sure some of you will object to her conclusions and, since I did not do the study, I say with relief “Talk it out with Michelle”.
I thought I’d run the same study as Ben did last year and see if I could get my site to rank for a keyword that (1) is not on my site and (2) only use blog comments to get anchor text links for my keyword. I, like Ben, chose a misspelling simply because I’d be able to see results very quickly that way.
The term: ultilevel marketing
The results as of 5:44pm PST on 2/18/2008 after leaving about 15 blog comments with the help of Comment Hut to find relevant blogs are that I am ranked #1 for the keyphrase in Google, Yahoo and MSN:
What does this mean?
- Nofollow links with well chosen anchor text can pass link juice
- Blog commenting on nofollow blogs is still an effective way to increase search engine ranking for a term.
- Thoughtful and interesting blog comments will always bring human visitors.
And that’s THE KEY to the entire debate, as far as I am concerned.
Thoughtful and interesting blog comments will always bring human visitors.
DoFollow or not, one of the biggest ideas behind blog commenting – driving targeted traffic back to your blog – still rules.
My suggestion: don’t waste your valuable time trying to figure out whether a post is worth to leave a comment. If the content deserves it and you have something valuable to add to the discussion, do it.
How about you start now? Whenever you leave a comment on this blog, I will always come back to your site and even leave a comment. So you see you WILL get comments and traffic by commenting on Traffic Generation Cafe.
You are right: you don’t have to comment or retweet, but would it help if I told you it would be much appreciated? 
PS For more no-nonsense traffic generation and conversion tips from Ana, fill out this short spam-free form:
About the Author: Ana Hoffman is the founder of Traffic Generation Cafe and wants you to know that Thesis + Scribe = SEO Made Simple. Get more from Ana on Facebook.
Related posts:
- Juicy Blog Traffic: Want Some? DoFollow! If you did any kind of link building in the past, you must’ve heard the terms DoFollow and NoFollow. These...
- 60+ Tips On How To Get More Blog Traffic The all-elusive blog traffic – how do you get more of it? Here’s a little help, some from Seth Godin,...
- 10 Awesome Ways to Make NO Money With Blog Traffic What is the point of striving to increase your blog traffic? Silly question? Not so fast… Money? Of course. But...
- Best of The Web: 30 Ultimate Tips To Dramatically Reduce Blog Bounce Rate ***Don’t forget to check out my new ultimately humongous list of blog traffic tips: 202 Bite-Sized Tips To Insanely Increase...
- 7 Ways To Index Your Blog By Search Engines Within 24 Hours I recently wrote a post on how to get your brand new blog easily indexed by search engines. Since the...
{ 55 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post, Ana. I always leave comments on the posts that offer great content and that also allow me to add my input as well
I just don’t have the time to check whether the blogs I visit are “DoFollow” or “NoFollow”.
Thanks for sharing your findings.
Have a great weekend!
All the best,
Mavis Nong
Mavis Nong´s last blog ..Blogging Tips – 3 Primary Steps To Higher Rankings!
You know, Mavis, I used to be obsessed about DoFollow blogs – before I knew any better that is.
Needless to say, I don’t bother any longer. As you said, great content deserves a comment, whether it’s DoFollow or not.
Have a great weekend as well!
~Ana
Hey Ana,
That is great that you post this up. I still comment on nofollow blogs. If someone took the time to put up content that is informational and I learn something from it. You better believe I’m going to let them know about it. I’ve made friends with powerful bloggers that receive thousands of traffic every single day and their blogs are nofollow. It all started by me commenting on their blog every single day. So is it still worth it to comment on nofollow blogs? You Bet!
Chat with you later…
Josh
Josh Garcia´s last blog ..How to Tell if the Blog You Are Visiting is a DoFollow or NoFollow Blog
I so agree with you, Josh.
We always have to remember WHY we comment on other blogs. The main benefits are
networking and blog traffic.
Links are a bonus!
Let me go see what you wrote about today.
~Ana
Hi Ana,
I fully agree with Mavis and your suggestion: I don’t have the time to check it and I don’t care. If the blog is worth commenting, I leave a comment. If not, I don’t leave one.
Thanks for clarifying that and great that you aren’t obsessed any more, are you ?
Take care and have a blessed weekend
Oliver
Oliver Tausend´s last blog ..The Anatomy Of Quitting – Would You Like To Change Places With Another Person
Don’t have time to be obsessed about it, Oliver:).
~Ana
Ana,
Thanks for clearing up what would inevitably become an issue for me. Leave quality content in comments, focus on helping others, take your mind off the issues that should be non-issues at this point. Agree with Josh Garcia: read the helpful blogs-leave comments when you can.
Always a good practice, Zahn, and a very rewarding I must say.
~Ana
Hey Ana
Based on what Google themselves have written on the subject my understanding is that they will still follow the link, look at keywords, just not pass any PageRank.
The study above basically confirmed that you can still get ranked for keywords from a nofollow link.
So a nofollow link is still a backlink that your site can get credit for with keywords, but no PageRank credit.
Regardless, I leave comments on blogs I like whether or not they have dofollow links or not. It is a way to develop friendships with fellow bloggers and build a reputation.
You are absolutely right, Peter: your link will still be follow no matter what.
It’s still a great way to index your page as well; so NoFollow or DoFollow – the benefit is clearly there.
~Ana
Hi Ana – funnily enough I was ready a Blog earlier by Mathew Neer on this very topic and his conclusions were pretty much the same. It probably wouldn’t impact whether I leave a comment or not – BUT that’s the funny thing about this realm of viral aggregation – once people start to become aware of such things we subtly and perhaps subconsciously adjust our behaviour. Bit like Twitter it, used to be you’d only follow back those that interested you – now it seems rude not to follow everyone regardless.
Cheers Kiaran
You are so right, Kiaran: as our awareness about the topic grows, we changed our behavior with it – whether we like it or not.
The best thing to do about these kind of issues is to learn and then forget about them:).
~Ana
Great point Ana!
If you like the information and you have something worthwhile to say, you should leave a comment regardless of whether the blog is DoFollow or NoFollow.
On that note, some of the SEO gurus have said that, having both DoFollow and NoFollow links help to make the links look more natural, and thus provide benefit to your rankings. Apparently, if all the links are DoFollow links, the engines look at that as unnatural, and may penalize you.
Thanks again for the great post!
Michael Novak´s last blog ..The Best Industry to Learn Leadership
That’s my point as well, Michael.
You have to have links for both camps. True mastery of SEO is to show Google that you are not doing SEO, and natural links are what counts here.
Thanks for the input!
Hi Ana,
I was never overly concerned with the whole Follow/Nofollow thing, though I must admit it did concern me at times.
Being new to this whole thing, and with limited time, I was wondering if my efforts were going in the right direction.
It didn’t stop me from commenting on any quality post, but it was in the back of my mind sometimes.
Now I can put it to rest completely.
Thanks,
Neil
Neil´s last blog ..Premium Themes For WordPress and Socrates
Glad I could help, Neil – we really should not concern ourselves with such things, when they don’t really have too much influence on our ultimate success.
~Ana
Hi Ana,
When I first heard about this, I thought the same thing. Why should I even bother commenting on the ones that don’t have “follow” set?
Then I realized why. If someone was providing some great content that helped me, then why not let them know.
Thanks for this, it has really helped as I never knew very much about this until pretty recently.
Have a great weekend,
Jerome Ratliff
Jerome Ratliff´s last blog ..Simple Way to Build Your Marketing System
It’s a good thing to be aware about, but not to worry about too much:).
Best,
Ana
Glad I searched around your blog and found this post! I always thought no-follow comments DO still have impact, but many tend to disagree. Thanks for providing the study by Michelle MacPhearson, very interesting results.
Abby Gilmore´s last blog ..SEO Celebrity Look-Alike Winner Announced
I use Link Building SEO software to keep a close eye on my links and my competition links.
I’ve noticed that many comments I make on NoFollow blogs still show up as links; moreover many of them show up as “juicy” links (the software has its own way to measure all link value). That tells me that I do get some link juice form those links and Google does not pay as much attention to it.
Thanks for the comment, Abby!
~Ana
Ana,
To me the content is #1, if it resonates and I get something from it,
then by commenting on it, I am giving back and “paying it forward”.
Since I am so new to blogging and still working on getting ours set up,
the one thing that keeps coming to the top is KISS.
It has to be easy and quick.
If I have to add a program or give something rights to something,
I probably won’t do it. Am I that much different than others?
So this time Comment LUV is showing and Sexy Book marks is showing
and the last post I commented on they weren’t.
Thanks again for being so willing to share
Dennis
Lead, Follow and Share !
Dennis Wolf´s last blog ..Grow Your Own with Window Farming
That’s definitely the best way to go about it, Dennis – content is still the king for the readers.
The best content will always win – DoFollow or not. DoFollow just sweetens up the deal.
I am glad my blog seems to be functioning now, although I did notice some things are still missing. Go figure.
Thanks for the comment, Dennis!
Hi Ana,
Thank you for the great content, there was a time when I first heard about follow and no follow that I was figuring “why bother”. Like many commented above, it is not about getting your name out there but more in thanking people for thier knowledge and their willingness to educate other people. I have also gained some very great friends and people that I can approach when I have a question because lord knows I don’t know everything and never will. We are all here to help each other out as much as possible and yes there are manuals out there on much of this stuff but we all don’t understand and learn the same.
Having different people sahre different information in different ways helps everyone learn and feel part of something bigger!
Hey, Robert – you are right, most of the comments above agree that it does not matter.
I am a bit surprised to hear that (and please as well) as I thought we’d have a bit more of variation in opinions on the topic.
I see the same trend in the community at large: most popular blogs are NoFollow and yet they still get tons of traffic and comments.
So it’s definitely not all about links, but about being noticed, traffic, and simply gratitude for good content.
~Ana
Ana, no-follow blogs still get traffic, some of them get lots!
If you’ve left a quality, value added comment to a post on a no-follow blog, the reader is likely to click back to your blog to see who you are & what you’re about.
So…you get traffic coming back to you anyway, even though you may not actually be creating a backling for so-called SEO purposes.
Stay inspired!
Michael
Michael B Wilbraham´s last blog ..How To Connect Your Blog To Your Facebook Profile- Groups & Fan Page
So true, Michael, so true. I do comments for traffic mostly, links are a great bonus!
~Ana
Hi Ana,
Good one again. I like the test, it’s conclusive that it’s always good, a backlink is a backlink!! For the 2nd part, I agree too, to comment blogs, we should always try to bring value to the blog we comment. A good comment will bring peoples to your site back as well… Good job again!
Dave B.
WP Syndicator´s last blog ..WP Syndicator
Thanks so much, Dave; I am glad you support that point of view and I appreciate you taking your time to let me know that!
Now you got yourself a link and made me happy – that’s what community is all about!
Ana
Hi Ana,
I’ll comment on interesting posts whether they are nofollow, or dofollow. If I took the time to read the post, I’ll take the time to leave a comment as well.
I love this “Thoughtful and interesting blog comments will always bring human visitors.”
Thanks for finding some research on this. That’s great!
Susanna
You are very welcome, Susanna – traffic is the name of the game!
~Ana
I agree with you Ana the most relevant thing to me is to show appreciation for great content period..end of story.
It would be nice to get the link but I would trade that for knowledge gained and since most no follow blogs I see are the big timers I’ll take the exposure instead.
Still win win to me.
Steve Shoemaker
steve shoemaker´s last blog ..Strategic Branding- More Face On FaceBook
Very well said, Steve; I’ll take exposure over links any time.
~Ana
Ana…I came to the same conclusion a while ago and agree with the others that if the content is worthwhile, and peaks my interest, I will comment on it. As we have seen with Google and friends, the rules change on a daily basis any way. Who knows what will happen next?!
Karen´s last blog ..New Career Mindset
Very well said, Karen – who knows the mind of Google? Not even Google does…
Thanks for stopping by!
~Ana
Ana,
I usually know who I am going to comment on because of the networking relationships I have been building over the past six months.
There are a few groups I belong to that it is hard to comment on the content when it is not really that good. If I am going to comment or share something, it should be something that will be helpful for all.
Great job with this one Ana!
Tommy D.
Tommy DiPietro | MLM Prospecting Hero´s last blog ..Smash Up Your Television- Grow Your Home Based Internet Business!
I am with you, Tommy – I want to comment on the content when it’s worth it. Some of the “tribes” and “alliances” out there are open to everybody and their uncle, so you have to comment on some poorly written posts.
Link or no link, I don’t want to put my name on a sub-standard post.
That’s why I love our little tribe!
Thanks for stopping by.
~Ana
Hi Ana,
There has been a number of posts recently regarding this subject. I really like your take on the subject. I am relatively new to blogging and have one question. I have a WordPress blog. How do I set up the blog to “dofollow?”
Thanks,
Rusty
Rusty Nailerusd´s last blog ..5 Ways To Establish Trust In Your Internet Business
Hi, Rusty – welcome to my blog.
All you do is download the “DoFollow” plugin (it’s on the list of your WP plugins). Takes but a minute and viola! you just joined the best trend in the blogosphere.
All the best to your new blog.
Ana
Wow, I am truly impressed. Someone who actually tests things out! Very good test there.
Blog commenting can be extremely powerful, not only for passing link power, but also for passing “trust rank” from established sites to relatively new ones…….an important factor often overlooked.
Great job on the testing.
Kurt
Thanks, Kurt – there are plenty of mad scientists out there and I am happy to let them do the work.
“Trust rank” is extremely important for a blogger; a couple of comments here and there just won’t cut it.
~Ana
Hey Ana, I also wondered about the same thing and I found out just what you did, that nofollow comments do follow. You can also see this by going to yahoo.com and entering into their search bar the following:
‘link:http://www.yoursitename.com’ (without the quotes) you can also enter specific web pages as well, not just your home page.
This will display the number of inlinks to that page. In that list I can see that it pulls up blog comments I made on nofollow blogs. What’s more is that on some of those blogs I didn’t even use well chosen anchor text.
Great tip, Liz.
Just an addition to your thought: NoFollow does not mean that the search engine won’t follow your link, it just means that it won’t transfer any authority/trust/page rank to your site.
So your links will still show up, just not as high-value links.
~Ana
Interesting post. Always confused by the terminology. Is a nofollow blog is simply a blog that leaves it up to the moderator as to whether he or she will accept your post.
Purina Coupons´s last blog ..Nestle Purina- Sea Ray Launch National Pets and Water Safety Program
NoFollow blog means that when you leave a link on that blog (just like you did when you input your URL when making this comment), the search engine bots will see you link and will follow it to your blog, but won’t let any page rank, trust, or authority flow to your blog.
I hope this makes sense; if not, here is the link to my previous post that explains this in more detail:
DoFollow Blog Traffic
Thanks for the question,
~Ana
Great post. Resolved alot of confusion in my mind on this subject.
Free Ruby Tuesday Coupons´s last blog ..In Today’s Newspaper Only — Coupon for 25 Off Your Entire Check!
100% agree. I think a well-written comment at a Nofollow blog is just as good as a comment posted at a Dofollow blog. As mentioned in this blog post and from a friend from a boarding school, it’s the content of your comment that will ultimately matter and would determine whether your site will be picked up by search engines.
Very true, Thomas – thanks for the comment.
Ana
You’re not only lovely, you’re a thinker, too! I’ll be following you from now on.
Thanks!
Glad I made a follower out of you, John, while talking about nofollowing.
Hey Ana! Once again it was a nice read
“And that’s THE KEY to the entire debate, as far as I am concerned.
Thoughtful and interesting blog comments will always bring human visitors.”
I guess these two lines just defined it all
.. I too believe and have always believed that no matter what blog you’re commenting on (dofollow/nofollow), it really doesn’t matters as far as traffic is concerned right? The only thing that matters is to build a respectable reputation among your targeted audience by providing quality services and applying right strategies.
And that is only possible by following your SUBLIME tips
Cheers
-Desmond!
You are very right, Desmond: traffic will follow your thoughtful comments whether the blog is do or nofollow.
I hope you’ll get some traffic from mine; you are definitely worth following.
Ana
Hi Ana,
Alex sent me to your site and I just kinda got lost in all your great articles
You made a great point about not fretting about no-follow. It makes me a little crazy trying to make sure everything I do is “Googlized.” That takes all the fun out of it! Many times I know I should be saying something differently, but I want to speak with people, not an algorithm.
So I guess I will have to pay the price sometimes for being and SEO rebel.
Great website! Glad I came to see you.
Rick LaPoint´s last blog ..10 Reasons Your Local Business Needs a Website
Greatly appreciate your visit, Rick (and thanks to Alex, of course).
I know what you mean: I too really enjoyed playing the Google game and sometimes forget about my readers. Love the word “googlized”, will have to use it somewhere.
Hope to see you back soon.
Ana
Ana @ Traffic Generation Cafe´s last blog ..Scribe SEO- Why All The Cool Kids Are Doing It
Ana,
I place comments on mostly cooking blogs which mostly are no-follow. This is good point to know that follow or no-follow, putting right, relevant and useful comment should help.
Pam @ Best Cookware Set´s last blog ..Healthy Eating Guidelines
Yes, and good comments will also bring you traffic – the other plus of commenting on other blogs.
Thanks for commenting on mine!
Ana @ Traffic Generation Cafe´s last blog ..17 Traffic Building Tips from Some of the World’s Most Popular Bloggers