Should I remove NoFollow in my blog?

...I pre-moderate anyway....

[sandpetra]

Something doesn't sit right with this tag and I just don't want it (I think).

Should I remove it?

(Well, to be honest I just have - was it the right thing to do?)

[LifeinAsia]

It's your blog- you can do whatever you want with it.

As with all actions (or inactions), ask yourself what the end result is that you're trying to achieve. Does the action (or inaction) get you closer to that end result?

So it's best to ask yourself what you were trying to achieve by having NoFollow (or what you are trying to achieve by removing it).

[edited by: LifeinAsia at 10:52 pm (utc) on April 27, 2007]

[sandpetra]

Very philosophical but the answer is - I am not sure. I'd like to generate some discussion on my site (about seo!) but who would bother in that industry if they cannot get some link juice.

Anyway - why is it there in Wordpress as a default?

To be more specific will it hurt me in Google or invite a mountain of spam - or will it, I hope, lead to a bit more activity on my blog?

Yes yes I know a bit of good content is enough to start a convo on the blog.

Anyway - What is the definitive on the nofollow tag? I obviously don't have a clue - I'm left in on a Friday night and have been up for two whole days....

Does google ignore it
Does google follow it but not pass any "vote of confidence" etc

[tedster]

Google follows the link, but they do not pass backlink influence, PR. For this reason alone the attribute value was poorly chosen -- rel="nofollow" DOES get followed. The attribute was originally adopted by Google/Blogger, MSN Search, Six Apart (TypePad, MovableType, LiveJournal), and WordPress in order combat blog spam. Since then, however, the lid has come off Pandora's Box and the demons are flying all over the place.

[sandpetra]

So a link on a .edu site for instance purely for "link juice" is 100% pointless?

[sandpetra]

"Since then, however, the lid has come off Pandora's Box and the demons are flying all over the place. " TEDSTER

Please expand? I'm trying to learn a bit more about one last thing before I go to bed :)

[tedster]

It's been used to try to hoard PR, and now Google is suggesting it be used on all paid links. There's a big discussion in a Home Page thread here. It goes on for some 500 posts, beginning with this: [webmasterworld.com...]

[sandpetra]

Hi Tedster

Cheers I will have a look at that in a minute though i have never bought a link in my life.

From my point of view, I have a small site, with a very tight subject matter that does well in Google. i want to share link juice as I moderate and it's not a lot of work to do With Akismet installed, now.

Might be a stupid person but nofollow means no link (ie counted in backlinks on any engine?)

[tedster]

Funny coincidence - I was just thinking yesterday that I I had a blog, I would try to stimlate conversation there by premoderating comments, but keep that nofollow out of there. I do suspect it might encourage participation, depending of course on the subject matter involved in the blog. Then again, only some commenters would even know, and that might skew the flavor of the comments.

[Keniki]

Yes!

[sandpetra]

We I've just moved to a PR 7 so the nofollow goes!

[plumsauce]

Bravo! Good for you!