SEO CheckList

For a long time now, I’ve tried building backlinks by commenting on popular blogs with high PageRank. I was taught it’s a good way to increase link count for Google. However, little did I know that all my efforts are in vain! There are blogs using the repugnant (at least for those trying to honestly build a backlink) “nofollow” attribute. The nofollow attribute was a joint effort between blog software developers and search engines. It was created to help discourage the frequency of spam comments. However, the downside is that the honest backlink builders also get affected.

The nofollow attribute’s markup appears like this:

<a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.domain.com/”>Insert Text Here</a>

So just how does the nofollow attribute affect banklink builders exactly? For the record, any link with the nofollow attribute is NOT counted by the search engines. Meaning, the backlinks which could have contributed to an increase in PageRank or an increase of the ranking in the SERPs are not taken into account at all.

Most blogging platforms, WordPress included, automatically include the nofollow attribute for the links dropped in the blog comments. There is a way, however, to work around this — using plug-ins. Because of the existence of nofollow, numerous plug-ins have already been created for the benefit of back-link builders. Here is a collection of “dofollow” plug-ins for your perusal. Choose one of test every one of them first before settling for a particular one.

You might ask why it’s important for you to worry about the nofollow attribute. If you are a blogger, making sure your blog is a “dofollow” blog could increase the interest and induce commenting. Sure you’ll get a lot of spams in the process, but that’s what Akismet and other anti-spam plug-ins are for. Curtailing the no-follow attribute helps in the long-run, you just have to have the patience and the time to sort through comment spam.