The Do Follow Train is Running out of Steam
This blog is not a “do follow” blog. I had actually intended to install a plugin that removes the “no follow” tags when the trend was very popular. I had some technical difficulty and, being the lazy person that I am, I decided not to bother. It wasn’t just laziness though. I was a bit apprehensive about the idea.
I went ahead and installed the plugin on my personal blog. I even activated a spam filter and turned of comment moderation.
The idea behind the “do follow” movement, which is called “I follow” by some, is that providing bloggers who comment on your blog with an incoming link that has real SEO benefits will encourage traffic and also discussion. Most people, no doubt were most interested in the traffic, while saying that it was the discussion that made them happy. There is also a quid pro quo element. Bloggers who remove the “no follow” tags from their comments join a blogroll and make a point of commenting with some regularity on those blogs.
Here is the snag. People seeking to improve page rank for websites, whether they are a blog or just an affiliate portal or online store, would leave volumes of comments on these Do Follow blogs. These comments would invariably be painfully transparent in their lack of insight into the blog post subject. I left the majority of these irritating comments on my other blog. Sometimes I would remove extra links. Obviously, blogs with higher PR would be targeted more intensely by these comments that have been dubbed “human created comment spam”.
I think the line between bloggers who are being overzealous in taking advantage of the movement and bloggers or SEO types who are subverting it entirely is a bit blurry. I also think it is interesting that bloggers are getting disenchanted with the altruistic aspect of the movement just as a Google Pr update is inevitable.
