Recently, there's been a movement amongst bloggers to remove the NoFollow tags from comments posted on their blogs (What is NoFollow?). Removing NoFollow tags allows link juice from the URL included in your comment to be passed on to your site, helping it move up in rankings.
This post will help explain how to locate these DoFollow blogs and how to contribute a meaningful and successful comment. Doing this properly can land you high quality backlinks, while contributing to quality of the conversations across the web.How To Find DoFollow Blogs
Search Google – While there are a number of resources available to help you find DoFollow Blogs, we've found that conducting our own specific keyword searches usually render most accurate results. Searching allows you to seek out blogs directly relevant to your interests or targeted keywords. The following query examples assume you are searching Google for blogs related to the keyword design.Text Search
design "Remember my personal information" "Notify me of follow-up comments"The blogs that contain the above text in quotes typically have DoFollow enabled by default.
design "commentluv"This returns blogs that have the commentluv wordpress extension installed. This extension removes the NoFollow attribute from the comments to encourage visitors to comment.
Image Search
“U Comment I Follow”This searches blogs with the U Comment I Follow image. Many blogs that have joined the DoFollow movement show this image to show their support.
ifollowblue.gif, ifollowgreen.gif, ifollowltgreen.gif, ifollowpink.gif, ifollowpurple.gif, ifolloworange.gif, ifollowwhite.gif, ifollowmagenta.gifAs a variation, try keyword + any one of the above filenames.
How to Tell if a Blog is DoFollow
Inspect the HTML – You can either view the source of the blog page, or use a tool like firebug to view inspect the url within the comments.Install a FireFox Extension
Search Status – This extension shows you a Google PageRank in the status bar. I also allows highlights links that have the rel=”nofollow” attribute.
NoDoFollow – A simple extension that highlights the links on a page that contain the NoFollow attribute.
How to Make an Impact
- Find DoFollow Blogs that Interest YouIt is very important that you read and understand the post in order to contribute a meaningful comment. If you are interested in the post you are more likely to have something relevant to add to the conversation.
- READ THE POST!For the love of GOD at least have the decency to read and comprehend what you are commenting about. All to often SEO’ers think they can get away with “Nice Post” or “Good Job” and leech the link juice from the page. Bloggers are not stupid and can spot this activity a million miles away.
- Use Your Real Name or an AliasDoesn’t it just feel wrong when you are writing a meaningful comment, and then leave your name as “Canadian Medical Supplies”? I don’t know anyone named Canadian Medical Supplies, but if you do, let me know and I will repeal my rant. Blogging is about conversations between people, not a black hat tool to dump your targeted keywords into. If you comment with a name or alias, you will still get natural link juice to your targeted url.
- Be the First to CommentSubscribe to RSS feeds of the blogs that you would like to contribute to. Once you receive notification that a new post has been added, try to be the first to leave a comment. You will not only receive your link juice, but you will get natural click throughs from the visitors reading your insightful comment. (Unless your comment is “Wow that was great. I disagree with some points, but others I agree with.”)
- Build a RelationshipMost bloggers that allow external links are very picky about the comments they accept. If you are serious about getting a link from a particular blog, then spend some time reading and commenting on other posts within the blog. Authors appreciate your feedback, and you just might form a longer lasting relationship out of it as well.
Conclusion
While these tactics don't work all the time, they are at least a step in the right direction. I hope you use this post to enhance the quality of commenting and conversations across the web - the last thing the blogosphere needs is an army of black hat cronies spamming every blog they can find. Hopefully these tips will add a little life to the drudgery of link building by allowing you to actually learn about the posts you comment on. Below are a few additional DoFollow resources, so happy DoFollow hunting!List of 100 DoFollow Forums
DoFollow Blog Directory
DoFollow Search Engine
List of DoFollow Sites
250+ DoFollow Blogs
The Ultimate DoFollow Blog List
September 26th, 2008 at 5:08 am
Thank you for a great article and advice on how to search for DoFollow blogs. Links from DoFollow blogs are important for SEO. However, I don’t think we should completely ignore links from NoFollow blogs. When I came across a good article on a NoFollow blog where I can comment, I don’t mind to post a comment. Though this link won’t help my site’s ranking, it may drive some traffic to my website. And from my own experience I found that most blogs (in particular, in my niche) are NoFollow.
October 6th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
[...] The Ultimate Guide to DoFollow Link Building Like this post? Subscribe to the RSS feed and get lots more! Leave a comment or trackback from your own site. Posted in Link Building, Team Reading [...]
October 19th, 2008 at 11:10 am
It is very easy to build a relationship,it costs nothing but it is very usefull…
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kenny
Link Building
October 21st, 2008 at 10:11 am
thanks for your tips. i hope i can apply this one soon! :)
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Thanks for a great and informative post. I just added DoFollow plugin to my blog.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Are you located in Ann Arbor, MI? I’m extremely interesting in this whole internet thing and am crazy about blogging. I’m located in Michigan too. Let me know what it would take to get together and discuss some consulting work. I think you may be able to help me. Your site is great and I need some updating. I’m working on http://www.bfranchise.com right now, and I just don’t know enough about Wordpress. Anyways,
Best regards,
TAM
November 12th, 2008 at 2:45 am
While the do-follow is much sought after these days, a no-follow will still get you some traffic as well, depending on the niche of the site which you leave your comments on.
I always look at the sites niche to see if it is related enough first. Then, I determine if the site has the kind of content that my readers would enjoy. After that, I proceed with commenting and see if the blogs owner will comment back on my blog. If they don’t comment after a couple of weeks, then I move on. I believe that commenting, is a two-way street and both parties need to support each other.
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:41 pm
You are rite. I have make my site to do follow.
But i keep searching the bad thing for do follow blog.
Do you have idea about it? Would our rank will be drop someday?
November 28th, 2008 at 3:20 am
Seriously a great guide and i will seriously help us a lot as from many days i am searching this kind of guide. As i came across google picks in which we we can search the no. fo user created custom search engine for no. fo dofollow blog.
December 4th, 2008 at 1:28 am
Keep up the great work ;)
December 4th, 2008 at 2:29 am
Yes, you can understand by checking view source whether the blog is dofollow or nofollow. But seostatus tool made it very easy. Just download the tool and check the option “highlight nofollow links”. It will automatically show you the blog status. So enjoy:)
December 18th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
I have just joined this movement myself with my blog. I think do follow comments are awesome and do encourage participation and reward.
December 29th, 2008 at 2:56 am
Great info, thanks
December 29th, 2008 at 5:23 am
very good tips. unfortunately most link builders dont read the post and submit spam comments.
December 29th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Most of those dofollow blogs and dofollow forums I have already worked on but there are a few that we can’t use. Backlinks are such a time consuming bore chore but a necessary fact of working and gaining visiblity on the web. The commentor’s over here helped me change the way i was actually seeing all these dofollow thing. I hate spammers too. I allow links to follow so I get a lot of spammers writing comments that are never allowed. Any idea why spammers seem to be hawking drugs, gambling and sex ??
I am personally awaiting the day some spammer hawks something genuinely useful and not strange or illegal. How about you?
Regards,
Roskyn@ makemoneykingdom.com
rickysily@yahoo.com
January 29th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
hi, thanks for the wonderful list and for the info on searching by images in google. i didn’t realize you could do that when searching for dofollow blogs. a great tip!!!
February 1st, 2009 at 9:08 am
The commentor’s over here helped me change the way i was actually seeing all these dofollow thing. I hate spammers too. I allow links to follow so I get a lot of spammers writing comments that are never allowed. Pop Up Displays
February 14th, 2009 at 3:58 am
I have found some links for searching do follow links.But all those links still showing lots of no follow links.
I have tried “design “Remember my personal information” “Notify me of follow-up comments”" this .Really many of them I can find as do follow blogs.Very useful…Thanks a lot…
February 15th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
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February 16th, 2009 at 11:03 am
I can see that you are putting a lot of time and effort into your blog and detailed articles! I am deeply in love with every single piece of information you post here. Will be back often to read more updates! horse racing systems
February 17th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
I am curious if you really want to make a difference why is your blog NOFOLLOW? I find it a bit contradictory.
February 19th, 2009 at 7:28 am
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
February 21st, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Great work! I really enjoyed this article! Hope to read more from you soon!
February 23rd, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Your article was helpful for me and should help with ideas & motivation.
Thanks
February 25th, 2009 at 9:36 am
It is very important for us to create a good relationship to the blog owner that we always visit or other blogs as well, this will make things easier for us, so its always advisable to open up good and friendly conversation through comments.
March 11th, 2009 at 7:33 am
It was an excellent reading.I added your rss to my rss reader!
March 11th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Great post, one of the most informative posts on this subject online actuallly.
Thanks and keep up the great work.
March 12th, 2009 at 4:39 am
I am reading your blog posts for a long time and this is my first comment at your blog because i like the post :) Please keep it up.
March 12th, 2009 at 6:19 am
I have a new blog and i like your posts but i can not produce quality posts like yours.Do you have any blogging secrets : ) ?
March 12th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Thnak you for the write up. I had been starting to read some other posts and blogs about dofollow and your’s made a lot of sense to me. I wanted to be able to draw more traffic to my blog so I have recently made mine dofollow. industrial electrical
Thanks!
March 14th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
I found your advice on finding dofollow blogs by doing an image search for “U comment I follow” to be especially useful. The search can be narrowed further by adding the word “forum” or “blog” after the “U comment I follow” search term.
March 15th, 2009 at 7:05 am
I am a new blogger and found yours at yahoo.Awesome post!
March 15th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Cool post, i have subscribed to your blog.Please keep it up, Samantha
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:03 am
Today’s search engine algorithms are quite aware of link farms and directories and appropriately assigns them very little value if any.Your best SEO strategy will be to 1) link from your site to quality content within topic-relevant sites and 2) create quality content on your site which will encourage others linking to your site.This is what search engines want to see happen since it enables them to give their users the highest quality relevant content in their search results…!!!!
March 31st, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Hey thanks for this awesome post, I am learning do follow commenting for over a week now and now this post makes my knowledge double. thanks
April 2nd, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Excellent post, thanks. Do you mind if I quote a line from it and link back?
April 8th, 2009 at 4:52 am
Personally, I killed nofollow on my WP. Follow or no follow, the spammer will come. The only real defense is vigilant monitoring because it doesn’t matter what defenses you have, the spammer will find a way to overcome it. Thank God, WP has Akismet.
April 8th, 2009 at 4:57 am
Very nice. Do follow blogs seem to do better than most no follow blogs. I just may try it one day.
April 8th, 2009 at 4:58 am
This is very good idea…it will increase user like to commnet on blog…so everyone will be benifited
April 11th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Another good way to find sites that are do follow is http://www.followtopia.com . It tells you whether the result pages have the nofollow tag or not. You can use your search examples with followtopia, and you won’t have to look at the source code to see if the result pages have nofollow.
April 26th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Submitting to web directories is a vital part of every successful link building strategy. Apart from driving traffic to your website through direct referrals, web directories provide static, one-way links to your site, boosting your link popularity and improving your rankings on the major search engines like Google and Yahoo.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
I’ve seen in the last year (mostly) a big do-follow movement of bloggers, who prefer to offer something in exchange for the people spend their time and read / comment on their blogs.
Some bloggers who switched to do-follow blogs also declared that they noticed a nice increase of visitors and comments. Also, a big increase of spammers, but that’s another story.
April 29th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Thank you for this post. There are also other free programs such as Comment Kahuna and various free search engines that track dofollow blogs.
May 3rd, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I really liked your article. Keep up the good work.
May 10th, 2009 at 11:22 am
I’m trying my best with these dofollow things, but I’m finding so far that the actual comment page is always unranked by google… Is this normal? Therefore is it worth posting?
May 19th, 2009 at 7:07 am
I am not really sure if best practices have emerged around things like that, but I am sure that your great job is clearly identified. I was wondering if you offer any subscription to your RSS feeds as I would be very interested and can’t find any link to subscribe here
Regards,
SEO Copywriting services
June 14th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Nice ideas and tips that can be quite helpful for search engine optimisation and gaining links. Thanks.
June 22nd, 2009 at 1:13 am
Great resource….no i feel guilty i need to write little more…heres another tip, the google advance search feature is a great tool to use to find relevant blogs, and with that firefox seo plugin…..its just a killer method to gain high quality relevant links….just one more thing…dont tell anyone, its a secret.
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:47 pm
I personally think all blogs should be dofollow to show gratitude for individuals that have made contribution. That is why I have made my blog dofollow and will publish comments that are relevant and add value. I believe this is the best way of thanking your commenter(s).
June 25th, 2009 at 8:40 am
@The home remodeling: The only problem with dofollow blogging is that it requires additional time to weed out the spam. We have enabled and disabled dofollow comments on this blog based on that issue. It takes a well thought out strategy to properly implement.
July 14th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
I suggest you join a blogging community such as BlogCatalog.com. It’s a website where blog owners and people who just like blogs can connect with one another.
They have a blog directory filled with thousands of blogs. There are more than enough interesting blogs for you there. I think you can also make your own blog on their website as well.
July 14th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
@Mississauga Condominiums: That’s a good suggestion. BlogCatalog.com is a good resource and can be a great network to work within. I will look into adding our blog to that website.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
I’ve seen in the last year (mostly) a big do-follow movement of bloggers, who prefer to offer something in exchange for the people spend their time and read / comment on their blogs.
Some bloggers who switched to do-follow blogs also declared that they noticed a nice increase of visitors and comments. Also, a big increase of spammers, but that’s another story.
July 23rd, 2009 at 12:06 pm
The term do follow is new to me. Need to know about it
July 28th, 2009 at 2:44 am
I’m trying my best with these dofollow things, but I’m finding so far that the actual comment page is always unranked by google.Good work on article.
August 12th, 2009 at 3:37 am
Your post is very interesting as well as it is very useful.
August 31st, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Thanks for the wonderful information- just wondering if anyone else has had any relevant experiences to share.
September 4th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
I’m trying my best with these dofollow things, but I’m finding so far that the actual comment page is always unranked by google… Is this normal?
September 15th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Yes this is normal. Google only does a page rank update a few times a year, so it is most likely that the post was published in-between page rank updates, and therefore does not have a page rank.
September 19th, 2009 at 2:32 am
Your evaluation on finding DoFollow Blogs is nice. However,to me also.. for a long time relation with a blog quality commenting and conversations is essential.
September 29th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
I feel I’m perhaps a little late to the party but here I am. I have 2 blogs and have made both “Do Follow”. It’s just the right thing to do. All the best to everyone that has made the change.
November 10th, 2009 at 6:57 am
Nice tricks, Always handy to have search engines dedicted to searching for dofollow blogs.
Very happy to read this post, Thank you again!!
December 18th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Good post, most are self explanatory if you know anything about SEO or own your own blog.
When I started my own blog about gaming I would have people posting about money opportunities on a non related gaming site, through that experience I learned that noone would want the same from me so the only posts I gave were constructive and had some form of value. Wouldn’t recommend doing 250 comments in a day though especially if your site is new.
Don’t want the google slap do we :) anything from 20-50 posts a day can enough.
I have since then ventured into the home business arena, and although my blog currently holds small value and only a handful of articles I will provide linkbuilding and traffic tips. As well as information on building your MLM business from scratch successfully. Just have to get to work on it and start giving away more content :)
Thanks, Jason, Attraction Marketing Coach.
January 27th, 2010 at 10:11 am
You can also use SEO BOOK tool bar. It has a button on the toolbar which highlights nofollow links. So you know upfront if its worth your time or not.