How to remove nofollow attribute from your WordPress blog
As you may already know, WordPress the rel=”nofollow” attribute in comments. That makes any comment with a link on it have no significance for Google when they ranks websites. Getting rid of the rel=”nofollow” attribute is one of the tactics that many WordPress bloggers follow to get more people comment on their blogs. And in my view, this is quite fair – comments add content to a certain blog, the blog pays them back with a link that will be counted by Google, will rise their pagerank and make their way up in Google searches. So, let’s begin.
There are two ways through which you can turn off rel=”nofollow” attribute in your blog:
1. Changing WordPress Core
Editing WordPress core might not be a good idea for bloggers who are not very familiar with coding. For others, like me, who can do any code editing, online through FTP or offline, this is something that they do everyday. That would save the time of downloading, installing and making work another plugin. However, keep in mind that you need to redo this action every time you do an upgrade.
There is only one file you need to edit and all you have to do is remove the word nofollow. This word is located at wp-includes/comment-template.php on line 148. It looks like this:
1
$return = "<a rel="external nofollow" href="$url">$author</a>";
All you have to do is remove the word nofollow only and save the file. This is it!
2. Employing a Plugin
If you do not feel comfortable with editing the WordPress core, you can employ a plugin to do that for you. Keep in mind that you will have the plugin too, when new versions are released. Below you will find a list of such plugins. Chose the one that is good for you and install it.
Time for publicity: By removing the nofollow attribute you are giving something away for free to your visitors, tell this to your visitors. You will motivate more people to comment for sure. Good luck!
PS: Don’t forget that WPlancer is a DoFollow blog and I love to hear what you think. Thanks!
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If you want to know what I think, I would say that you are a good and generous person. I have used the nofollow free at one of my blog site (OrientOccidental.com) but I like the editing of the core more. I hope that you will sign up at my upcoming site (FreelanceHome.com). It should be completed in a couple of months and will need good members. Thank you.
“Editing WordPress core might not be a good idea for bloggers who are not very familiar with coding”
“This is nice plan”
Its ironic that many bloggers talk about this but then they actually use no follow I have seen many blogs leeching off the dofollow movement claiming to be dofollow sites but actually use nofollow, they are worse than the comment spammers in my eyes.
Yes, that can be true some time. That is not the caste with me though.
@ Jostmon: I would be glad to be a member of freelancehome. just let me know when it comes alive.
Thank you for a great, detailed and correct guide. I have been reading blogging tips for weeks now, and “pimping” my blog to get the most out of it, and only today I found out what the dofollow/nofollow issue is all about. And in one minute my blog is a dofollow blog, thank you for this great tip. Usefull two thumbs up.
@Frode: Thank you for your great comment too.
@Jessica: I noticed that too. It bothers me that some might be using the dofollow to attract visitors by writing a blog about it and then not actually implement it. The no-follow free plugin is also lacking in the way of not making it clear what the criterion is for dofollow (i.e. members with 5 posts or more, etc.). Just saying comments may be no-follow free is too vague imo and is akin to deceptive advertising.
I have DoFollow by Kimmo Suominen installed on my blog.
I also have implemented CommentLuv to give my commenter’s some link love to show their last post.
I think with this combination, it helps out all in the end.
Well, there are some plugins which remove nofollow attribute automatically. Personally, I use them.
Yes, I think so too. Can you please tell me if I have missed any in the list above?
Thanks post very interesting and site very very nice…..
Oh..Interesting tip..I was not aware of this..Thanks buddy
WP rocks. I have a WP blog, though it is not properly customized.
Why would you promote changing a blog to do follow but then have this one as no follow? Kind of ironic isn’t it?
When WP (and others) went no follow by default, it affected blog traffic numbers for all blogs that did not change the follow status. I firmly believe that most bloggers don’t even know that the drop in their traffic is a direct result of that default status.
Thanks,
Bill
Hi Bill,
My blog is actually nofollow because of the upgrade. I use the core file change approach to change nofollow to dofollow and I have not done yet with this upgrade.
Thanks for reminding me.
Glad I could be of help.
Isn’t it a pain to have to change it even time there is an “upgrade”? LOL… life in “the code” I guess.
Bill
Yeah, I’m coding all day, that’s way
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Well, there are some plugins which remove nofollow attribute automatically. Personally, I use them.
Thanks for the info, very interesting but I heard that google penalizes blogs that are do follow. Is that correct?
Never heard of something like that.
Excellent post! I’ve been looking to change this across my blogs. Thanks for the heads up and the follow
I wish I have found your site earlier. It took me the whole evening yesterday to accomplish my mission: dofollow WordPress without a plugin. I don’t want to use too many plugins because they will slow down my site.
I finally found someone’s blog that was talking about removing nofolow attribute from WordPress Core file. So I did it yesterday with two of my blogs.
Anyway FYI if you have a dofollow blog/website you can submit it to http://followlist.com to get backlink.
I read recently that removing nofollow on comment links is actually beneficial for blog owners these days because Google now uses the amount of activity your site generates in order to determine where it ranks in the search engines. Seems like removing the nofollow attribute would increase activity and really help blog owners out! Thanks for being dofollow!
very useful tips you have given here for making our blog do follow by using different plugins or by editing code.
Thanks – I appreciate your good words.
hi there i am new in wordpress kindly help me i want to try the first way to remove rel no follow but can’t find the link hope you can help me, thanks
Which method did you try?
I use the plugin commentluv and its quite useful. may be you guys can have a look..