U Comment I Follow
You might have seen the logo kicking around or even the phrase ‘U Comment; I follow’ well what does it mean and why am I writing about it?
Well Randa Clay talks about a particular way to appreciate your visitors and those who leave comments behind. What Randa has designed is a nice logo (in various colours) that tell the visitor that if you leave a comment then the ‘NoFollow’ attribute is not used to that the various Search Engines (such as Google) will crawl and index the URLs that are leave behind in comment sections of various blogs.
What I have done is a little bit different. In order to see if I could encourage repeat visitors and more comments, I have added a small check to see whether or not you have posted at least 5 comments, if you have the script will remove the ‘NoFollow’ attribute from your URL from any new posting.
Why have I chosen to only remove the attribute after 5 posts? Well it would hopefully top people from posting silly short comments that are there just to be a post such as ‘I agree’, or ‘That’s right’ which to mean just plain annoying at times when you are trying to get some quality feedback on a post.
Some people have said that if you allow Google and others to crawl your comment URLs then you might be considered as a possible link farm. I have also read various posts where people believe that if your content is good enough you won’t need to worry about being seen as a link farm in the eyes of the Search Engines. I am going to try and see how well this works. A Page-Rank 5 sites should be good enough to help people boast their ranks too right? If my Page-Rank drops because of this then I will know that you can have too many outbound links 
Your nofollow code works like a charm, Tyler! I had a little trouble posting my fifth comment… my browser hung, then crashed, but that’s on my end! But, apparently the comment post went in and there is no longer a nofollow. Good job!
Glad it works!
Isn’t it pathetic how much the search engines pick up and sift through? It’s amazing any content comes up on a search anymore.
It is amazing how they are able to sift through the junk, ah yes to know the secret algorithm to Google search and index!
Great solution! I think I’ll try some kind of hack of the “dofollow” WP plugin to do the same on my blog, it shouldn’t be too complicated.
it’s great!
This is smart being able to save you from getting spam, but with that being said, what is to stop anyone from giving you a short spammy comment five times on your site? Isn’t that worse?
Well like the comment above yours I can see what you mean.
I could moderate the comments if I find it to be bothersome but no one has really spammed me in the comment department yet so I’m not worrying too much.
it seems very fair to me
only loyal visitors to have no follow removed
I also installed the plugin, and I can say that I did not notice any “punishment” from Google. Or maybe it is too early, and I’ll find out only after the next PR update?
Hey tyler,
Can you not share that code, where you applied that restriction of 5 comments. I’m sure many others would like to apply the same restriction
ReviewSaurus do you mean share the code? If you mean share it I will have a look and see how it can be done with Wordpress’ tables then
It is a good way to get comments, just need the traffic to support it!
I agree with you, is good to get comments on our blogs but remember that a lot of bloggers are leaving comments with no sense just to get the links
If they do leave comments that are non-sense and/or not relavant to the discussion you could just delete them correct?
At first I thought nofollow was a good idea but I have changed my mind on that. My blog now follows links. After a long time procrastinating I have seen the importance of “dofollow” and making sure everything stays connected and links don’t get broken. I will follow comments on my blog, http://www.reallyreally.net I hope more people adopt these principals. Regards Bree.
I intalled the dofollow plugin for my blog a few days ago, it do help to get more comment from vistor, but what I want to know is installing the plugin will get punished by google?
A lot of people believe you will not get punished by Google for not using the noFollow attribute for links. Depending on who you’re linking to as long as they are not a linkfarm it should be ok.
Yeah, it’s just too annoying to see “you rock” “thanx for sharing” kindaa comments.
There’s little reason to use nofollow attribute if you’re using askimet.
But yes, it does get annoying to see “I like your site” on nearly every post I make.
I just let them be for now as long as they aren’t advertising anything. Also, I usually check the link they are using to see if it is anything google might slap me for. If it’s adult oriented or link-farming, I’ll delete them and ban their IP.
Finally I know the reason why some blog put the I followed logo, yet some of the comments still reflect as nofollow. So, there is a counter for total comments made.
Well I just checked and there should be no ‘nofollow’ attribute to any of the links within comment posts. Previously (when my blog was custom script) I did have a limit where you had to post a couple of comments prior to having the script strip off the ‘nofollow’ attribute. Now since I am on the WordPress engine any link within the comments are normal and do not have the ‘nofollow’ attribute added to them.
So as long as I don’t find you to be spam Google’s spiders etc will follow the links.