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9.17.2007

Say NO to NoFollow


Comment here if you're a DoFollow blogger!

Cindalou's Kitchen is a DoFollow blog. Now, I know what most of you are thinking:

"DoFollow isn't even a word, what are you talking about?"

Well, the phrase DoFollow came about as an antonym for a phrase that lazy website programmers decided upon: the phrase, NoFollow, or specifically rel="nofollow", is website code for a link that google does not consider when determining a website's PageRank.

PageRank is the little green/white bar that most browsers show beneath the address bar. A website's pagerank is essentially a measure of its popularity. Popularity is determined by a slew of factors only specifically known by Google, but one of the most important factors in a website's pagerank is the number of links to that website, from a different website.

For instance, the following link: Karina's Kitchen, is a link to the gluten free goddess that will count, albeit only slightly, in Karina's overall PageRank. Let me backup for a second...

"But who cares about PageRank? I usually disable that bar.."

Google and other search engines care about PageRank. The higher a website's PageRank, the higher the website appears on searches. How many searches have you performed where you went to page 20 to find a result? Not too many, I imagine - the highest ranked pages receive the majority of "hits" from search engines.

"But who cares about hits?"

Website developers care for two reasons:
1 - Hits, or visits to a website, mean people are interested in its content. Why would anyone want to create a website if noone cared or visited? It's good to feel useful, especially if you have a message that you'd like to permeate through the internet or society.

2 - Website developers are paid more for more visits. It's natural, as the more visitors come, the more audience a website has, and thus the more interest advertisers have in that website.

Ok, so back to DoFollow and NoFollow

A NoFollow link will not help the PageRank of the website that was linked. The NoFollow standard was adopted to reduce spam (wikipedia uses it, blogger and wordpress default to NoFollow in the comments section).

A DoFollow link will help the PageRank of the linked website, but may encourage "spammers", as I will explain in a moment.

What does it mean to be a DoFollow blog?

As a DoFollow blog, Cindalou's Kitchen Blues says THANK YOU!:) for your comments in more than one way - we help your website or blog's PageRank, as your linked name in comments is "followed", or included in google's pageranking system. Although this may encourage spam, we sincerely believe developing a community, and rewarding those who write meaningful comments, is worth the potential increase in spam or false comments.

Thanks for reading - we'd love to hear from you!

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For Blogspot bloggers interested in becoming "DoFollow" blogs, visit:
Removing NoFollow from Blogger styled layouts

For Wordpress bloggers/developers, visit:
Remove nofollow from Wordpress comments

Cindalou's Kitchen Blues: Healthy Celiac / Coeliac Gluten and Dairy Free Recipes

8 comments:

  1. Hi and thanks for taking the time to write the article about nofollow :) I actually found that you made a webring and I joined it just now. I also support the concept and have made my blog nofollow free as well. I look forward to finding more bloggers who feel the same way! Cheers

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  2. Hi..just "faved" and added you. You have a great food blog. Congrats

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  3. Just Googled "gluten free cake made with stevia" and found your Blog. I'm desperate for a recipe for a cake recipe made with glueten free flour and stevia. My future daughter in law has requested I make a cake for them to cut at the reception. She's gone glueten free and can only use Stevia for sweeting. As you can tell she has some serious digestive problems. Can you help me? I'll be maing the topping with whipped cream cheese and non sweetened whipping cream. The wedding is in March but my son has asked me to make a cake for her for Christmas. Linda in freezing western Washington state

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  4. Kickass -- pardon my french, but I just love cool people :)

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  5. You have a great food blog i like it its really awesome

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  6. A fantastic Post... very literate and informative. Thanks for sharing Cindy.

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  7. Cindy, I just found your blog and am ecstatic! Due to various health reasons, I have recently had to become gluten-free, dairy-free, and low glycemic with my meals and outlook. Needless to say, I was getting bored with my recipes and am so happy to find your blog! The recipes look amazing and I am eager to try some out!

    Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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  8. Cindy, I'm a bit confused here.  Firs of all, this is a great topic and a well written article.  My confusion is, after reading and about to make a comment, I see that all of the other outbound links from the other readers comments appear to be nofollow.  Am I not understanding something?

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Hi! Thanks for taking the time to comment :) Your comments help drive this healthy gluten free community.

As a token of our appreciation, our blog is DoFollow. In addition, as a top commentator, your blog/website will be linked on our frontpage. Thus, your comments here benefit your website, our website, and, ultimately, celiac awareness.

Blessed be,
Cindy