If you’ve a WordPress powered blog, you may be aware that WordPress has the default setting of “nofollow” in the comments section. This means that if a visitor makes a comment on your website and mentions his website URL, the link to his website in the comments would (by default) be “external nofollow”. Here, the word “external” implies that clicking on the link will open a new browser window or tab. And, the “nofollow” attribute implies that the search engines will “not follow” that link which means that the visitor’s website will not get PageRank juice or PageRank benefit from the backlink left in the comments. Most of the websites on the Internet keep the default “nofollow” attribute for their comments section. However, there are many websites on the Internet (including this site, i.e., Tech Superb) that have removed the “nofollow” attribute from the comments to give PageRank benefit to the visitors who make comments on the site. In that sense, you may say that such websites are “DoFollow” sites, though technically there is no attribute called “DoFollow”. In technical parlance, “DoFollow” has to be inferred from the absence of “nofollow” attribute. So, if you want to make your website a “DoFollow” site, then you’ll have to remove the “nofollow” attribute from your comments section. It is generally experienced that when you remove the “nofollow” attribute, the number of comments on your site increase substantially, since a visitor making a comment with a link to his site will get the PageRank advantage. This article describes the methods to remove the “nofollow” from your WordPress powered website.
Basically, there are two methods to remove the “nofollow” attribute in a WordPress blog or site and thus to make it a “DoFollow” site. The first method is to directly edit the code of the relevant PHP file, and the second method is to use an appropriate WordPress plugin to do it automatically for you.
The “nofollow” attribute is specified in the “comment-template.php” file in the “wp-includes” folder / directory on your web server where your WordPress site is hosted. This directory is typically found in the “public_html” directory on the web server. So, to make this change, proceed as under:
(1) Use a good FTP software (such as FileZilla client, which is free and open-source software) to connect to your web server where your WordPress site / blog is hosted, and sign in to your account.
(2) Open the “wp-includes” folder / directory that may be typically located in the “public_html” directory on the web server in your account.
(3) Download a copy of the “comment-template.php” file in this directory. Save a copy of this file as backup in a safe custody for future reference / requirements.
(4) Now, edit this “comment-template.php” file by opening it in Notepad or some other text-editing software. Don’t use Microsoft Word since it may add extra formatting characters to the file that may not be acceptable on the web server.
(5) Locate “get_comment_author_link” function in this file. In the body of this function, there is line of code that states as under:
$return = “<a href=’$url’ rel=‘external nofollow’ class=’url’>$author</a>”;
What you’ve to do is to simply remove the “nofollow” word from this single line of code (remove the extra spacing also when you remove this word). Look how the “comment-template.php” file appears in Notepad with the above function and the above line of code being displayed in it:
So, remove the “nofollow” word from the above line of code, and now this line has the following code:
$return = “<a href=’$url’ rel=‘external’ class=’url’>$author</a>”;
(6) Save this “comment-template.php” file after making this little change.
(7) Upload this saved “comment-template.php” file to your web server exactly in the same place from where you downloaded it, i.e., in the “wp-includes” folder / directory on the web server. You may do it by using the same FTP software. This may amount to overwriting the existing copy of the “comment-template.php” on your web server, so ignore the warning that you’re about to overwrite the file.
That’s it! Now, your WordPress website or blog is a “DoFollow” site and your visitors will thank you for the PageRank benefit that you’ve extended to their websites, and they may in turn reward you by visiting your site more often and making more comments. But, also be cautious since suddenly you may see a rapid increase in the spam comments, so you may have to spend more time in moderating the comments.
There are several WordPress plugins that can automatically remove the “nofollow” attribute from your comments. You’ve to simply install the plugin and activate it, rest of the things are taken care of by the plugin without there being need for any coding on your part. There are many such plugins available, such as “DoFollow version 4.0”, “Remove Nofollow”, “Nofollow Free”, etc. You can get detailed information about all such plugins from this DoFollow query at WordPress site or from this NoFollow query at WordPress site. Just follow these two links and review the plugins available there and select the one that suits your needs. There are plenty of them offering you customization of the “nofollow” links.
Before I complete this article, let me remind you that Tech Superb is a “DoFollow” blog; so feel free to offer your comments on this article or on other articles on Tech Superb. However, please make meaningful comments; spam comments will not be allowed.
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I’ve been searching all through my blog dashboard for the button to disable nofollow attibute. Thanks for ‘finding’ it for me.
Hi,
Thanks for the guide. I am now going to edit my php comment file to make my blog do-follow.
cheers
Tony
thanks for the guide
Just I thought to change my blog attribute to dofollow from nofollow. I saw the links my visitors placing in their comment in my blog are showing a word “nofollow” when I was about to edit the comment. I want to give my visitors more link juice by making my blog to dofollow. Thanks for sharing this useful tips. I shall try with the 2nd method as it does not require any technical skill to make my wordpress blog to dofollow.
If only I had thought to Google the question an hour ago instead of searching through my WP blog for this. Thanks for the heads up
waw nice tutorial
i have to learn here
good
im not see the php there… any idea ???