Well, it appears Google has done another page rank update.  So, how did your dofollow blog Page Rank do?  Does having a dofollow blog affect your page rank?

Honestly, I don’t know.  My page ranks have not changed at all – up or down, so I don’t know how they would have been ranked if they were not dofollow.

There are some who believe that your page rank will drop if you are a dofollow blog.  Since you will have more out going links, you will be losing some link juice.  There is probably some truth to that.

I came across Melissa Eaton’s Niche Website Building Tips blog, and she made a post claiming dofollow blogging affected her page rank negatively.  Her PR did drop, and it could have been related to dofollow, or it could be related to some other factors she mentions in her post.

She has turned dofollow off and is going to use a different plugin, that allows you to give your commentors dofollow links after a certain number of posts.

So, you if your PR is negatively affected by dofollow outgoing links, should you turn off dofollow?  Of course that is for you to decide, but here is my view.

Since going dofollow on 4 of my blogs, the page rank has not changed on any of them.  I would have thought that since the last Google update their PR would have increased since they are older, have more incoming links, have more content and have more traffic.

I think there is a strong possibility that my PR could have gone up on at least two of them if they were not dofollow.  So, I have to decide what I would rather have – a better PR, or more traffic.

Since going dofollow on my blogs my traffic has gone up and my Alexa rank has steadily improved on all the blogs.  I really don’t think my traffic would have increased if my blogs were nofollow.

I know that Google PR is important, but I really wonder if it’s as important as it used to be and as important as people believe it is.

I have seen websites with a PR3 or PR4 that I suspect received a high PR because they were ranked on obscure keywords that no one searches for, and they probably don’t have much traffic.  I have seen these sites with an Alexa rank of over 3 million in popularity, when my blogs are steadily dropping to the low 200K in popularity.  FYI, with Alexa lower is better.

I have also seen sites under 50K in Alexa with no PR, or a PR of zero.

So, my belief is – PR, though nice, is not as good as more traffic with a low, or no, PR.  Of course, ideally you would like to have both high PR and a lot of traffic.

I will continue to have dofollow blogs until I have strong evidence that it’s hurting my blogs to the point of costing me traffic.

Mike

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Comments

56 Responses to “Dofollow Blogs and Page Rank”

  1. Melissa on September 30th, 2008 3:56 am

    Hi Mike – Thanks for the mention. :)

    I agree with a lot of what you have said and I am honestly not sure if being dofollow is what actually effected my pagerank. I think it was a combination of all of the factors I mentioned combined.

    I really struggled with the decision to go back to nofollow. The main reason I ranted about it, is that I was sick of the SQL injection attempts and am hoping that rant will put a stop to it for a while.

    I am sort of experimenting by going back to nofollow. If I repair the other things I mentioned and PR goes back up, I will once again become dofollow and see what happens. Like I said, I will revisit it with the next update.

    Like you, I don’t really feel PR means all that much anymore. I would ten times rather have traffic and interactivity on my site than PR. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

    Thanks again for the mention and I wish you much success!

    Melissa

  2. Do-Follow Mike on September 30th, 2008 12:53 pm

    Hi Melissa,

    Thanks for stopping by. Hope you don’t mind me using your blog as an example. I thought a link back was the least I could do since this post idea came from your blog post.

    Dofollow may not be for everyone, and I could see a point where when your blog gets very popular it could cause problems because of the comment spammers.

    I wish you much success.

    Mike

  3. Dofollow Blog Incoming Links on October 1st, 2008 4:10 pm

    [...] Dofollow Blogs and Page Rank [...]

  4. Hicham from Hicham Maged on October 1st, 2008 5:55 pm

    Hello Mike,

    I think -till a good evidence- that there’s no prblem with DoFollow blogs, check for example deadrooster[dot]com; it’s a dofollow and PR4 while writing this comment.

    I think Melissa’s problem was directly related to the changes she applied to her website as mentioned in her post.

    To be in the safeside, as for linking back to the spammers, you can always moderate the comments and flag them as spam from WP so they never shown over the blog.

    I’ve also a question; what about people who pay for backlinks and got poor badlinks? it’s about the quality not quantity.

  5. Blog Tips Video on October 2nd, 2008 9:49 am

    I actually don’t know how to do dofollow because I am on a blogger blog. Do you know how I can set this up?

  6. Meta tags and google on October 3rd, 2008 12:26 pm

    Thanks for sharing the info.. It seems now i can improve my web rankings
    congratulation for great blog…..!Thanks….

  7. brian from stock market trading on October 5th, 2008 1:04 pm

    I think if it takes a hit it’s only because they’ve recently updated the algorhythem.

  8. B&B in Nenagh on October 6th, 2008 7:07 pm

    Just because people’s PR goes down does not mean that it is directly related to “do follow”. many sites go down in PR due to changes in google algorithm.

  9. Alexa's new Wizard - Alexa's Related Links on October 7th, 2008 11:06 am

    In spite of facing tough competition from Google, Alexa is having a strong stand and presence among the Internet users. Apart from being a search engine, Alexa now also offers informative and important information on the sites that one might want to know about. Alexa’s new related links has enabled the Internet users to know all about a particular field by visiting all the sites related to that field.

  10. Kevin from Great Wall of China Facts on October 9th, 2008 1:49 pm

    I would really like to find out the new page rank algorithm. Google seems so secret about SEO stuff. Probably because of all of those hackers and SEO experts who could take advantage of all of this info.

  11. Cool Guy from Eiffel Tower on October 9th, 2008 2:00 pm

    I wonder what the correlation between high page rank on blogs and how high the quality of the link for the site.

  12. kouji from captivating Capiz on October 9th, 2008 5:22 pm

    i hear that pr still matters because advertisers use it. still, don’t know if there’s a correlation between these two.

  13. Max Dixon on October 13th, 2008 1:26 am

    Yes, PR still matters. and Dofollow blogs still helps so the dofollow movement should still be rockin, in my opinion.

  14. classified on October 13th, 2008 2:52 am

    yes pr is very important and we need more do follow blogs

  15. Robert from Elk Grove Real Estate on October 13th, 2008 7:08 pm

    I really love DoFollow! it is really a big help.

  16. selcuk from web tasar?m? on October 17th, 2008 4:26 am

    Thanks for sharing the info. It seems now i can improve my web rankings

  17. auto parts inspiration on October 17th, 2008 12:25 pm

    By giving the dofollow attribute to the people who are commenting to our blog is actually a kind of appreciation. Some time we always thing that PR is important but in one way or another, does we want Google to control everything? Following the google policy is one thing but does internet is belong to google until we have to be too particular in that?

  18. Dubai Hotel Apartments on October 19th, 2008 10:47 am

    I personally think that it has no effect on website PR Google has nearly 3000 factors to count for good ranking and i think dofollow is not a main factor it only an attribute for external links….

    anyway thanks for the post.

  19. John from Horseshoe Bay TX Real Estate on October 21st, 2008 8:56 pm

    Thanks for the priceless information. It is very useful to help me improved my rankings.

  20. Myron Tay on October 21st, 2008 11:46 pm

    How long has it been since you set do follow on your blogs? Call me paranoid but I’m starting to think I should set nofollow on every single outbound link from my site.

  21. dextro from not just english written blog like the other on October 24th, 2008 11:22 pm

    What I think is do follow means that will be a lot of outgoing link from your side. If I’m not mistaken if we have much more outgoing than incoming link our pagerank would be threatened. is that true?

  22. Jim from Lowest Calling Rates on November 4th, 2008 8:35 pm

    I agree with you on the matter and don’t understand the panic which siezed those who’re afraid of dofollow links. The ranking greatly depends on the content you have and the number of visitors reading your web-site on a daily basis.

  23. Mike from gift gadgets on November 10th, 2008 1:56 am

    PR is important but if you can build community and traffic through do follow then that really is the ultimate goal.

    Many larger sites are trying to diversify traffic streams so that they are not totally dependent on just one search engine.

  24. Sade Jordan on November 30th, 2008 4:34 am

    Great post. I will use this information and make the most of it. Thanks

  25. Ashley on December 6th, 2008 2:01 am

    I really don’t know if my blog is dofollow or not, but I have thought about looking into it. I have to say, I have been hesitant for the very reason you are writing about above.

  26. Fairings on December 21st, 2008 12:19 am

    Oh man this blog is just full of great info, please keep up doing a good job!

  27. marblehost on December 27th, 2008 4:59 am

    I see your 0/10 and Alexa 95933 now.
    But i am not sure what is the different between Alexa and pageRank.

    It seems you are telling Page Rank is not as important as we think ?

    Is that why may be even if page Rank 3,4 Alexa over 3milion?.

  28. Irene Chandler and Jim Shultz on January 11th, 2009 12:21 am

    We are very interested in getting good backlinks for our website, as that seems to help get people to find our site, and as we understand it Google and other search engines give credit and enhanced page rank with good relevant, high page rank, do follow back links. Therefore, we very much want to get such back links to enhance our page rank and to get people to our site.

    Thanks for the helpful blog and information.

  29. Lito | TheFilipinoEntrepreneur.Com on January 16th, 2009 7:15 am

    Aside from encouraging commenter, will having a dofollow improve my blog traffic or search ranking?

  30. Do-Follow Mike on January 17th, 2009 4:40 pm

    Hi Lito,

    I have found that I get more traffic with my blogs being dofollow, but I’m not sure how it has affected my page rank.

    I would rather have more traffic and a lower page rank, than a high page rank with lower traffic. So I am pleased with going dofollow.

    Mike

  31. Vinyl Records on January 19th, 2009 4:49 pm

    do follow really helps other bloggers. thanks for you guys!

  32. BlackHatForum on January 25th, 2009 7:41 am

    Dofollow blog really work. very useful!

  33. mr.eims from health awareness blog on January 28th, 2009 1:54 am

    I just disabled my dofollow..

    well after reading your post, looks like i just have to enable it again..heheh.. thx

    ;)

  34. maru from gafas de sol infantiles on February 13th, 2009 3:24 am

    I think that is very difficult to know which is the cause of the change in the pagerank, I have a friend who don´t knows the pagerank is,he has a blog, and update as much as 2 times a month, few know his blog .. and doing nothing has a pagerank of 3

  35. Buenos Aires Real Estate on February 17th, 2009 3:43 pm

    I agree 100% with Melisa, it´s a combination of factors what effect the PR.

  36. dan from payday loans on February 20th, 2009 7:05 pm

    Mike, you are right on. Think about it this way- what is the purpose of a high PR? Is it not to rank higher in Google search results? And what is the purpose of ranking higher in the search results? Is it not to increase traffic? So why worry about what your PR is if you can achieve the overall goal of increased traffic simply by making your blog dofollow? All you have to do is put in a simple captcha to ward off the automated spammers looking for dofollow links and you are good, traffic increased. Good post!

  37. BMW Motorcycles on March 6th, 2009 10:06 am

    Mike.I got the importance of “do follow” in blog,but what about top commentators.?How does that helps a site to move up???

  38. Payday Loans on March 7th, 2009 7:29 pm

    OF COURSE IT AFFECTS YOUR RANK. But the only catch is you have to do it a lot and get your site name everywhere. You can’t expect to visit a couple of sites/blogs and leave only a few comments and have your SEO Rank change. You have to do A LOT!

  39. streaming on March 15th, 2009 3:46 pm

    Every blog should be in dofollow !

  40. de pelotas on March 26th, 2009 8:33 am

    i think that comment with dofallow is good,but have moderad the spam links…

  41. alexa doesn't work on Vista! on April 3rd, 2009 8:49 am

    Alexa rankings can’t be the sole determinants of measuring a sites importance and popularity as the http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/fortunehotels.in rankings do not take into account all the browser types like Windows Vista etc.

  42. Quang ba website on April 5th, 2009 4:15 am

    Is commenting on blog increases the page rank?

  43. Daily horoscope on April 9th, 2009 5:54 pm

    @ Quang ba website
    No, it’s not directly connected with PR. You have to get related niche comment from dofollow blogs, so PR of the page is also a important factor.

  44. Chevrolet Trailblazer Parts on May 20th, 2009 7:24 pm

    Do follow blog commenting is very helpful to get good ranking at google because google gives importance to do follow links.

  45. Indoman on July 3rd, 2009 9:48 am

    I am agree with you. It’s up to us to decide wether pagerank of traffic is more important…
    Nice thought.

  46. Danial on August 10th, 2009 10:51 am

    I think that traffic and page-rank both have its own profit and promotion will include both. Blogs are the beautiful way.

  47. Otomasyon Projesi on August 31st, 2009 2:41 pm

    do follow really helps other bloggers. thanks for you guysss

  48. matping on May 7th, 2010 4:25 pm

    Thanks for sharing the info..Dofollow Blogs and Page Rank !Thanks….

  49. Charlie on May 22nd, 2010 12:51 pm

    Thanks this is very useful info for me :) !!

    I am new in blogging and seo,Thank you very much !

  50. coach purses outlet stores on May 26th, 2010 12:05 am

    You may come across explanations of PageRank where the same equation is stated but the result of each iteration of the calculation is added to the page’s existing PageRank. The new value (result + existing PageRank) is then used when sharing PageRank with other pages. These explanations are wrong for the following reasons:-

  51. chyardi on June 30th, 2010 2:53 am

    Hi, I see this blog is very good, if I’m asked about whether or not to do follow, I will be first asked to them, they make the blog what purpose?, If the blog was created for example for an ad, certainly a lot of traffic of visitors is necessary, alexa is usually seen, very good if Alexa could <than 50,000. advertiser on the blog may be delighted if visitors a lot, do follow blogs owned by Google's PR blogs that was high, usually entice visitors to come, when many came to correlate with the Alexa Rank is going up??, but if many visitors who came whether Google PR will get better?, I do not know Google's calculation gives Google Page Rank.

  52. pandora on July 6th, 2010 7:05 pm

    Do follow blog commenting is very helpful to get good ranking at google because google gives importance to do follow links.

  53. cancer cure on July 6th, 2010 11:10 pm

    Do follow is a great help to get backlinks. This works better especially when the PR of the site is even more better.

  54. Seo company india on July 6th, 2010 11:15 pm

    Good information shared. Very well written. It is very good to get a high PR link and search engines like google and yahoo give more importance and authority to them. The higher the PR, the higher the authority. getting links from them and they being dofollow is even more good.
    Thanks for sharing. keep posting.

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