Follow My Links is a very simple plugin that prevents WordPress from automatically adding a “rel=nofollow” attribute to the following two categories of authorial links:
- links in the post author’s comments;
- links to the post author’s URL (usually linked to from the comment author’s username).
New in version 1.2: Now also allows the post author to selectively remove nofollow from links in user comments by editing them.
The default behaviour of WordPress (as of version 2.8) is to add a “rel=nofollow” attribute to all links in the comments section, including links in comments made by the post author and links to the post author’s website. The nofollow attribute prevents search engines like Google from following (indexing) such links, and passing “link juice” (including PageRank™) to the linked pages. In fact, nofollow was originally introduced by the major search engines as a deterrent or counter-measure to link spam in blog comments. For that reason, it doesn’t make much sense to have nofollow on your own links, when you’re the post author or blog owner, since those links are supposed to be “editorially given” (and therefore spam-free): that’s where this plugin comes at hand.
Please note that Follow My Links will not remove nofollow from links in existing authorial comments: that’s because, since WordPress adds the nofollow attribute to all links in comments at database level, there’s no way to determine whether an existing nofollow was introduced by WordPress, or explicitly by the comment author him/herself. So, if you want to strip nofollow from links in existing authorial comments, you’ll have to do it manually.
The nice part is that you’re still free to add “rel=nofollow” to any link in your own comments for whatever reason on a case-by-case basis, and if you do choose to do so, Follow My Links will leave the nofollow intact. Finally, as the post author, you can also remove nofollow from any link in a user comment by editing or quick-editing that comment’s HTML via the WordPress admin interface. Pretty neat, huh? 
Download
You can download Follow My Links from the WordPress Plugin Directory.
Installation
- Unzip, upload the ‘follow-my-links’ folder to your WordPress plugin directory (usually ‘/wp-content/plugins/’);
- Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress;
- You’re done (no configuration needed)!
Changelog
1.2
- FIXED: Now allows the post author to remove nofollow from links in user comments by editing (07/10/2009)
1.1
- FIXED: Bug preventing the correct detection of authorial comments (06/25/2009)
1.0
- First public release (06/24/2009)
Donations
If you like this plugin, feel free to donate a link to this post or buy me a slice of pizza.
Bug reports, feature requests, questions, and feedback
Follow My Links is my very first WordPress plugin. Please do send me your feedback in the comments below. Thanks!
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Really? I didn’t know about that: I always worked on comments.php in templates to work around the nofollow attribute on comment links.
By the way, I prefer to leave links in author’s URL and comment content nofollow-free, and show some link love to my loyal commenters who leave useful (thus, relevant) links (and, for that matter, whose name is not “apartments for rent” or “search engine optimization”!).
I use the nofollow case by case plugin to selectively add nofollow (you just have to drop a /dontfollow at the end of any URL you don’t want to vouch for).
Definitely not a scalable solution for big numbers blog, but a suitable one if you receive as much as few comments per day.
C ya soon
Hi Petro! Check the the comment_content field in your wp_comments database table: you’ll notice that links have “rel=nofollow” hardcoded in the HTML. Nofollow on URLs is inserted on-the-fly instead, because URLs in comments are stored as URLs (not links) and “linkified” when comments are displayed. Nofollow on comment links/URLs is handled by the wp_rel_nofollow() and make_clickable() functions in /wp-includes/formatting.php; both functions are added as filters to the pre_comment_content and comment_text hooks (see this article for a better explanation).
Uh-oh! Just noticed that the link in your comment above doesn’t have nofollow… Hmmm, I smell a bug.
OK, I’ve fixed the bug! Now the plugin works correctly –or so it seems.
You can get the updated version (1.1) by clicking on the download link in my post.
Thanks for your feedback, Petro. I’ll leave that link in your comment nofollow-free, of course.
You’re welcome, my friend!
Just a tip: avoid testing comments in posts where you have more than 0 email subscribers,unless you’re willing to flood them
D’OH! Sorry…
But the comments here are having nofollow tags, can we manage to give dofollow attribute to selected comments on our blog posts ? well if yes then that wud be awesome. i am a new blogger here and trying to learn from other bloggers
Thanks for asking. Actually, my plugin was supposed to let you do that already, but it didn’t, because of a bug.
So I’ve fixed it and released an update (v.1.2): now the post author can also “give dofollow” –i.e., remove nofollow from selected links in user comments by editing them (remember that the default is still to have nofollow on all links in user-entered comments).
You can download Follow My Links version 1.2 from the WordPress Plugin Repository. Enjoy!
I don’t think that this plugin works for the lastest (2.8.2) version. I’ve uploaded and I do not see any options of changing the links from nofollow to dofollow. Maybe I’m doing something wrong, I just can’t get this to work for some reason. Any help would be nice.
Hi Marlin! Follow My Links has been tested and works with the latest WordPress version (2.8.2). You don’t see any options to set simply because no configuration is required for the plugin to work: just download/upload it, activate it, and you’re done.
Once installed, Follow My Links will prevent WordPress from nofollowing links in new authorial comments (i.e., new comments made by the post author him or herself).
Please note that links in existing authorial comments and in all user comments (existing or new) wil remain nofollowed: to remove nofollow from those links, you will have to edit the comment’s HTML via the WordPress admin interface, as specified in my post above.
Guess what, I don’t even think if Google gives a damn to nofollow thing, On the other hand, if you’re removing the nofollow thing from comment urls, its going to get you good amount of original comments.
Either I am stupid, or the fact is that none of these plugins are working. I’ve done everything know to man to try and get wordpress to remove the nofollow tags but nothing. I’ve even removed all the nofollow tags I could find in the source code and the links still show up with a nofollow link. I don’t know what else to do, the guys on the wordpress forum are no help whatsoever, have not even gotten a response as to what might be wrong. You can view my site and try to submit a comment but it is just going to add a nofollow anyway. I’m starting think that wordpress is blocking these plugins from working in the latest versions. I’m currently running the “NoFollow Free” plugin and that is doing nothing as well.
I’ve been working on this for days with no luck, I’m thinking of just putting the old site back up and saying forget wordpress. It just amazes me how you can’t do the simplest things with this platform.
Hi Marlin,
Thanks for the plug-in!
I’m just setting up my new blog with WordPress v2.9.1 – it did come up with a message that the plug-in wasn’t tested on that version of WordPress.
I’m on version 1.2 of your plug-in.
Just need to check next time that for new posts the no follows have been removed.
h t t p : / / w w w . n e x u s o n e b l o g . c o . u k /
@Andy: “Follow My Links” is tested and working with WordPress 2.9.1. I will update the compatibility tag in the plugin readme file. I shall also try and make it clearer that my plugin is not meant to and will not remove nofollow from links in every comment, but just from those appearing in the post author’s comments.
P.S.: Akismet had flagged your comment as spam because of the totally irrelevant link you dropped in it. I was unsure whether I should delete your comment or edit+unspam it in order to publicly respond to your question. I chose the latter, so I removed the anchor but left the URL there just to show everybody how spammy that link really is.
P.P.S.: My name is not Marlin.
Hey Everfluxx
I’ve installed your plugin but nofollow links remain. I’m using wordpress 2.9.1.
I appreciate your time is valuable, but would you be able to have a look at the last comment on this page. I left it after installing the plugin. Is there anything I’m missing?
http://www.ebootcamp.co.uk/2009/12/did-you-know-take-a-look-into-future-here/
thanks in advance
Rob
Hi Rob, the post you mentioned is by user “admin” and the comment is by user Rob Watson: that is probably why the link on your user name is still nofollowed. Follow My Links only affects comments made by the same WordPress user as the post author.
I too am using WP 2.9.1 and, as you can see, the link on my user name above is nofollow-free.
Will you be confirming that this plugin works with the latest releases of WP?
@AK: I confirm that Follow My Links works with the latest WordPress release (2.9.2). I will eventually update the plugin page.
Hello Everfluxx, could you help me understand how exactly the plugin works. I am looking for something that would help the post’s author to follow his post(as to know when someone comments on his post, so that he could reply to it immediately). Will follow my links be able to do that, or do you know of any other plugin that would work for me? Thank you for your time.
Thanks.
Hi Priya, I’m not sure I understood your question: the post author is already notified by WordPress of new comments/trackbacks. Just look under Settings > Discussion and make sure the checkboxes near “Email me whenever: Anyone posts a comment / A comment is held for moderation” are both checked. If you’re looking for a plugin that will help your commenters follow the discussion, then maybe Subscribe to Comments is for you. And no, Follow My Links has nothing to do with email notifications.
Hi Everfluxx, that information was definitely useful. Thank you very much!!!
Just installed… thank you!
Can you please give me a little play-by-play about your last point:
Finally, as the post author, you can also remove nofollow from any link in a user comment by editing or quick-editing that comment’s HTML via the WordPress admin interface.
How and why would I do this?
Thank you again,
~Dave.
How: By editing (or quick-editing) each comment via the WordPress admin interface.
When / Why: See my post Rel=nofollow cheat sheet: when and how you should (not) use it.
Not working on 3.0 RC3 which is just about final.
Thanks for the heads-up, Greg. I will test it on WordPress 3.0 final as soon as it gets released.
Hi again Greg, I’ve just had the opportunity of testing the plugin with the final release of WordPress 3.0, and I can confirm that it is working.
Ok. Let me put it on. Are you sure there is no way to change the past posts or past comments to follow?
That sucks!
Just kidding. I do like it. I am getting ready to try it out now. Thanks a bunch!
You’re welcome.