Comprehensive Reference for WordPress No-Nofollow/Dofollow Plugins

Recently, while deliberating an optimal method for eliminating nofollow link attributes from Perishable Press, I collected, installed, tested and reviewed every WordPress no-nofollow/dofollow plugin that I could find. In this article, I present a concise, current, and comprehensive reference for WordPress no-nofollow and dofollow plugins.

Every attempt has been made to provide accurate, useful, and complete information for each of the plugins represented below. Further, as this subject is a newfound interest of mine, it is my intention to keep this post updated with fresh information, so please bookmark it for future reference. Finally, please help expand/enhance this list by dropping any relevant information via comment area below. Thanks & enjoy!

Table of Contents

Featuring 11 fully reviewed WordPress Dofollow Plugins in alphabetical order.

1. DoFollow
2. Dofollow Trackbacks
3. Follow URL
4. JR NoFollow
5. LinkLove
6. Nofollow Blacklist Plugin for WordPress
7. Nofollow Case by Case
8. NoFollow Free
9. Remove Nofollow
10. Remove Nofollow
11. Semiologic Dofollow

DoFollow ↑

• Supported WordPress version(s): 1.5 or later, 2.x+
• Most recently reviewed plugin version: 4.0
• View screenshot »

The DoFollow plugin by i summon one kim disables nofollow attributes for external links. Additionally, DoFollow provides the following features:

• User-specified minimum-age limit for nofollow removal..
• Only comments that are “x” days old will have nofollow removed.
• User-specified application of nofollow removal..
• Remove nofollow from registered users, visitors, or both.
• Removal of nofollow from trackbacks only, pingbacks only, or both.
• Admin panel provided for full control over options.

Review: One of the first WordPress dofollow plugins, DoFollow has evolved into a highly flexible method for nofollow removal. The admin option page is clear, simple, and provides granular control over all options. This plugin is ideal for users of all experience levels and provides control over many important aspects of dofollow strategy. Excellent for distinguishing between comment links, trackbacks, and pingbacks. Highly recommended.

Dofollow Trackbacks ↑

• Supported WordPress version(s): WordPress 2+
• Most recently reviewed plugin version: 1.0
• No screenshot available

The Dofollow Trackbacks plugin from turkhitbox.com says what it does and does what it says. Period. It removes nofollow attributes from WordPress trackback links. The rationale behind this plugin goes something like this: if you remove nofollow from all comment links, your blog will suffer from spammers taking advantage by leaving meaningless comments just for the G-juice; by following only trackbacks, only blogs that care enough to post a link to your article will receive a full-fledged dofollow comment.

Review: Although this is an interesting idea, there are more rewarding methods for sidestepping the mindless-comment-just-for-juice problem: simply require a minimum number of comments before removing nofollow (check out the LinkLove plugin or Lucia’sLinkLove plugin). Otherwise, this plugin is great for removing nofollow from trackbacks. No admin options required — simply plug and play. Cool.

Follow URL ↑

• Supported WordPress version(s): 1.5 (may work in 2+ as well)
• Most recently reviewed plugin version: 1.0
• No screenshot available

Designed for WordPress 1.5, Angsuman Chakraborty’s Follow URL plugin completely removes all nofollow attributes from WordPress comments. Using well-optimized code, this plugin eliminates nofollow from the entire spectrum of comment-related links:

• Removes nofollow from commentator links (comment-author URL links)
• Removes nofollow from any auto-generated links included in comments
• Removes nofollow from all other comment links (anchor links)
• Removes nofollow from trackback links
• Removes nofollow from pingback links

Review: Although the code used by this plugin is impressive, there are many other plugins providing similar functionality, featuring additional configuration options, and targeting specifically newer versions of WordPress. However, if you happen to be running WordPress 1.5 (and don’t plan on upgrading), I would definitely give this plugin a try.

JR NoFollow ↑

• Supported WordPress version(s): Tested with WordPress 2.8.5
• Most recently reviewed plugin version: 1.0
• View screenshot »

The JR NoFollow plugin from Jake Ruston accomplishes three important goals:

1. Allows you to enable/disable the nofollow tag for your comments
2. Optionally disable nofollow on author website links and/or comment links
3. Specify dofollow only for specific domains and/or IPs

Review: This dofollow plugin works great at removing nofollow attributes from both comments and commentator author-website links. This is a newer dofollow plugin, so at first I was like, “why do we need another dofollow plugin? What does this plugin do that others don’t?” Shortly after asking Jake these questions, the plugin was updated to include dofollowing of specific domains and IPs, something that is missing from other plugins. This feature alone makes Jake’s JR NoFollow plugin stand out from the crowd and worth a try.

LinkLove ↑

• Supported WordPress version(s): WordPress 2+
• Most recently reviewed plugin version: 0.2
• No screenshot available

The LinkLove plugin by allpassionmarketing.com is designed to share link love only with commentators who have left more than “x” number of comments, where x is any number specified by the site owner. Delivering full link-juice only to users that are actively contributing to your site theoretically deters spammers from dropping mindless, one-sentence comments just for the love. The LinkLove plugin helps to “keep it in the family,” as they say.

Review: This plugin works great right out of the box — simply install and go — no admin option page required! Excellent for encouraging genuine comments by stripping nofollow tags from all comment, trackback, and pingback links from commentators with at least x number of responses.

Nofollow Blacklist Plugin for WordPress ↑

• Supported WordPress version(s): WordPress 2+
• Most recently reviewed plugin version: 1.0
• View screenshot »

At last, a plugin after my own heart! Although the Nofollow Blacklist plugin by Web Kaput is not an official “dofollow” plugin, it provides much-needed functionality that should be integrated into a robust dofollow plugin such as Lucia’s Linky Love or the latest version of suominen.com’s DoFollow.

On its own, the Nofollow Blacklist plugin enables bloggers to selectively employ nofollow links for all specified (blacklisted) domains. To blacklist say, Wikipedia, simply navigate to the plugin’s options page and add it to the list. After that, all links within posts or excerpts that point to Wikipedia will have the nofollow tag added. At this time, the blacklist does not apply to comment links, author links, trackbacks, and pingbacks.

Review: This plugin is useful as is, but needs to be expanded to include comment content as well as post and excerpt content. After that, the Nofollow Blacklist would work well with a solid dofollow plugin, thereby synergizing ultimate control over WordPress dofollow implementation. Or something ;)

Nofollow Case by Case ↑

• Supported WordPress version(s): Tested with WordPress 2.0.7, 2.0.8, 2.0.9, 2.0.10 / 2.1, 2.1.1., 2.1.3 and 2.2
• Most recently reviewed plugin version: 1.2
• No screenshot available

The Nofollow Case by Case plugin by fob-marketing.de enables nofollow removal on a case-by-case basis. Upon activation, all nofollow attributes are removed from comment-related content. Then, the Case by Case plugin enables nofollow tags to be applied selectively for each of the following link types:

• Selectively nofollow any link left in comments
• Selectively nofollow any comment author link
• Selectively nofollow any ping/trackback link

Additionally, the Case by Case plugin provides an option to automatically open comment links in a new window by adding target="_blank" attributes (requires simple editing of PHP file).

How does it work? To nofollow any undesirable comment-related link, edit the comment via WordPress Admin, add /dontfollow to the end of the link, and click save. After editing, the URL will appear as normal, but a nofollow attribute will have been added to the anchor. If you later decide to follow the link, simply remove the /dontfollow from the URL and you are good to go.

Review: This is the ideal plugin for heavily moderated blogs or even blogs receiving relatively few comments. In either case, if you are looking for an easy way to selectively apply nofollow to any comment, pingback, or trackback link on your blog, this is the plugin for you.

NoFollow Free ↑

• Supported WordPress version(s): 2.0, 2.1, 2.2+ (1.5 maybe)
• Most recently reviewed plugin version: 1.1
• View screenshot »

NoFollow Free by Michele Marcucci is a great new dofollow-type plugin that is loaded with features. Designed to remove the “nofollow” attribute from commentator (author) links as well as comment-text links, NoFollow Free also goes the extra mile by providing an option to announce your blog’s official dofollow status with a lovely, NoFollow Free banner. Fortunately, NoFollow Free offers more features than just the banner, which unfortunately employs an invalidly nested <style> element within the <body> of the document. Nonetheless, NoFollow Free has plenty of other features going for it:

• Selectively remove nofollow from author/text links
• Selectively remove nofollow from registered author/text links
• Set minimum number of comments required for nofollow-removal
• Customizable nofollow blacklist for target spam terms
• Optional display of author comment number
• Optional donation link for plugin
• Optional display of “NoFollow Free” image band
• Customizable positioning of image band (left or right))
• Customizable coloring of image band (green, red, orange, or blue)
• Customizable URL address for the image-banner link
• Comprehensive control over all features via Admin Options panel

Review: With the release of this plugin, I am officially torn between Lucia’s Linky Love and Michele’s NoFollow Free. Nonetheless, NoFollow Free provides many options currently unavailable anywhere else. Beyond the ability to display the number of comments for each author, require a minimum number of comments for nofollow-removal, and specify which types of comments to follow, NoFollow Free also features a customizable nofollow blacklist for spam words.

Plus, NoFollow Free throws in an optional “NoFollow Free” image band just to seal the deal. Overall, NoFollow Free is a comprehensive solution that provides robust functionality for the effective implementation of your nofollow-removal strategy. Five Stars.

Remove Nofollow ↑

• Supported WordPress version(s): WordPress 2+
• Most recently reviewed plugin version: 1.0
• No screenshot available

The most basic of all the dofollow plugins, the Remove Nofollow plugin from seopedia.org removes the nofollow attribute from comment author links. Upon activation, this plugin effectively eliminates all traces of nofollow from author links, trackback links, and pingback links. For those of you looking to nuke all nofollow tags without having to go anywhere near the WordPress core, it doesn’t get any easier than this:

<?php
function remove_nofollow($nofollow) {
	$nofollow = preg_replace("/rel='external nofollow'>/","rel='external'>", $nofollow);
	return $nofollow;
}
add_filter('get_comment_author_link', 'remove_nofollow');
?>

Review: The previous code says it all — this plugin removes all nofollow tags from comment author, trackback, and pingback links. Enough said!

Remove Nofollow ↑

• Supported WordPress version(s): 2.3.2+ and WPMU 1.3.0+
• Most recently reviewed plugin version: 0.95
• View screenshot »

Remove Nofollow is a straightforward, easy-to-use plugin that enables users to remove nofollow attributes from author links and comment links. Each of these options are easily toggled on or off via the plugin’s option panel in the WordPress Admin area.

Review: One of the most basic dofollow plugins, Remove Nofollow works great at removing nofollow tags from both author links and comment links. Enhancing the original bare-bones Remove Nofollow plugin, this new version provides the aforementioned WP Admin options panel. Recommended for moderated comments, Remove Nofollow is intended to keep things simple.

Semiologic Dofollow ↑

• Supported WordPress version(s): WordPress 2+
• Most recently reviewed plugin version: 2.1
• No screenshot available

The Semiologic Dofollow plugin removes all nofollow attributes from comment-related content, including comment and author links, as well as trackbacks and pingbacks. Solid plugin for upgrading your blog to dofollow status by eliminating “the evil nofollow attribute from your comments.” Highly recommended.

About the Author

Jeff Starr = Creative thinker. Passionate about free and open Web.