What are do-follow links and how to set to certain links?

[JTrollerb123]

Hi, I have an advertiser who wants a particular text link set to do-follow.  What exactly does this mean and how can I set that particular link to follow this format?

Thanks

[Nathan Explosion]

A 'do-follow' link (a normal link):

<a href="http://site.com">TEXT</a>

A 'no-follow' link:

<a rel="nofollow" href="http://site.com">TEXT</a>

 

[rhyker2u]

SEO stuff.  See: https://www.google.com/search?q=dofollow+vs+nofollow+backlinks for background intel.

By default all links are "dofollow". What to enforce it? Add this tag to your hyperlink: rel="dofollow" 

[JTrollerb123]

Interesting. So all incision forum links are dofollow by default. The person I’m trying to place the link for is saying that they checked and it’s NOT showing dofollow. Is there a setting for this in the ACP?

[Nathan Explosion]

By default, a link is dofollow unless specified otherwise with rel="nofollow"

If he is looking for 'dofollow' as the rel value then he's asking for something that, last time I checked, is not a valid rel value and is redundant anyway.

24 minutes ago, rhyker2u said:

Add this tag to your hyperlink: rel="dofollow"

Got a link that shows 'dofollow' as a valid rel value?

[rhyker2u]

3 minutes ago, Nathan Explosion said:

Got a link that shows 'dofollow' as a valid rel value?

2

You're right. My mistake. Not a valid value. 

[opentype]

Dofollow exists as a word to mean the opposite of the “nofollow” value, but you don’t actually put it in the HTML. 

[bfarber]

AdminCP > System > Settings > Posting > "Links" tab.

Domains to instruct search engines to follow

By default, the "nofollow" rel attribute is added to external links for SEO purposes, but you can whitelist specific domains that you wish to "dofollow".

[JTrollerb123]

So if the purpose of them wanting to use a dofollow is for SEO, do they not know what they are talking about? And how would they be able to see if a link is not dofollow as they are saying?

Thanks all for the replies so far!

[opentype]

If they say it doesn’t work, it probably means that your outgoing links use nofollow currently by default (which is okay). But you would have to whitelist the advertisers URL if he paid for a do-follow link. (which by the way is worth a lot more.) 

[JTrollerb123]

Thank you all, much appreciated!

[tlw1999]

I've just upgraded to v4 and all previous links I had in articles (formerly ip content, now pages) have been reset to no follow. This has not gone down well with the advertisers who paid for do follow links!

I switched off the 'no follow' option in AdminCP > System > Settings > Posting > "Links" tab but it hasn't made any difference to the existing links, which are still showing as no follow.

Is there a way for me to make all existing links do follow without having to edit every single article with a link in it?

I should also mention that there are still background rebuilds running from when I upgraded a few days ago, so I'm wondering if when the articles are reindexed perhaps this issue will be corrected? 

[bfarber]

If those articles were already rebuilt to include the nofollow, they won't be rebuilt again to remove it (i.e. the rebuilding related to those articles must already have completed).

Unfortunately, your only option would be to edit each article.

[Steve Bullman]

If I allow this option for a user who has 10,000 posts on the forum, would 10,000 signature links pointing back to their site be considered spammy by google?