When should one use a nofollow link in a blog post? I've always wondered about this.. when linking to other bloggers, I never use nofollow because I want them to get the benefit of the link. I do occasionally use it for certain websites such as Wikipedia. Do any of you use nofollow in your outlinks and when/where do you use it?
nofollow is usually used in comments in order to minimize incentive to spam. It is also sometimes used in posts (I do not use it), since it can cause "leaks" in PR (page rank). However, I usually link to high quality sites, and it does not seem to cause leaks at this time, though it is not clear. Rich
Spammer bots don't care if there is a nofollow attribute or no, they spam the same as far as I know. I do not use nofollow, even in my blog comments. I pre moderate comments if I don't want them, I don't publish them, but if I publish them, I give them a fonctionnal link.
I think the issue is more about manual spammers than about bots. Humans are less likely to post a spam message if there is nofollow. That is why it is the default with most blogging software, e.g. Wordpress. Rich
I wouldn't call spammer people commenting on your blog, if your think theirs comments are good enough to be published. If I think the comment is spam, I just don't put it online. I don't know about WP default settings, but imho, I don't think setting nofollow attribute on comment by default is the best thing they did. I don't like nofollow, I don't use it in my posts neither for the comments