As WordPress experts with years of hands-on experience managing high-traffic sites, we've seen how the default nofollow attribute on comment links impacts engagement. A reader recently asked if it's possible to remove it. In this guide, we'll walk you through the process, weigh the benefits and risks, and share why we advise caution.
In 2005, Google introduced the rel="nofollow" attribute for links. It tells search engines that you don't endorse the linked content, preventing it from passing SEO value.
<a href="#" rel="nofollow">Example link</a>
Early on, spammers flooded blogs with comments to build backlinks and manipulate SEO rankings. NoFollow was introduced to reduce this abuse by stripping link juice from comment URLs.
WordPress adopted it site-wide for comments, deterring bots driven purely by SEO gains.
Is It Good or Bad?
For site owners, it provides peace of mind—even if spam slips through moderation, it won't harm your SEO. However, nofollow didn't eradicate spam; persistent bots kept coming. Meanwhile, genuine commenters sometimes felt demotivated, knowing their links offered no value.
Some owners remove it to boost participation. Dofollow links can indeed spur more comments, but they also invite a spam surge.
Each comment triggers PHP processing on your server, potentially slowing your site if your hosting can't scale. Tools like Akismet handle bot spam well, but dofollow attracts low-quality human comments, eating into your moderation time.
Our recommendation, based on managing dozens of sites: keep nofollow enabled. We even suggest adding it to unendorsed external links in posts (see how to add nofollow to WordPress link popups).
That said, if you insist, here's a safe method using a plugin.
Subscribe to our WPBeginner YouTube channel for the video demo.
If you prefer text instructions, keep reading below.
Install and activate the Remove Nofollow plugin. Then, go to Settings » Remove Nofollow to tweak options.
This plugin lets you strip nofollow from all comment links or just the author's URL—or both. Select your preference and click Update Options.
Test by inspecting a comment link with your browser's developer tools.
We hope this helped. For more, check our 12 essential tips to fight WordPress comment spam.
Liked this? Subscribe to our YouTube channel, follow us on Twitter and Facebook for WordPress tips.
