How To Cloak Nofollows on Individual WordPress Articles
It turns out there is a way for bloggers using Wordpress to "nofollow" links in a way that is (as far as I can tell) totally invisible to advertisers and visible only to the Googlebot. Advertisers should make themselves aware of this and learn to monitor whether or not the links the pay for actually pass link juice.
- How to create undetectable cloaked nofollows in Wordpress .
- Why it is almost always a bad idea to do this.
How to cloak nofollows so only the Googlebot sees them.
- Prevent anyone other than Google from loading your site using the Google user agent. The purpose of this step will be to prevent detection. This can be done using BadBehavior or Noobliminal's script to verify spiders.
- Insert a few lines PHP code at the top of your Header.php code. This code a) detects the Google user agent, b) checks if this is the page you want to cloak and c) if both occur, it adds the new Robots Exclusion tag. Here's the code to cloack-nofollow my 'page 3' in a Wordpress blog. $user_agent = $_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"]; if(preg_match("/(google|mediapartners)/i",$userAgent) && is_single('3')){ header("X-Robots-Tag: nofollow"); }
Cloaked nofollows using "X-Robots-Tag: nofollow" is a bad idea.
Now that I've explained how to cloak the nofollows so only Google can see them, let me give a few reasons why it's a verybad idea:- It's unethical: There are legitimate reasons to nofollow links. However, only reasons I can think of to cloak a nofollow tag are either to deceive advertisers who pay you are to gip people you promised link exchanges. If want to "nofollow" every link on page 3 without cloaking, delete this bit in the if statement: "preg_match("/(google|mediapartners)/i",$userAgent) &&". That will nofollow the link for everyone. But if you are a bit evil, you're still tempted, right?
- You will probably make your blog drop out of the SERPS! Why? Well, when you nofollow this way, you no follow every link on a page. This means you will nofollow links you want followed. If you nofollow only one page, this probably isn't an issue. But suppose you begin trying to get clever and nofollow your whole sponsored category? Or every page that contains at least one paid link? Yes, you'll avoid any Google penalty for paid links. But Google will stop following your internal links. Then, unless you are very, very careful, and very very clever, you will soon find your blog dropping out of SERPS for everything. So, massive nofollowing using the "X-Robots-Tag: nofollow" will probably hurt you more than anyone else!
- Cloaking violates Google's guidelines. Now, this might seem like an odd reason. After all, the reason one might wish to nofollow is to obey the guideline of "nofollowing" all paid links. But you don't need to cloak to obey that, right? You can do nofollow publically-- letting everyone including advertisers know what's up. But, if you try to conceal this from the advertisers by cloaking, you violate a second Google guideline. Only Google can catch you, and we don't know what they would do. But, given the negative impact that will come from nofollowing all your internal links, why risk getting an additional penalty for cloaking?
That's how you cloak nofollows... and why you shouldn't!
So, now you know how to cloak a nofollow directive so only Google can see it. But you also know that method nofollows every link on the page and so can screw up Google's ability to crawl your blog. This means if you do it wantonly, you will hurt yourself more than you could ever hurt any advertiser or the person who gave you a reciprocal link hoping for one in return.Tags:blogging cloaked nofollow cloaking google nofollow
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How To Cloak Nofollows on Individual WordPress Articles was posted on September 15, 2007 - Filed Under Blogging Google |Here Are Two Quick Ways to Catch Cloaked Nofollows
Recently, rustybrick at SEO Roundtable mentioned that some publishers are selling links, but then adding cloaked nofollows. That is: The links appear to “follow” and pass page rank to normal visitors, but say “nofollow” to Google.
Clearly, this sort of “nofollow” is lessens the value to advertisers who think they are paying for the both link juice and traffic, but get traffic only.
This type of cloaking is fairly easy to do. But, I want to warn any ninja bloggers out there: it’s also it’s easy to catch! 
How can advertisers detect cloaked no follows?
There are two ways: One is quick, and will often work; the second takes more time, but is more effective.
Here’s how:
- Visit pages using User Agent Switcher and Search Status:
Search Status makes “nofollow” links easy to detect by highlighting them in pink. User Agent Switcher lets switch your “user agent” to “Googlebot” and surf the web seeing it the way the Googlebot does (at least usually.)Used together, you should be able to catch most publishers who cloak to show “nofollows” only to the Googlebot. If you use both, you will usually see all cloaked nofollows will be shown in pink when you set your user agent to Googlebot. They will not be pink when you set your user agent to default.
Unfortunately, this method is not foolproof, because a) Spam plugins like Bad Behavior will notice you aren’t really the Googlebot and refuse to show you the pages. This is an entirely legitimate way for a publisher to protect their page. b) Some “clever” publishers may cloak by detecting IP in addition to user agent. This could foil detection using the User Agent Switcher.
Luckily, you can always rely on method 2:
- Check cached page at Google: Periodically, while the your contract is in place, visit Google and check the cached copy of all pages with paid links. Obviously, if the Googlebot is shown “nofollows”, it will cache a page containing nofollows. So, this method is foolproof.
Will I be writing a cloaking plugin?
I’m tempted to write a cloaking extension to NoOldSpamLinks plugin. It would be great for traffic. But, I’ve decided against it.
I’m all for letting bloggers control their nofollows. I think bloggers should be able to do whatever they prefer with their links within the law and contractual obligation.
But, I’m afraid I can’t bring myself to help bloggers show “follows” to advertisers who pay for them, and “nofollows” to Google. If you want to sell “nofollow” links, negotiate that with the advertiser; then show the nofollows to both the public and Google. If you as a blogger want to cloak to show nofollow to Google, and “follow” to your paying customers, I’m not telling you how to do it!
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Here Are Two Quick Ways to Catch Cloaked Nofollows was posted on September 11, 2007 - Filed Under Blogging Blog Hacks Monetize |Lucia’s Linky Love:
A DoFollow Plugin to Foil Human Comment Spammers!
A DoFollow Plugin to Foil Human Comment Spammers!
Are you a dofollow blogger? Are you tired of human comment spammers leaving insipid, irrelevant comments just to get link-juice? Lucia’s Linky Love is the dofollow plugin for you!
What does the plugin actually do?
This is a variety of “dofollow” plugin. It’s main function is to strip “nofollow” tags from links in comments. The purpose is to encourage comments by rewarding commenters with “dofollow” links which boosts their rank in search engine. However, this particular plugin also has features that thwart human’s who are paid to visit blogs and leave insipid comments simply to boost their companies back links.
Here are the features:
- Encourages good comments: Dofollows are added to the author “name” and links in comment text after a commenter leaves some minimum number of comments. The blogger can set this minimum number to anything between 3 and 10. This encourages regular visitors to comment, but discourages spammers by forcing them to visit your blog many times before they get “dofollows”.
- Encourages links. Dofollows are added to trackbacks and pingbacks only after the blog author has left some minimum number of comments, trackbacks or pingbacks. This discourages scrapper sites from sending you spammy trackbacks but rewards real bloggers for linking you.
- Gives peace of mind. Dofollows will not be added to comments left more than 14 days after you published your most recent post. This is a safety feature that prevents your blog from becoming a link farm should you ever be unexpectedly absent from your blog due to illness or any other major life event.
- Thwarts overly aggressive SEO types. The blogger may refuse “dofollows” to “names” that contain too many characters. This can be used to avoid giving “dofollows” to commenters who claim their name is “cashmere dog sweater”.
- Gives you more control over dofollow / nofollow options. As is always the case, the blogger can also delete the comment, report the comment to Akismet or delete the name or url. That’s good for truly spammy comments. But with Lucia’s Linky Love, you get another, less drastic, option. You manually prevent “dofollow” but still show the comment url and name by deleting the user email address when editing the comment. This lets you permit borderline visitors continue to comment, but deprive them of “dofollows” until they behave the way you like visitors to behave.
Get Lucia’s Linky Love Plugin.
- Install the plugin: Download Lucia’s Linky Love. Unzip, upload into your plugin folder; activate.
- Find the Admin Panel: Visit your Wordpress Admin panel find “Options” click. Click “Lucia_LinkyLove” in the menu sub-bar. The admin panel will open.
- Customize: In the top box, enter the number of comments you want visitors to leave before the “author name” associated with their comment becomes “dofollow” in the top box. In the second box, ener the number of comments you want visitors to leave before the comments they drop in the content become “dofollow”. In the third box, enter the maxmum number of characters in a “name” you are willing to dofollow. Finally, decide if you want me to drop links in your blog.
- Click Submit. Lucia’s Linky Love is now working!
Now for the big question:
Should you drop me links?
I bet you are trying to decide if you should give me links? Well, the links have several purposes. One is to get me zillions of links and propel me into the top ranks of money making bloggers. The more important reason is to inform valued commenters and spammers you are participating in Dofollow using my plugin rather than other plugins. My plugin makes it more difficult for human comment spammers to spam and it may discourage them from visiting your blog.
Currently, the plugin places a link just after single post; the text says
“Comments protected by Lucia’s Linky Love.” Technically, this text appears outside the area where programs like PPP forbid links. However, to avoid the possibility that PayPerPost will ding you for links, you can limit display these informational links to older posts only be selecting: “Yes, but only on old posts”; older is defined as more than 180 days old. You can also exclude these links entirely.
What do I suggest you do? I think it’s useful to inform visitors about the plugin. So, I would suggest you select “yes” and display my links for a little while. Later, when you have time, create a “comment policy” page where you describe your comment policy; instead of showing my links, link to that. On that page, describe your policy and mention “Lucia’s Linky Love”, posting the url of my plugin page. That will give me one link instead of zillions and also inform spammers and valued visitors of your comment policy.
Summary
Download Lucia’s Linky Love. Use it. Tell people about it.
Finally, leave me comments and trackbacks and let me know how Lucia’s LinkyLove works for you. And remember: I use this plugin. So, if you leave several comments, you’ll be dofollowed too!
Tags:buy comments comment spam irrelevant comments linky love nofollow plugins spammers
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Lucia’s Linky Love: A DoFollow Plugin to Foil Human Comment Spammers! was posted on July 25, 2007 - Filed Under My Plugins Lucia'sLinkyLove DoFollow Spam Blogging WordPress |older posts »
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