There are several ways to instruct Google to stay away from various pages in your site:
..and so on. These directives all function in different ways, but they all serve the same basic purpose: control how Google crawls the various pages on your site. For example, you can use meta noindex to instruct Google not to index your sitemap, RSS feed, or any other page you wish. This level of control over which pages are crawled and indexed is helpful, but what if you need to control how Google crawls the contents of a specific page? Easy. Google enables us to do this with a set of googleon/googleoff tags.
Continue Reading
![[ Dynamic Flow ]](http://perishablepress.com/press/wp-content/images/2009/misc-chunks/dynamic-linkage.jpg)
In my recent guest post at The Nexus, I discuss Google’s new nofollow policy and suggest several ways to deal with it. In that article, I explain how Google allegedly has changed the way it deals with nofollow links. Instead of transferring leftover nofollow juice to remaining dofollow links as they always have, Google now pours all that wonderful nofollow juice right down the drain. This shift in policy comes as a terrible surprise to many webmasters and SEO gurus, especially those who have invested vast amounts of time, effort and money engaging in supposedly lucrative PR-sculpting pursuits.
Of course, this new policy leaves many of us wondering how to deal with it. If (and it remains a big “if” until Google clarifies their position) — if nofollow link equity simply vanishes into the ether, the repercussions may be significant. For example, webmasters who now rely on nofollow to salvage link juice otherwise leaked through lengthy comment threads will need to devise another strategy or suffer an inevitable loss of valuable PageRank. There are many good strategies available, including everything from long-term reorganization of site structure to short-term fixes involving much-despised tricks such as iframes and JavaScript links. Personally, I wouldn’t touch iframes with a ten-foot pole, but in the case of an emergency, I certainly would take a look at using external JavaScript to get the job done.
Continue Reading
One way to prevent Google from crawling certain pages is to use <meta> elements in the <head> section of your web documents. For example, if I want to prevent Google from indexing and archiving a certain page, I would add the following code to the head of my document:
<meta name="googlebot" content="noindex,noarchive" />
I’m no SEO guru, but it is my general understanding that it is possible to manipulate the flow of page rank throughout a site through strategic implementation of <meta> directives.
Continue Reading
Before you comment here at Perishable Press, please take a moment to review the official comment policy. Here is a simplified overview of the complete policy:
Comments are open to everyone. Name and email are required. Email kept private, never shared. Website URL optional. The form accepts basic XHTML. Line and paragraph breaks automatic. Please wrap each segment or line of code in <code> tags (no <pre> tags). I reserve the right to edit/delete any comment. Spam will be deleted. Pointless and otherwise lame comments may be deleted. Please stay on topic and comment intelligently.
Official Comment Policy
First, everyone has something to say, including people who disagree with your opinion. One of the purposes of this site is to provide an open forum where everyone is entitled to express their ideas. The goal is to encourage new ways of thinking by listening to the thoughts of others. If your goal is merely to argue and rant about some particular issue, please unload yourself somewhere else. If, on the other hand, you are genuinely interested in exploring the topic at hand with openness and honesty, then by all means, get involved. We are all looking forward to hearing your opinions and learning from your ideas.
As for the fine print, there are a few additional points, encompassing several technical and administrative aspects of the commenting process. First of all, use your real name or nickname, not a site name or business name. Using a site name or business name is a good way to get your link or comment removed. Technically, commentators must provide a valid email address. All email addresses will be kept completely private and never will be shared with anyone. Each comment author may provide an optional website link, which will be served with the author’s name. If you do not provide a website link, your author name will be displayed in text only. When leaving a comment, basic XHTML (e.g., <em>, <strong>, <a>, etc.) may be used to format the text. Line breaks and paragraph tags are automatic. Please wrap code examples in <code> tags. Also, please note that certain comments are moderated; if your comment does not appear after several days, or if you wish to comment privately, contact me.
Continue Reading
Want to make sure that your feeds are not indexed by Google and other compliant search engines? Add the following code to the channel element of your XML-based (RSS, etc.) feeds:
<xhtml:meta xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" name="robots" content="noindex" />
Here is an example of how I use this tag for Perishable Press feeds (vertical spacing added for emphasis):
Continue Reading
Okay, I know what you’re thinking: “Oh great, not another article about WordPress nofollow!!” Well, if that sounds like you, I have good news! This is the last post (at least for awhile, anyway) concerning all things nofollow, dofollow, and even no-nofollow, for that matter. In fact, this post isn’t even about nofollow! It’s simply a summary of the articles I have written involving nofollow-related topics. The articles fit together so well, one might suppose they were planned deliberately as a bona fide series. Hmmm.. I’ll leave it up to you to decide:
The Perishable Press no-nofollow/dofollow Article Series
- Death to Nofollow — when I first saw the light.
- Repenting of My Nofollow Sins — after a long, cold trip to the dark side.
- Comprehensive Reference for Dofollow Plugins — no more excuses for nofollowing links.
- The One-Minute Dofollow WordPress Upgrade — see how easy it is to upgrade your site.
- The Deluxe One-Minute Dofollow Upgrade — selectively remove nofollow attributes.
- Inustrial Strength WordPress Dofollow Upgrade — “wipe them out.. — all of them.”
- Nofollow Blacklist for Commentator Links — gain power over spam scum.
- WordPress Nofollow-Blacklist Plugins — nofollow blacklisting the easy way.
- Dofollow Whitelist for Commentator Links — reward your favorites with some dofollow love.
- The Ultimate Nofollow Blacklist — “this blacklist is now the ultimate power in the universe!”
- Much Ado About Nofollow: The Perishable Press Dofollow Series — one post to list them all!
..and with that, we now return to our regularly scheduled programming ;)
![[ Image: Death-metal rocker drunk with power ]](http://perishablepress.com/press/wp-content/images/2007/misc-chunks/ultimate-nofollow-blacklist.gif "Behold the power of ultimate blacklist!")
Several days ago, I posted an article explaining how to hack your own WordPress nofollow blacklist. Immediately thereafter, I published an elaborate article focusing on automatic methods of nofollow blacklisting via WordPress plugins. In this article, I expand on the original blacklist hack by incorporating functional differentiation between commentator links, trackbacks, and pingbacks. If anything, think of this as an exercise in hacking WordPress, rewarding in and of itself, if not otherwise entirely impractical. Of course, whenever possible, you should avoid hacking the WordPress core and install a plugin instead. ;) Nonetheless, it’s so much fun to hack that we simply could not resist posting just one more article involving nofollow attributes. But alas, we really should be moving along..
Continue Reading
![[ Image: Inverted Eye Detail ]](http://perishablepress.com/press/wp-content/images/2007/misc-chunks/dofollow-whitelist.jpg)
Before repenting of my filthy “nofollow” addiction, I experimented briefly with a “dofollow whitelist” for commentator URL links. The idea behind the whitelist is to reward frequent commentators, feed subscribers, site patrons, and other guests by selectively removing the automatically generated nofollow attributes from their associated comment-author links. For nofollow enthusiasts, a dofollow whitelist is a great way to show appreciation for people who support your blogging efforts.
Now, before we go hacking away at WordPress, keep in mind that there are a few potential shortcomings to this method. First of all, manually maintaining such a list would eventually fail. It simply would require too much work. Perhaps as an automated WordPress plugin, a dofollow whitelist would be a reasonable solution. A dofollow whitelist plugin would also eliminate the need to hack the WordPress core, which the following hack definitely requires. Other issues involve duplicate author names and user verification. Nonetheless, even as an elementary WordPress hack, a dofollow whitelist for comment signature links may prove useful. Here are a few examples:
Continue Reading
Is that spam or are you just trying to comment?
Removing nofollow attributes from your WordPress-powered site is a great way to encourage comments and attract visitors. Many commentators will leave useful, constructive feedback, but there will always be a few losers who would attempt to game your generous link love. Fortunately, identifying these mindless link whores is relatively easy. Here are a few priceless examples of actual spam (i.e., linked) comments left here at Perishable Press (links removed for obvious reasons):
- Work at Home Start earn $150/day right now. Part time work for everyone. Nationwide opportunity Our adress. Part Time Job
- Hi all! Yo u may find it interesting to visit some helpful info on in . lorazepam index index and very creative : ind-z inde in ciprofloxacin index and else ind diaz index tramad soma. neuro Lip or imitrex-i imitrex i-diflucan claritin-i i and look this map , zoloft zithromax soma index3l sildenafil index1.html inde Regards
- Many forms virus available disease burden especially when baycol inclusion. Legal and new corona beclometasone means to beconase for rate beldin insomnia. With adoption and transfer the experience belladonna counts at bellamine-s lawsuits. Pennsylvania over costs had bactrim after about fixed. Glutamate is to see bactroban loss of balziva material. The calf with lots banan for better defense verdict scale. Bank or greater dependence nurses quit banthine naloxone. Dynamics of dding between barbital is taken disruptive. Plasma protein made such sequential samples barbituric open. Children would cocaine vaccines baros yet those basiliximab skin.
Continue Reading
![[ Image: Extreme close-up of an eye (send email to purchase a full-size version) ]](http://perishablepress.com/press/wp-content/images/2007/misc-chunks/nofollow-blacklist.jpg)
Previously, in our unofficial “WordPress dofollow upgrade” series, we dished several techniques for removing the antisocial nofollow attributes from default installations of WordPress. After an exhaustive review of available dofollow plugins, we explained how drop-dead easy it is to transform any WordPress blog into a well-standing member of the dofollow community without relying on a plugin to do the job. Our next article detailed a nofollow removal hack selectively targeting pingbacks, trackbacks, and commentator links. Then, we went off the deep end with a robust, threefold hack for sitewide nofollow extermination. Now, in this article, we merge several of these methods to implement a “nofollow blacklist” for trackback, pingback, and commentator links.
Why would you want to create a nofollow blacklist? There are several scenarios in which such a strategy would benefit a dofollow-friendly WordPress site. After upgrading to dofollow status, you should experience an increase in the number of comments left at your site. Although this is generally beneficial, there remain those gutless worms who would seek to game your generous link-love with hollow remarks, empty chatter, and other useless nonsense. Rather than waste pagerank and make a big stink, quietly blacklist offenders until they change their mindless ways. Simply put, a nofollow blacklist protects your dofollow site while reinforcing positive comments.
Continue Reading
Encourage Comments by Completely Eliminating All Nofollow Links
Want to remove all traces of the hideous nofollow attribute without having to install yet another unnecessary plugin? By default, WordPress generates nofollow links in three different ways — this article will show you how to eliminate all of them..
Some context please..
Note: if you are already familiar with the various functions involved in the nofollow-removal process, please feel free to skip the proceeding discussion and jump directly to the tutorial.
WordPress adds nofollow to all trackbacks, pingbacks, and commentator links
We have seen how simple it is to eradicate nofollow from comment-related content, which includes the three different types of $author URLs: trackbacks, pingbacks, and commentator links. In fact, WordPress generates hyperlinks for each of these comment-author URLs via the function get_comment_author_link(), which is conveniently located in the file wp-includes/comment-functions.php in WordPress 2.0 and wp-includes/comment-template.php in WordPress 2.1 and 2.2:
Continue Reading
After our previous article, we all know how easy it is to kill the default nofollow attributes that WordPress automatically injects into all commentator, trackback, and pingback links. Indeed, our original one-minute upgrade delivers dofollow links across the board, effectively passing the love juice to every type of response. Fine for some, but some need more..
In this article, we improve the original dofollow upgrade by differentiating between the three different response types. With our “deluxe” model, nofollow attributes may be removed selectively from trackbacks, pingbacks, commentator links, or any combination thereof. For example, you may remove nofollow from commentator links while dishing full juice to trackbacks and pingbacks.
Ready? Let’s do this thing..
Continue Reading
Want to upgrade your blog to official dofollow status but don’t want to install another unnecessary plugin? This article explains how to eliminate nofollow tags from all trackback, pingback, and commentator links in less than one minute..
After finally repenting of my nofollow sins, I began looking for the best way to eliminate the nofollow attributes that WordPress automatically injects into all commentator URL links.
Of course, the most popular technique for removing nofollow attributes from comment links involves one of the many fine dofollow plugins that are freely available to WordPress users. Beyond nofollow removal, many of these plugins also provide additional features, such as control over when and where nofollow tags should be removed. Many of these plugins are highly recommended.
After considering the various dofollow plugins, I came to the conclusion that most of them were simply overkill. My goal was to remove all nofollow attributes from commentator links — nothing more, nothing less. For this site, I just don’t need all the fancy bells and whistles. And I certainly don’t need yet another resource-draining plugin to worry about..
Continue Reading
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. As of the writing of this post, I have evaluated 12 15 dofollow plugins, all of which are freely available on the Internet.
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!
Continue Reading
Hello, my name is Jeff and I am nofollow addict.
When I first began Perishable Press two years ago, in August of 2005, WordPress quickly became my blogging platform of choice. Everything about WordPress was great, so I had no trouble overlooking a few seemingly insignificant quirks, such as the nofollow attributes that are automatically applied to all comment links. In fact, at first, I really had no idea what they were or how they affected my site.
Eventually, as I began delving deeper into the Blogosphere, I realized that those harmless-looking nofollow tags were considered by many to be detrimental to the livelihood of the blogging community and its way of life. The arguments against nofollow and the reasoning behind the “no nofollow” movement resonated well with my sense of social equity on the Internet.
The more I looked into the nofollow issue, the more opposed I became to the idea of default WordPress installations generating nofollow links by default. In fact, after arming myself with as much information as possible, I made haste to jump on the anti-nofollow bandwagon and publicly regurgitated the arguments against the implementation of nofollow links.
Continue Reading
If you have yet to encounter the content-scraping site, bitacle.org, consider yourself lucky. The scum-sucking worm-holes at bitacle.org are well-known for literally, blatantly, and piggishly stealing blog content and using it for financial gains through advertising. While I am not here to discuss the legal, philosophical, or technical ramifications of illegal bitacle behavior, I am here to provide a few critical tools that will help stop bitacle from stealing your content.
The htaccess Finger
Perhaps the most straightforward and effective method for keeping the bitacle thieves away from your site, adding the following htaccess rules to your root htaccess file will literally block bitacle’s IP address and return a 403 Forbidden message (for more information on htaccess files, see our article, Stupid htaccess Tricks, referenced below). Add this to your site’s root htaccess file:
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} ^212\.22\.59\.251$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Bitacle
RewriteRule .? - [F]
The robots.txt Slap
Next up, another effective anti-bitacle method that instructs the bitacle bots to stay away from your site. This method uses a robots.txt file in your site’s root directory and literally denies bitacle agents crawl-access to all site contents. Simply add the following lines to your site’s root robots.txt file (for more information on robots.txt, see our article, Robots Notes Plus, referenced below):
User-agent: Bitacle bot/1.1
Disallow: /
User-agent: Bitacle bot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Bitacle *
Disallow: /
User-agent: Bitacle*
Disallow: /
User-agent: Bitacle
Disallow: /
Related WordPress Plugins
For more help on the anti-plagiarism front, check out Redalt’s Antileech Plugin and MaxPower’s Digital Fingerprint Plugin. These fine WordPress plugins come highly recommended and are definitely worth checking out.
Other Essential Tools
Beyond the essential preventative methods discussed above, there are many other resources and tools now available for dealing with site scrapers, content thieves, and other worthless garbage. A worthwhile website is Copyscape, which provides an excellent tool that enables users to search the web for stolen content. If you find that your content has indeed been plagiarized, read up on how to respond properly and effectively. Finally, try searching for various search terms, such as "plagiarism tools", "content scraping", "copyright protection", "syndication theft", etc. Good Luck!
References & Resources
Perishable Press vehemently opposes The great corporate/commercial campaign to implement the rel="nofollow" anchor. The proposal suggests that use of nofollow will reduce spam and improve search engine results.
This couldn’t be further from the truth, regardless of what the commercial giant$ may tell you.
Examine these helpful references and see for yourself: