NuHIT URLs: Add rel=nofollow and control where links are opened
 

/*================================================= =====================*\
|| NuHIT URLs: Add rel=nofollow and control where links are opened
|| ================================================== =====
|| Brought to you by:
|| nuHIT.com
|| Professional add-ons for vBulletin
\*================================================ ======================*/


Description

This small mod let's you control how URLs should be processed in your forum.

Adding rel="nofollow" to links in your forum will help improve your sites overall pagerank by reducing pagerank leak due to link to external sites added by your members.

This mod lets you do this for all URLs posted by your members.

In addition, you can control whether URLs should open in a new window, or should open in the same window the user is on.

Installation

• Download and extract .zip
• Upload product xml ( Admin CP > Plugins & Products > Manage Products > Import Product )
• Configure your internal domains from vBulletin Options > NuHIT URL Settings
• Click Mark as Installed, and you get this cool image for your signature :D

Features

• No vBulletin core files modified.
• No new files to add.
• Add rel=nofollow only to external links.
• Allow internal URLs to open in current window.
• Support multiple domains for internal URLs (e.g. forums.vbulletin.org,wiki.vbulletin.org)
• Easy to use and manage from vBulletin's Admin CP

FAQ

Are there any vBulletin core files modified?
No. NuHIT URLs uses vBulletin hooks to extend vBulletin's BBCode parser.

Hasn't this being implemented before?
I have seen posts where you need to modify files, or are limited in functionality. I may be mistaken.. :rolleyes:

Will this change my existing posts?
To rebuild the links in your existing posts, you need to go to AdminCP > Maintenance > Update Counters > Rebuild Post Cache.

This is from vBulletin's documentation:

You are totally mistaken on the file edits part.

Mine (the original you sarcastically refer to) has been a plugin since about a week after it was released.

*edit* Grats on the internal domains part. How much extra overhead does that add?

I've never really caught on to what the whole parse the url is for and when why to use it. I'll wait for some more comments lol. Or if you could explain a bit more about it.

Thanks
Reserved until I learn a bit more

Great stuff Elfmage. I'm sure alot of non-vbseo users will enjoy the added feature :)

Also a neat feature

Awesome! Just what I was looking for! Thank you. :)

Well, I did say that I could be mistaken... :rolleyes: The 'totally' was added by you :D

I actually referred to some posts that programmers make from time time with instructions on changing class_bbcode.php.

I just saw your mod linked in the 'Similar Threads'. If it is the one listed here: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=93780, it seems to require editing class_bbcode.php. Again, I may be partially mistaken... :D I'll check it out later.

Thanks. Not much overhead added, it uses the same logic as the rel=nofollow. The extra overhead is just a call to strpos for each URL that gets parsed (this usually happens only after a thread or post is added or edited, since vBulletin caches the parsed HTML).

There may be some good reasons for using "nofollow". "PageRank leak" is NOT one of them. In fact, "PageRank leak" doesn't exist. It is a myth, a very persistent myth despite the fact that it was long ago and repeatedly debunked.

Hi djbaxter, you may know about this more than I do... :cool:

I have read many articles and debates about Pagerank leak. Some say it doesn't exist, others swear by it.

It is a documented fact that incoming links will boost your pagerank. The reverse, pagerank leak due to outbound links, has been speculated ad nauseam, and no proof has been established on either side.

Again, that's my understanding. The initial purpose of rel=nofollow was to fight spamdexing.

Let's say that pagerank leak doesn't exist, and search engines ignore this entirely, you don't loose anything adding the rel=nofollow to your external links. On the other hand, if rel=nofollow does in fact help boost your pagerank, you may lose significant traffic due to having a pagerank "lower than your site deserves".

On one hand, if wrong, you don't lose anything, on the other, if right, you gain a lot. I think it is an easy choice.

Actually, there's an abundance of evidence that it's a myth and no evidence whatsoever that it exists. The value of any one of your outgoing links is a function of the PageRank of that page divided by the number of outgoing links. That means that the more outgpoing links you have, the less PR value each of the recipients gets from their single link.

But the original page containing all those outgoing links loses nothing. It will still retain the same PageRank it always had. PageRank is a measure of INCOMING links - links pointing to that page - NOT outgoing links.

I think that the evidence you mention is nothing more than what is documented on how pagerank works for incoming links, which is described in the Wikipedia link I included above.

It is not evidence that pagerank leak does not exist.

Again, this is a simple mod that was requested by some of our members because NuWiki was doing this for wiki articles that were not created.

The name of the game is choice. You can download and install this mod, or you can choose not to install it.

Even if you choose not to install it, please click the 'Mark as Installed' above. It will increase my vBulletin.org Pagerank.. :D

My comments are NOT a criticism of your add-on. There arf some reasons for or circumstances where using nofollow is a good strategy.

But if you understand what PageRank is, and how it is calculated, you'll also understand that PR leak is as mythical as the unicorn.

That was my sole point. Congratulations to you for creating this add-on. My only concern is that it not be marketed as an antidote for unicorns.

:D, nah. I welcome debate, feedback and criticism.

Thanks. I wrote this add-on per the request of some members.

Besides the rel=nofollow, I always find it annoying that vBulletin opens all links in a new page. Over at nuhit.com we have multiple packages running: Joomla (although I may drop this soon), vBulletin, Wiki, etc. And whenever there was a link from a forum post to the other parts, it always opened on a new page.

after installing and setting up, my internal pages still open in a new window. Not a vbulletin page, but still part of domain

Are these new posts or previously existing posts? If the latter, please read the FAQ on how to re-parse existing posts.

thanks sir....

i install it...

and when i see view source of my page ...i did not see rel=nofollow beside the link ??

I just rebuilt the post cache and nothing changed

not even for new posts

sory, I had forgotten to reenable the plugin how ever rebuilding the post gave me

Fatal error: Using $this when not in object context in /var/www/forums/includes/class_bbcode.php(2339) : eval()'d code on line 37

An enjoyable mini-debate to read to be sure. After reading it, it's clear to me a disclaimer should be added to the initial posting.

**Warning - This modification, either by way of direct use or osmosis acts in any manner as to allow the individual user(s) protection from or as an antidote to Unicorns.**

:D

Oops .. :rolleyes:. There was a bug with long URLs. Redownload and import. Let me know if there are any issues. Thanks.

:D I'll add it later.

Hi, did you enter your internal domains in the Admin CP > vBulletin Options > NuHIT URL Settings?

Also, are you testing with new posts, or with existing posts. Read the FAQ on existing posts.

Thanks.

That fixed everything. Thanks. I've always wanted to open internal URL in same browser. Nice work!

Thanks. Glad to hear it worked.

Guys,

In the universe of pages the page-rank average is a constant: 1, 100 or K....
Incoming links increase your page-rank and all agree... but since average of all page-ranks is a constant, clearly outgoing links will decrease your page-rank.

That may be true in theory. However, in the real world:

1. how many billions upon billions of pages and links go into that universe of pages?

2. how much influence is 1 link, 100 links, 1000 links, or even 10,000 links going to have on that average?

3. can you point me to a single page, just one, anywhere, where you can discern even a miniscule negative effect of outgoing links?

Hint: The answer to question 3 is "No", just to save you the trouble.

As I said, PR bleed/leakage is a myth. Period.

nofollow was a Google creation from early 2005 that was supported by both MSN and Yahoo. It was designed to stop the search bots from following links that weren?t necessarily endorsed by the owner of the site it was on. It had a mixed welcome, but was incorporated by many of the major players in blogging. Google implies this is a link spamming issue mostly relevant to blogs. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/...ment-spam.html

Whether or not having lots of outgoing links to sites with unrelated subject matter is a factor in search results is unknown (for years I have heard links to sites with unrelated subject matter was 'bad'), but from reading around a bit most sites are abandoning the tag. Then again, Wikipedia now uses the rel="nofollow" tags on all outgoing links.

We all have our own SEO theories, but since none of us know the actual algorithms used, no matter what we do we're guessing.

Personally I don't use the tag, but that's just my position.

The rel="nofollow" tag was designed to reduce link spamming, especially blog comment spamming.

It really hasn't been successful in achieving that goal. It never had "reducing PR leak" as a goal because "PR leak" doesn't exist.

I don't have to know the details of Google's algorithms to know that it's a myth. Neither does anyone else.

But all of this is off-topic. My intent was not to initiate a multi-page debate but just to alert the author to the error in the claim he was making for a mod that otherwise may be useful for many forum owners.

Installed but it's not working for me. What should I enter in Internal Domains? Which format is right?
http://www.vbulletin.com
www.vbulletin.com
www.vbulletin.com/
vbulletin.com

I would recommend:
This way all the others are matched as well.

Did you test this in a new post, or in an existing post?

I have set settings to vbulletin.com - format. It's not working at new posts. I even had rebuild posts cache. I have vbulletin 3.6.4. What should I do?

Solved problem. I deinstalled another product "Amazon Affiliate URL" which interferes with this product.

Interesting.

Glad you figured it out.

I'll take a look at that product, to see the source of the conflict.

Thanks.

there is alot of speculation whether linking to penalized sites could hurt you

I dont know why you think linking to bad sites being a bad thing is a myth, what do we really know about googles algorythms?

If I understand it correctly, he was only referring to Google's Page Rank, not to linking in general.

Doesn't seem to work with my board on 3.6.7.

It's working just fine on 3.6.7..

Well, looking at it it adds the rel="nofollow".

With the external urls it's opening it in the same window when I have it set to open in a new window. Internal urls seem to be working as I have it set to open in the same page, and it's opening in the same window.

So, everything of this hack works for me with the excetion of opening the external urls in a new window.

Actually, scratch that. One of my FireFox plug-ins is conflicting with it. It works in IE, and when I have Tab Mix Plus disabled in FireFox. So, it works, thanks.