Adding NoFollow to Any Links Generated by WordPress

Update: Excessive use of “nofollow” attribute is not recommended. Instead of using “nofollow”, it would be better to delete the links you don’t want to have them to rank high.

This is a follow up article to my most recent writing about Managing Your PageRank Flows. In the article I wrote about blocking PR leaks by nofollowing links to pages which aren’t vital getting a high ranking on search engines.

The pages to be considered, where and how you can nofollow the links are as follows. Basically you need to find a code which says a href and then add rel=”nofollow” between the “a” and “href”:

• the links to your own homepage – usually they can be found in the header.php or footer.php and embedded in a code looks like this:

<a class="on" href="<?php echo get_option('home'); ?>/" rel="nofollow">Make Money Blogging</a>

All you need to do is adding rel=”nofollow” like the above to block the link.

• your feed links – find any codes that says links to your feed and add rel=”nofollow” in similar manner as above.
• your date archive links – you can either delete the links if most of your blog’s content is not time based, or follow the instructions using a plugin below.
• page navigation links – usually shows up in your index.php file, look for the phrase “Previous Entry” or “Next Entry” or anything depends on your theme. Add a rel=”nofollow” between “a” and “href” within the code.
• links to enlarged pictures – same as above, add the rel=”nofollow” to the linking code.
• commentator names – this is by default nofollowed

To add nofollow to links beyond this point requires modifications to your original WordPress script. Please back up your WordPress files before comitting the mods since I can not be held responsible for any errors that may occur. There’s also a WordPress plugin that allows you to do nothing at all to WordPress files, but it requires a little bit more coding knowledge, though. I’ll ahow you right after this section.

Find the functions within the following files and add rel=”nofollow” between every “a” and “href” inside the function:

• wp_generate_tag_cloud, get_the_category_list, get_the_term_list within the file /wp-includes/category-template.php – this will add nofollow to tag cloud and category links.

• edit_post_link within link-template.php – this will add nofollow to “Edit this post” link if you’re logged in as your blog’s admin.

• the_author_posts_link within wp-includes/author-template.php – this will add nofollow to author links. An easier method is available if your blog only has one author is to delete all the links referring to the author’s page.

• comments_popup_link within wp-includes/comment-template.php – this will add nofollow to links within the comment section.

Now, I’ll show you the plugin Stephan Miller told me which enables you to add nofollow without having to touch the WordPress original files at all. First, please download the Add Link Attribute plugin and activate it. According to the instruction, you need to replace the function calling the linking codes within your blog’s theme with the plugin’s own function.

For example, I’ve done nofollowing my pages link using the plugin. What I did was, I looked for the codes to display the pages links on my header. I found them inside header.php. It originally looked like this:

<?php wp_list_pages('title_li='); ?>

Then, I replaced the codes with the plugin’s function:

<?php add_link_attr('wp_list_pages', 'title_li=', 'rel="nofollow"'); ?>

Now I’ll try to explain what to be included within the code and how it can be applied for other functions.

First, the original code from the function looked like this:

<?php add_link_attr('function', 'arguments', 'attribute', imgtag); ?>

Then, you need to alter the word “function” with the function you want to replace. In my case, it was the function displaying the pages links, which was wp_list_pages. How can I know which functions to replace? Easy. Look for them inside your theme codes.

Therefore, after knowing which fucntion to be replaced, the plugin code will be like

<?php add_link_attr('wp_list_pages', 'arguments', 'attribute', imgtag); ?>

Next, you need to replace the word “arguments” with the value usually accompanying the function you want to replace. The value is written within the brackets after the original function’s name. In my case the function wp_list_pages was originally written wp_list_pages(‘title_li=’). That makes the plugin code appears like

<?php add_link_attr('wp_list_pages', 'title_li=', 'attribute', imgtag); ?>

Not so difficult, isn’t it? Further, the “attribute” word is where you write any attributes you want to add. Since we’re talking about adding nofollows to links, then the “attribute” will be replaced with rel=”nofollow” so it looks like

<?php add_link_attr('wp_list_pages', 'title_li=', 'rel="nofollow"'); ?>

That leaves one more word in the plugin’s function to be replaced, that is imgtag. Since the instructions says:

imgtag

(boolean) Insert attribute(s) into img/image tag (TRUE), or into a/anchor tag (FALSE). Defaults to FALSE.

and we’ve got nothing to do with it, we can leave the value empty. Finally, the final form of the code to add nofollow to pages links will be:

<?php add_link_attr('wp_list_pages', 'title_li=', 'rel="nofollow"'); ?>

For more explanations and examples of this great plugin, please go to the plugin’s homepage.

I guess that’s all and I hope you find the tutorial useful. Drop any of your questions below and I’ll try my best to assist you.