I built PocketSEO.com in WordPress because I haven’t used WordPress regularly since version 1.5 and I wanted to become more familiar with it. (I generally prefer Drupal.)
As I was experimenting with WordPress plugins and themes I noticed that they would often embed outbound links in my blog. I don’t mind a footer link to the developers’ Web sites (I keep my credits on a separate credits page), but I found one WordPress plugin called Gregarious that secretly embedded a hidden sitewide link in my footer:
<!-- leave this for stats --> <a href="http://dev.lipidity.com/feature/wp-plugin-gregarious" style="display:none;visibility:hidden;">Socialized through Gregarious 42</a>
I don’t mind giving links to a WordPress plugin developer, and I assume that most regular widgets have links back to the developers’ sites, but I wasn’t happy about the way that the link was sneakily inserted and hidden with CSS. I removed the plugin and use something else now.
Edit: As I mentioned below in the comments, this hidden link doesn’t appear in the gregarious plugin code. The hidden link may be loaded remotely.
Has anyone else found WordPress plugins that secretly add links to your site?
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5 Comments
I never thought about it. That is pretty sneaky but I don’t see most users really caring if it does not create any issues with their site. I agree that hidden links seem to be a scandalised way to get link backs.
Being I’m not much of a coder can you explain if it does have any lingering effects on your site or is it a principal thing?
Do you mean lingering effects for SEO purposes?
I don’t know what the effects would be, but I don’t like adding external site-wide links when they can be avoided.
Google’s Webmaster Guidelines say:
I don’t think that Google would penalize a site for one hidden link (it could be a hidden div that is activated by JavaScript), but it seems like a bad idea in general to have hidden links on your site.
I agree, I’m going to look into getting rid of Gregarious and look through my other plugins when I get a chance. Thanks for the tip about this Josh.
Vince,
I searched the plugin for a way to remove that hidden link, but the linking code is not even contained in the plugin. It is hidden very well and may even be loaded remotely (i.e., “stats” means that the plugin phones home).
For example, the inserted text, “leave this for stats” is not found anywhere in the plugin files.
Here is a clue about the extent of the hidden links:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Socialized+through+Gregarious%22&num=100
(Over 300,000 results)
I notice that someone asked about this in the comments of the plugin page with no answer. Thanks for the information, you just gave me another pet peeve to keep me worked up