Who is placing pieces of code into my site??? Is it MOZ bot??

[KeriMorgret]

Like others have mentioned, it's most likely the Moz toolbar. I have a personal Wordpress site myself, and will sometimes see one of my plugins try to write code to the compose window instead of activate like it should (such as I try to use Easy Gestures, and instead of performing an action, I suddenly get code like that in my post or page).

I've asked our associate Dan Shure to look at this question, as he's one of our experts in Wordpress, and he'll be able to give you some additional insight.

[Ltsmz]

I'm not using the toolbar at all.

I used it a few months ago and uninstalled it back then.

Does that mean I'll keep having that code inside my posts forever? Please take a look at the screenshot.

http://imgur.com/a/wT9kW

Thanks

[Ltsmz]

I'm sorry Lesley, but I'd rather avoid that.

But you can take a look at these screenshots

http://imgur.com/a/wT9kW

[Ltsmz]

Hi,

thanks.

Please take a look at the screenshot.

1. I do not have any moz bar installed.

2. If davidnaylor, seobook and opensiteexplorer are not tracking my website's date, what are those names doing in my website's code?

What's the whole purpose of it? Backlinks? Do they just like it or what?

http://imgur.com/a/wT9kW

Thanks for your help

[Masoko-T]

Hi Fabio

I think Lynn is right.

But do try the following,

1. Use Firefox in safe mode ( see : http://mzl.la/MWQFPn ) this will ensure that any plugins / toolbars / extensions that you MIGHT or MIGHT NOT have installed on your browser are definetely turned off. If you have Chrome, follow these instructions: http://bit.ly/aEniLx
2. Then go to your website and MAKE SURE YOU'RE LOGGED OFF your wordpress backoffice interface.
3. Now look at the source code of your site.

Are the suspicious links gone?

We could probably be able to help you better and a lot faster if you published your URL or at least send it to one of us by PM.

[evolvingSEO]

Hi Fabio

Sorry to hear of your troubles! Dan here, Moz Associate.

What you are seeing is totally normal.

Your screenshot with the source code is an exact match of the links in the WordPress Toolbar (with Yoast SEO installed). Check out the screenshot ----> http://screencast.com/t/rTuVFDihy

There is no question it is the code from Yoast in the WordPress toolbar. If you go to: yoursite/wp-admin/profile.php - you can toggle this WordPress toolbar on and off by clicking "Show toolbar when viewing site".

Look, I get the same code on my site --> http://screencast.com/t/ds75k6wxq - again, you will only see this code IF you are logged in, have the toolbar enabled, and Yoast installed.

Regular users do not see this code, and Google does not see this code. This is 100% normal behavior and nothing to worry about. They are not tracking you, or getting links.

If you prefer to not have the code in your source code when logged in, you can disable the WordPress toolbar.

-Dan

[Ltsmz]

Thanks Dan,

I guess you never stop learning...

But what about the SEOmoz code inside my posts? Did you take a look at them in the screenshots I've attached before?

PS. I've unistalled the moz toolbar more than 3 months ago.

Thanks

[evolvingSEO]

Fabio

No problem! As far as the moz code in your posts, I am not entirely sure to be honest. That is definitely a separate issue from the wordpress toolbar.

Few questions;

• Does that code then end up on your posts and source code? Or is it only showing in the text editor in wordpress?
• If you delete it from the editor, and hit update, does it show back up again?
• Does it always show up, in every new post or page - and if so, at what point, right away?

-Dan

[Ltsmz]

Hi,

1. Yes the code end up both inside my posts and in the source code.

2. If I delete it from the text editor it disappears from the source code too and when I refresh it doesn't show up anymore

3. It shows up every time I add no-follow to a link right next to the nofollow attribute. I'm using the Ultimate Nofollow plugin if that matter.

Thanks

[evolvingSEO]

Hi Fabio

I tried installing the plugin but could not recreate the issue. Few things to try;

1. Try updating the plugin if you have not.
2. Try disabling the plugin and see if the issue still happens.
3. You can also try deleting the plugin entirely and reinstalling.

If none of those work, it is not that plugin. It is either another plugin or your theme. You can follow the above steps with your other plugins as well - update or disable them one by one and see if you can stop the issue.

-Dan

[Ltsmz]

Hi Dan,

thanks for your reply.

So basically are you saying that an external plugin adds "seomoz" pieces of code inside my posts? Why should they do that? What do they get by adding "seomoz" codes inside my posts?

Anyways, I don't think it's the plugin. I've created a new post today and used it to create nofollow links and the seomoz thing didnt appear.

I'm thinking it appeared in the posts I have created while I was using the mozbar a few months ago maybe?

But if that's the case, how can the mozbar put code in my posts?

Could you please explain?

Thank you

[evolvingSEO]

Hi Fabio

I am saying I am not sure how it's getting there. But it's standard diagnostic with WordPress that the first thing you would do to diagnose is to start with plugins and the steps I outlined above. Have you done that?

It could very well not be a plugin, but that's the only way to check.

If you created a post today and the moz links did not appear, then perhaps the issue is gone. I would remove any unwanted code from prior posts and see if it ever comes back. If it does, take note of exactly what you are using for anything "extra" like WordPress plugins or toolbars.

I honestly am not sure how this would put code into your posts without being able to diagnose and/or recreate the error myself. Unfortunately I can not explain that without seeing what happened.

-Dan

[Ltsmz]

Hi Dan, thanks.

Thing is that there are hundreds of those "seomoz" bits inside my posts and it would really take a long time to remove them manually.

Are they harmful in any way? or can I just leave them?

Thank you

[evolvingSEO]

Hi Fabio

They are not harmful and you can leave them.

FYI, there is something called a "find and replace" which you could do in a few ways to remove the unwanted code;

• you can move your HTML text to a text editor like Text Wrangler, do a find and replace and move the HTML back to WordPress.
• you can use something like this plugin http://wordpress.org/plugins/search-and-replace/ which should work well within wordpress.

As noted, it's not harmful, but if you ever did need to remove lots of text at once, that would be the way to do it.

-Dan