Changing Links to Spans with Robots.txt Blocked Redirects using Linkify/jQuery

[STDCarriers]

Hi,

I was recently penalized most likely because Google started following javascript links to bad neighborhoods that were not no-followed. The first thing I did was remove the Linkify plugin from my site so that all those links would disappear, but now I think I have a solution that works with Linkify without creating crawlable links. I did the following:

1. I blocked access to the Linkify scripts using robots.txt so that Google won't execute the scripts that create the links. This has worked for me in the past with banner ads linking to other sites of mine. At least it appears to work because those sites did not get links from pages running those banners in search console.

2. I created a /redirect/ directory that redirects all offsite URLs. I put a robots.txt block on this directory.

3. I configured the Linkify plugin to parse URLs into span elements instead of a elements and add no follow attributes. They still have an href attribute, but the URLs in the href now point to the redirect directory and the span onclick event redirects the user.

I have implemented this solution on another site of mine and I am hoping this will make it impossible for Google to categorize my pages as liking to any neighborhoods good or bad. Most of the content is UGC, so this should discourage link spam while giving users clickable URLs and still letting people post complaints about people that have profiles on adult websites. Here is a page where the solution has been implemented https://cyberbullyingreport.com/bully/predators-watch-owner-scott-breitenstein-of-dayton-ohio-5463.aspx, the Linkify plugin can be found at https://soapbox.github.io/linkifyjs/, and the custom  jQuery is as follows:

jQuery(document).ready(function ($) {
    2
    $('p').linkify({
        tagName: 'span',
        attributes: {
            rel: 'nofollow'
        },
        formatHref: function (href) {
            href = 'https://cyberbullyingreport.com/redirect/?url=' + href;
            return href;
        },
        events:{
            click: function (e) {
                var href = $(this).attr('href');
                window.location.href = href;
            }
        }
    });
    3
});

[BlueprintMarketing]

301 or 302 redirecting well if you’re going to do one you should do 302 but it’s not going to help you much unless you’re going to send the URL to a 410 when something is no followed it is the same thing as what robots.txt will do.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/forum/AAAA2Jdx3sUEbHp0yjgT6c?hl=sv

do you have a report from Google knowing that you have been penalized?

is there anyway you could run Screaming Frog and show some of these URLs that you’re talking about?

respectfully,

Tom

[STDCarriers]

I know I was penalized because search console recorded an overnight drop in impressions/clicks of 75%. Never was a problem before. I didn't need to run Screaming Frog or anything to find links that explain the problem. I just browsed some of the user generated content and then once I realized that Google was crawling javascript generated links it all made sense.

Some of the sites people were liking to included: CheaterLand.com, PredatorsWatch.com, DirtyHomeWreckers.com, EscortBabylon.net, SugarDaddyforMe.com, GFEMonkey.com, EscortBabylon.com, CityXGuide.com, and AdultLook.com.

I think as long as Google respects the robots.txt directives I should be just fine. The redirect page itself is blocked by robots.txt so even if Google finds one of those URLs (ex: https://cyberbullyingreport.com/redirect/?url=https://moz.com/community/q/changing-links-to-spans-with-robots-txt-blocked-redirects-using-linkify-jquery) it shouldn't even follow the 302 since the robots.txt file (https://cyberbullyingreport.com/robots.txt) disallows that directory.