1 Topic by wandy (edited by wandy 2010-10-28 11:05)

  • From: Brasil
  • Registered: 2010-01-17
  • Posts: 68

Topic: URL links do not have rel="nofollow"

When inspecting html from forum posts I noticed links do not have rel="nofollow" attribute in them. This leads to more spamming on any punbb forums as it increases the target websites seo rankings.

Is there anyway to incorporate such an attribute to posted links?


Edit: I also believe a large number of outgoing links from a website reduces its seo rankings as well as the score given to each of these outgoing links in Google page rank.

p.s. it is not possible to moderate all links so a link to a porn site on the forum could damage the ranking of a website. I believe this is quite important. (To the extent that if this can not be fixed I will host my forum on a separate domain to my actual website)

  • Slavok
  • PunBB Developer
  • Offline
  • From: Russia
  • Registered: 2008-06-11
  • Posts: 1,238

Re: URL links do not have rel="nofollow"

Do you think that all links should have rel="nofollow" or, perhaps, only links in signatures should?

Slavok's Website

3 Reply by wandy (edited by wandy 2010-11-04 13:04)

  • From: Brasil
  • Registered: 2010-01-17
  • Posts: 68

Re: URL links do not have rel="nofollow"

I think all links should have it.

Because if members of a forum post links to "bad" sites, the site with the forum will suffer in its search engine rankings as a result.

Unless you have vigilant moderators and content inspectors it is difficult to weed out the bad links. Particularly on my forum I allow "Guest" posting as well.

The rel="nofollow" attribute will deter some spammers(those who are doing it for search engine rankings)

Edit: What is everyone else's opinion on this?

Edit2: Should such a feature be implemented as an extension?

4 Reply by wandy

  • From: Brasil
  • Registered: 2010-01-17
  • Posts: 68

Re: URL links do not have rel="nofollow"

ttt for this

5 Reply by AShop Software (edited by AShop Software 2011-05-04 20:37)

  • Registered: 2011-05-04
  • Posts: 1

Re: URL links do not have rel="nofollow"

My own forum was completely swamped with SEO spam and I constantly get several new spammers signed up every day, just because punBB is known to be allowing SEO spam like this. Fixing it is very easy though and I have just corrected it on my own forum.

Assuming you have version 1.3.5, just follow these steps:

1. Open the file include/parser.php
2. Find line number 609, which will look like this: return '<a href="'.$full_url.'">'.$link.'</a>';
3. Change it to: return '<a href="'.$full_url.'" rel="nofollow">'.$link.'</a>';
4. Save and upload your modified script.

This will add rel="nofollow" to URLs in posts and signatures. You may need to reapply it when you update though. If you have an earlier version, you should either update or you will just have to find where the line is located in your version yourself. It belongs to the handle_url_tag function.

A plea to the development team: please add this permantly!  smile

  • Registered: 2013-06-23
  • Posts: 13

Re: URL links do not have rel="nofollow"

AShop Software wrote:

My own forum was completely swamped with SEO spam and I constantly get several new spammers signed up every day, just because punBB is known to be allowing SEO spam like this. Fixing it is very easy though and I have just corrected it on my own forum.

Assuming you have version 1.3.5, just follow these steps:

1. Open the file include/parser.php
2. Find line number 609, which will look like this: return '<a href="'.$full_url.'">'.$link.'</a>';
3. Change it to: return '<a href="'.$full_url.'" rel="nofollow">'.$link.'</a>';
4. Save and upload your modified script.

This will add rel="nofollow" to URLs in posts and signatures. You may need to reapply it when you update though. If you have an earlier version, you should either update or you will just have to find where the line is located in your version yourself. It belongs to the handle_url_tag function.

A plea to the development team: please add this permantly!  smile


And for 1.4.2 version? thank you

7 Reply by Popov (edited by Popov 2013-08-19 17:56)

  • From: Bulgaria
  • Registered: 2007-04-14
  • Posts: 66

Re: URL links do not have rel="nofollow"

For v1.4.2 the line you have to correct is 662 in file include/parser.php.

old line

        return '<a href="'.$full_url.'">'.$link.'</a>';

new line

        return '<a href="'.$full_url.'" rel="nofollow">'.$link.'</a>';
I'm using PunBB at Forex Forum since 2006.

Popov's Website

  • Registered: 2013-06-23
  • Posts: 13

Re: URL links do not have rel="nofollow"

POPOV, thank you very much!