Dizkus

For those of you unaware of the 'Google-jacking' phenomena take a look at http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/28329-1-10.htm

In short it is a process where a site linking to another site by means of a http 302 redirect can under very commom circumstances take credit (and Google ranking) from the site it links to and remove the other site from Google.

The links module in PostNuke uses exactly this method and I have now seen one of my PostNuke sites 'Google-jack' another of my sites.

Does anybody know how to make the links module use a 301 redirect instead?

Must be a subscriber to webmasterworld.com.

I don't think you do have to be a member of WebmasterWorld to view threads, it's free anyway and in my opinion the best money I never spent!

Anyway here's my fix - add this line:
Header('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
before the:
Header('Location: '.$URL);
at around line 285 this does the trick.

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a-connect - cornwall

Maybe they just don't like me but I get a message that I have to subscribe to read that thread. :(

I think it's George Bush's fault.


Slugger

..hmmm.. something that should "only" be applied to the weblinks mod.. and, i guess, banners too (umm.. downloads for external links?).. adding it to the API could cause problems..

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http://www.invalidresponse.com

Sheesh. I had a completely different picture when I read the expression Google jacking."

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Over 500 Xanthia and AutoThemes

XanthiaThemes.com

AutoThemes.com

:shock:

fixed in /banners.php and /modules/Web_Links/wl-util.php
thx for reporting - next time please use our bugtracker

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regards from germany
..::[Zikula Application Framework]::.. ..::[SEO-Blog]::.. ..::[CMS Sicherheit]::..

Good man, Larsneo, the fix works fine (as a matter of interest, does Autolinks not need a similar fix?).

I would like to stress the importance of this and explain a bit for those who can't see the webmasterworld thread for whatever reason. The problem is that a 302 is interpreted by the googlebot as duplicate content, which it attributes to both the page linked to and the non-existent page created when the redirect-link is clicked on (it can't tell the difference between http://www.yoursite.com/Web_Links-index-req-visit-lid-xxxx.htm (or the long URL version) and a real page). There is nothing particularly evil about this, except that unscrupulous types have been exploiting it to "hijack" other people's hard-earned content, mainly to get AdSense revenue, I think. It works like this: if a page with a reasonable PR has a 302-redirect-type-link to a significantly lower ranked page, the non-existent page will get better placed in Google, and to make matters worse, Google's anti-duplicate content policy may penalize the less well established page, and actually take PR away from it. Cases abound of people spending months putting together the definitive site on, say, Coleridge or quilting, only to find that a few months after launching, their PR has shrunk to nothing, while the parasites have grown fat. Apparently, webmasters have been getting progressively hotter under the collar about the issue for years, now, with justification, and pressure is on for Google to put things right. Some with less faith in Google's ability to do so are putting together anti-302 scripts of one kind or another, and creating blacklists of 302-abusers. So, by eschewing nasty, dirty 302s in favour of clean and shiny 301s, Postnukers should win out, by:

i) not getting blacklisted, on however petty a scale;
ii) avoiding the wrath of Google (something to be dreaded, even if it is being pretty slow about getting wrathful);
ii) being on the side of the righteous and good (as true Postnukers always are, of course).

In other words, the sooner this is included in the standard PostNuke package, the better, IMHO.