[wp-meta] [Making WordPress.org] #5726: Fix blog commenter JS link transformation

[Making WordPress.org]

#5726: Fix blog commenter JS link transformation
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 Reporter:  jonoaldersonwp            |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect                    |      Status:  new
 Priority:  high                      |   Milestone:
Component:  Make (Get Involved) / P2  |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  seo accessibility         |
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Comment (by AndyBeard):

 This was an issue I initially pointed out to Jono

 It seems from a brief analysis that there is a desire for profiles to be
 indexed by Google.
 Links from there seem to be followed to plugins authored, plugin pages
 link back in various ways etc.
 This is also normal/expected for internal linking to user profiles and why
 profiles on Twitter frequently rank highly.

 Best case for a search engine's interpretation of the current author links
 is that it is confusing.
 Worst case is it is a form of cloaking because the crawler might see
 something different to a human.

 But it is also suboptimal to help boost discovery, crawl, indexing &
 ranking anyway.


 The quick solution to the confusing/cloaking issue would be to just change
 the external domain URL to # and remove the rel attributes completely.

 That would be a high priority minimal fix

 Google can see the rendered javascript
 https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly


 However that doesn't mean relying on javascript for the link is desired.
 Google has crawling and rendering budgets. The more work they have to do
 the less they see.

 It would be far better to have the profile link rendered in the HTML
 server-side and remove the need for the javascript.

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Ticket URL: <https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/5726#comment:3>
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