External & Affiliate Links Processor

Description

This plugin controls several useful attributes of external links.

• Add affiliate ID tags to links to sites where this makes sense
• Create buttons to add products directly to Amazon’s shopping cart
• Control, based on the domain of the outbound link, whether or not to add rel=nofollow.
• Control whether to open outbound links in new windows (target=_blank)
• Control whether to add visual cues for outbound links, including the favicon for the target site, and/or a generic external link icon

Unlike other nofollow plugins which force every outbound link to be nofollow’d (or not), this plugin lets you select which domains get what treatment. It includes two lists of domains, a white list and a black list. Domains on the blacklist are always nofollow’d, while those on the whitelist never are.

It’s useful to your visitors to let them know which links will take them off your site. This plugin will show icons either before or after the link. One icon is the favicon for the target site, and the other is a generic external link icon.

Sometimes you want to quickly and easily make an affiliate link, requiring a correctly formatted link according to affiliate network specifications. Services like VigLink or Skimlinks can simplify the hassle of remembering the correct formatting of each affiliate network, by using JavaScript to convert natural links into affiliated links. While convenient, these networks take a percentage of your affiliate commissions.

This plugin lets you make a simple natural link to the destination, and the plugin rewrites it with the correct affiliate ID codes. For certain affiliate networks. You don’t have to remember the correct formatting for the affiliate network, you simply make the link and the plugin automatically rewrites it for you (using the AffiliateLinkProcessor library). It also interacts well if you’re using VigLink or Skimlinks, because those services can continue handling whatever links this plugin does not touch. Supported networks are:

• Amazon.com (and all known international Amazon sites)
• Sites on the Linkshare/Rakuten network
• Zazzle.com

In addition to rewriting links to Amazon websites, a shortcode is provided which generates a button which adds a given product directly to an Amazon shopping cart. Many claim doing so has a beneficial effect on the cookie Amazon places into the browser.

Installation

Simply search for this plugin from the plugins section of your blog admin, use automatic install and activate External Links Nofollow.

A manual installation can be done by downloading the plugin from its github repository.

FAQ

Installation Instructions

Simply search for this plugin from the plugins section of your blog admin, use automatic install and activate External Links Nofollow.

A manual installation can be done by downloading the plugin from its github repository.

Reviews

Does what it should

kancur October 18, 2017

Works fine for me :)!

Caused AMP errors

introstand March 22, 2017 2 replies

This plugin started giving me validation errors on all my AMP pages caused by a meta tag in the content. Deactivated the plugin and my amp pages validated ok again.

The best plugin to add automatic nofollow

Webbasica December 23, 2016

The best of two worlds: automatically add nofollow to all outbound links, but you can make exceptions to some domains.

Perfect to nofollow affiliate links

Damien Smith September 19, 2016

I needed a plugin to automatically set links to only a few domains as nofollow – worked perfectly for my affiliate links. It can also work the opposite way to automatically nofollow all links except those in a whitelist.

Contributors & Developers

Changelog

1.5.5

• We must use that meta tag so text encoding transfers through correctly
• Remove spurious HTML/BODY tags that are automagically inserted

1.5.4

• Remove spurious insertion of meta tag
• Note that the plugin works with WP 4.8

1.5.2

• Note that the plugin continues to work perfectly as WP is updated

1.5.0

• Add class=extlink-icon to icons to ensure consistent icon size
• Allow Amazon ‘Buy Now’ buttons to display inline

1.4.4

• Add shortcodes for Amazon direct-to-shopping-cart buttons
• Add support for amazon.br and amazon.mx affiliate codes

1.4.3

• Tested to work on WordPress 4.4
• Improving documentation on admin page
• No code changes

1.4.2

• With apologies to Canada, belatedly added support for amazon.ca

1.4.1

• Change filter to run at low priority, so it runs after shortcodes

1.4.0

• Support adding affiliate ID tags to affiliate-able links
• Rebranding to make the name clearer

1.3.0

• Redo admin screen to have accordion effect

1.2.3

• Remove some admin screen text, no other change

1.2.2

• Fix the URL to reference plugin files

1.2.1

• Cleanup minor problems after deployment to www.ads-software.com

1.2

• Initial revision for www.ads-software.com