Introduction
Whenever someone downloads a free template or a wordpress theme, there is a certain understanding that yeah, there will probably be a backlink or two to the creator in the footer. I’m fine with this.
There are only 3 situations where I will remove these footer links.
1) If It is going to be a popular blog[hopefully], and will get a lot of extra link spam as a result of the backlink/keywords
2) If It is going to be a template for a blackhat site, and I think there’s question that you would WANT a backlink from it. Especially if it will be highly used.
3) If you try and plant really really un-related keywords(linked, of course) in the footer. I get penalized enough on my own , without your help thanks.
The Story
Today I was downloading a theme for a new project I’m working on(grayhat), and I was looking around the template, making my changes. I wanted to include some of my own stuff in the footer, and wanted to remove a single backlink that they had out of 3. Two of the footer links were fine in my eyes. The place I downloaded it from, and the designer. But the third one, a link for a web hosting company, I thought had no place on the site I was making. It was going to be hard enough to rank without having nasty spammy links at the bottom, and leaking link juice to a site I’d never heard of.
Upon opening the footer file, what I saw really, really pissed me off.
bZC9bsMwDITnFOg7XD21g+PdVWSgS7t1CZCxkCLa
EixLqqTECNCHrxX3ZwkXHu7IDyA7zh7qGpIG49B7
nymirvn93WbDGmXOq+qCDhgofySjSIr4+PSMrkR/
M0UvEkbtqhVTFRtggUNRMoMjBXlpwQR0pH5X6ZxD
2zTzPG8nMdLnyRzH7dFPFX931jjCgWQymfByMlZR
ZI3gEE7dRswktU/ZuGEgGtMKWgh4W12U9dcS4Qvi
LIwV0hL6SASRW+x9uIXNPswha5roB4mDjypESgn7
q124rAnLtVjq9yH/XXp1uQqdJ8tZ9w0=
‘))); ?>
That was the footer code. They were effectively attempting to FORCE their backlink. Now look.
The entire template deal is based on good-faith agreements between developers and webmasters; an agreement I abide by whenever possible. Now, realize that this is taking a risk. Static anchor text, footer links,etc….welcome to something Google regards as “link scheme”…but I am willing to risk getting my outgoing link juice dropped. Except when they force me to. This is my damn option.
I really do understand, my longterm readers know that from time to time I design a script or two, and I say there must be a backlink somewhere on it if it comes into public use. And I get angry if someone removes it. However, there is one backlink on mine, and it is not a spammy looking footer link that blends into the footer color(something Google frowns upon), and I do not try and promote every damn site I run.
Obviously, I have a bit of a temper. So i tried to remove their encoded text. And, naturally it broke the effin template when I tried to remove it.
So let’s take a look at what happens when we decode what they do here.
>
So by calling the get_sidebar() function within the encoded data, they make the template completely useless if you remove the footer data.
Well guess what guys? I put the footer back on. And I just might re-delegate the template to blackhat sites. Your wish, is my command. Let’s see how you fare after dozens of sites it’s on get banned. (Ok, ok, I probably won’t do this, but damn I want to)
I know most people do not get as worked up as I do over things like this. I thought it was a decent story, and a decent look into this kind of thing. If you want to use it on your own, feel free. If you want to decode it to remove the crap from something you yourself download, feel equally free.
I’m an amiable guy most of the time, but not when I’m forced into it. I’ll get my damn template from somewhere else.
I’ll try and spit out another entry tonight, I just have to do some checking and see if everyone already covered this past the point of saturation.
-XMCP
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