I was contacted by Rodney Shupe the author of the Kontera Wordpress plugin where he addresses my concern regarding the invisible link employed by his plugin.

He explained that it was done as a way of “compensation” for many hours writing and supporting the plugin. At the time he wrote the plugin he was unaware of the Google SEO guidelines pertaining to invisible link. The links were added as a suggestion from another WordPress plugin author.

In the latest update, he made those links optional and asked me if I could update the article and note that the link can now be controlled. Because I think using the previous version of the plugin could affect a blog’s search engine rankings, I think it’s better to write a new post to ensure the update gets some attention.

I’ve tested the plugin and found that adding the invisible link is now optional. However, I am still disappointed to see the option to add those links is still available in the first place. Moreover, this option is selected by default. Including the “nofollow” attribute won’t make it ok for Google.

As a result, unsuspecting bloggers could still fall into the sneaky nature of this option.

While I understand that it takes many hours developing and supporting the plugin, having to display invisible links which could get the users penalised by Google defeats the point of installing the Kontera WordPress plugin to begin with.

IMHO, Rodney should remove the option to add invisible links all together. As an alternative, he could use a checkbox where his plugin users could opt to display visible link(s) instead.

Even if not many users check this option, I am certain that Rodney will get lots of link backs from satisfied bloggers who would be writing about his plugin in their blogs. I see this happens a lot to the AdSense Deluxe author.