Not a bug Google crawler indexing “Quote” reply button links

[Tokens]

Affected version

2.3.7

It looks like Google’s crawler is detecting the “Quote” reply button as an indexable link. Since it’s just a functional UI element used for quoting posts, it shouldn’t be treated as a navigational or content link.


This is likely causing unnecessary crawl activity and could lead to redundant entries in the index.


Expected behavior:
The “Quote” reply button should include rel="nofollow" or data-noindex to prevent crawlers from following or indexing it.


Example:
Inspecting the “Quote” button in post actions shows it as a standard anchor (<a&gt tag without nofollow or data-noindex, allowing Googlebot to treat it as a link.


Suggested fix:
Add either:

rel="nofollow"

or

data-noindex="true"

to the quote action links in post controls.

This is an example link that is being crawled...

https://www.sitename.com/forums/threads/thread-title.100/reply?quote=1

 

[Xon]

This only shows up if you have enabled guest posting

 

[Tokens]

This only shows up if you have enabled guest posting

I didn't think about that, thank you.

I am currently testing out allowing guests to post (moderated, of course). Perhaps I'll hide those buttons from guests manually in a template edit If I decide to keep allowing guests to post. Otherwise limiting guest posting should fix the issue.

Again, thank you @Xon.

 

[Jeremy P]

We do set nofollow on them already, so if they are displayed to guests then its kind of up to the crawler to respect that or not.