Feedback on the approved link error message

[carolinan]

The error message that displayed was:

"nayrathemes.com" found when viewing "/?p=1241" (via: single.php) is not an approved link.
See: https://github.com/WordPress/theme-review-action/blob/trunk/docs/ui-errors.md#page-should-not-have-unexpected-links

The theme author wrote: We are not understand what need to do for theme review action.

https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/103019#comment:4

The documentation says:

Page should not have unexpected links
This test expects to not find links that are not approved.

Troubleshooting
Verify that the theme only includes links in the hosts list.

I don't think it is clear enough what a not approved or unexpected link is.
The hosts list is too difficult to interpret because it is not obvious that the theme and author URI are included on the list.

[kafleg]

Yes, I am also having a hard time understanding this notice. I think we need better text and examples to fix it.

[carolinan]

I think this test is too restrictive.
It is an attempt to use an allowed list for links, but I think it will be too much work for us to maintain an allowed list.

I don't know how to allow front facing links, but at the same time limit the footer credit link to theme and author URI.
Enforce all external links in the front of the theme to include nofollow?

If we remove both the test and the link requirements, this opens up for themes to be submitted for backlinks only.
For example, themes submitted only to promote unrelated products. And I mean unrelated like your uncle's car wash, not your premium plugin.
Do we consider that a problem or not? How can we give authors this freedom to add links and still prevent spam?

[jonoalderson]

These kinds of 'credit' footer links (and similar; whether they're to website creators, hosting companies, or theme producers, etc) should always be nofollow'd as they're a form of 'paid advert'.

However, there are definitely legitimate cases for external footer links not to be nofollow'd (a link to the parent company, or to a relevant resource, etc).

Difficult!