Remove the SEO settings block from the nav block

[jdevalk]

Describe the bug
I was testing the Nav block and saw the SEO settings block:

I think it's problematic to add this to core. The wording is already wrong (as this is a hint and not a "rule", like robots.txt is) and it links to a Codex page that is outdated.

We've seen over the past few months that different SEO plugins chose to word these options differently, because of a difference of opinion in how this should work and also a difference in how they perceive their audience.

Also, the large majority of WordPress users should not use this toggle, like, ever. Which makes it risky to add this.

I strongly feel therefor that this should be plugin territory and should not be dealt with in core. If we do decide to ship this in core, the wording should be changed, the linked-to page should be updated and it should still become filterable.

To reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Open a post
2. Insert a Navigation block
3. Add a link and select it
4. See the SEO settings block in the block sidebar

Expected behavior
Don't have a default SEO settings block, allow plugins to filter and add a block like this themselves.

Editor version (please complete the following information):

• WordPress version: 5.4.2
• Does the website has Gutenberg plugin installed, or is it using the block editor that comes by default? Gutenberg plugin
• If the Gutenberg plugin is installed, which version is it? 8.3

[aristath]

Isn't nofollow traditionally accompanied by noopener noreferrer which are mostly security & privacy-related?
I agreed we should remove the "SEO" section, but perhaps we should change the setting to include the other 2 properties as well - and tweak the description accordingly?

[jdevalk]

Couple of remarks:

• I don't think these things have anything to do with each other, noopener is added to plenty of links in WordPress without user interaction.
• noreferrer was only added to noopener because for a while, Firefox didn't support noopener, you shouldn't use that anymore, it breaks referrer analytics.

[aristath]

Didn't know that, thanks!

[noisysocks]

I dug into why this attribute was added and found #13690 (comment).

We need to support setting the rel attribute in some capacity so that we maintain backwards compatibility with the existing nav-menus.php screen which, when you enable it in Screen Options, lets you set the rel attribute using a text field.

It's also worth noting that the Buttons block supports setting the rel attribute using a text field.

Instead of removing the SEO settings panel, let's replace it with the same Link settings panel that the Buttons block has.

[adamziel]

Great idea! See the updated version of #23682

I wonder if some description there would be useful to explain what that field even is, probably an external link would be needed because of the volume of information - thoughts?