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Does doing a subdomain redirect cloack my traffic source?

by ChristianTrevin
6 replies
I was wondering if i do a subdomain in hostgator then do a redirect to the offer page does that cloack my traffic soure? Some people say yes some say no. Its important i kmnow the right answer. Thanks everyone
#cloack #redirect #source #subdomain #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author WarriorJ
    Originally Posted by ChristianTrevin View Post

    I was wondering if i do a subdomain in hostgator then do a redirect to the offer page does that cloack my traffic soure? Some people say yes some say no. Its important i kmnow the right answer. Thanks everyone
    If you do a javascript redirect or a double meta refresh, that will hide/cloak your traffic resources.
    Signature

    WarriorJ

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    • Profile picture of the author Adam Nolan
      Are you sure about that? As long as you put the redirect code after the Analytics code and give the analytics code time to run I believe you can still capture the source of the traffic.

      Cheers
      - Adam

      EDIT: Yes I do believe if you redirect directly in hostgator it will cloak your traffic sources. You'd have to use a javascript redirect.
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    • Profile picture of the author KenThompson
      Originally Posted by WarriorJ View Post

      If you do a javascript redirect or a double meta refresh, that will hide/cloak your traffic resources.
      Not sure about the meta refreshes. I read some months ago that the CPA
      houses are onto that and can still determine traffic sources.

      I believe the redirect is still effective for hiding traffic sources.

      But encourage you to verify that.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChristianTrevin
    hmmm sounds like mixed reviews. Some say double meta no good some say redirect still good. what about the cloaked link propser gives you? is that a double?
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    • Profile picture of the author KenThompson
      Originally Posted by ChristianTrevin View Post

      hmmm sounds like mixed reviews. Some say double meta no good some say redirect still good. what about the cloaked link propser gives you? is that a double?
      A cloaked link has nothing to do with hiding traffic sources. It's to hide
      an affiliate link so people won't (hopefully) know it's an affiliate link.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nick M
    Christian, the answer to your question depends on the browser that the visitor is using.

    The Meta and Location headers are processed by the browser. It is the browser that gets to decide whether or not to discard the referer when refreshed, and unfortunately a double meta refresh no longer works on most modern browsers.

    The following code will redirect to one link if the headers clear (masking the source), and to another if they don't. Whilst you will lose traffic from newer browsers, the traffic from browsers that still support the double meta refresh will be forwarded to where you want it to go.

    Modify the code to set the destination if the headers clear, and where to go if they do not.

    <?php
    /* Get GET query string (if any) */
    $second = $_GET['second'];

    /* Check if this is second time around and if so check to see if the headers cleared */
    if ( $second )
    {
    if ( $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] == '' )
    {
    /* If they cleared, redirect to where you want them to go */
    $goto_location='http://your-cpa-link.com';
    }
    else /* not good, visitor browser did not clear headers */
    {
    /* so we send them to a safe place far far away from your offer */
    $goto_location="http://www.google.com"; /* and leave them thinking WTF happened? */
    }
    }
    else /* this must be the first time through - so send them round again! */
    {
    $self = $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'];
    $goto_location="$self?second=1";
    }
    ?>

    <html>
    <head>
    <?php
    print("<meta http-equiv=refresh content='0;url=$goto_location'>");
    ?>
    </head>
    <body>

    </body>
    </html>

    BTW, this will work on a Hostgator subdomain, or any other. If you end up at google.com it means that your browser is not clearing the headers, not that your script is not working.

    There is a much easier way to do this that works for most browsers at http://referer.us/hide-http-referer.html (Free service)
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