Stopping people linking to you

Some tips please

[Marketing Guy]

Hi folks

How do you stop a particular site linking to you? Is it possible to send the traffic to a predefined page (as oppose to the page that is being linked to)?

My site is hosted on IIS5.

A site with a similar name to mine has all their "forum" links linking to my forum. Im getting inbound links from pretty much every page on his site, and a trickle of traffic, but it's the principle! ;)

I dont want users believing both sites are related (we offer free advice and have worked hard to build up a good reputation).

Thanks
Scott :)

<edit> grammar and spelling fixed</edit>

[takagi]

Hi Scott, few questions so we can help you better with the problem

1. Did you already contact the other site? That would be the quickest way I think.
2. Do they link to several pages, or just 1 page (home page or so)?
3. Your pages are static (html) or dynamic (asp, etc)?

[Marketing Guy]

Hiya

1. Yep sent an email - no response - already had <ahem> *issues* with the webmaster before, so Im not holding my breath.

Also emailed host. No response (but they have been having some trouble of their own recently).

2. AFAIK they link to my forum default.asp - i havent seen any other links. (they link "need more help, then ask on our forum" but the link goes to my forum).

3. The forum default is .asp (Snitz forum).

Cheers
Scott

[takagi]

In that case you only have to add some code to one file.

Do you have enough experience with programming ASP?

It is possible to check the previous page with:

Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")

unless the visitor has some firewall software (like Norton).

[Marketing Guy]

Zero ASP knowledge! :(

But, if I get what you're saying, it would be something along the lines of:

1. Check referrer.
2. If referrer = www.painintheasssite.com, then redirect to: www.mysite.com/mypage.htm(or .asp)

If thats right ill try to find a script that does it.

Cheers for your help. :)

Scott

[takagi]

Yes, more or less. But since there are several different pages linking to you, you should test for the domain (take some part of the string and compare it).

[Birdman]

Hello Scott,

Start with this thread [webmasterworld.com], and read the linked pages as well. There's some good stuff in there.

Looks like you may want to use global.asa.

[defanjos]

Marketing Guy,

Something like this could work, I think (not tested)- place it at the top of the page:

<%
dim referrer, SearchString, SearchFor

referrer=Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
SearchString = referrer
SearchFor = "theirsite.com"

If InStr(1, SearchString, SearchFor) > 0 then
response.redirect "http://www.whateveryouwant.com"

else

%>

your page's html goes here

<%end if%>

[Marketing Guy]

Birdman, thanks for the link! :) Ill bookmark it and have a read through when I have more time to spend on it.

Defanjos, thanks for the code! :) Ill give that a try.

Cheers

Scott

[defanjos]

Marketing guy,

I tested it, and it works if you do not have a firewall running (like takagi
said).

You might need a different solution, otherwise it will not work with people using a firewall.

Good luck

[Marketing Guy]

That's brilliant! :)

Thanks a lot to everyone - works great!

Now Im off to have some fun.....

<evil grin>

Scott :)