SEs caching redirects

Disobedient bots?

[riverstyx]

I'm using 301 redirects for my affiliate links, like so:

[mysite.com...]

where /merchant1.html is redirected to the merchant's landing page via the .htaccess file. The directory /aff/ is disallowed by all in robots.txt. I've just discovered that some search engines are caching merchant links like above. If the file doesn't actually exist and the directory is disallowed, how is this happening?

If someone would clue me in on how to fix this I'd appreciate it. It's a problem because I add and drop merchants and products regularly -- but do want those product pages to be indexed.

RS

[mack]

It may be that Google never sees the 301 because the directory is bloked ny robots.txt

The problem there is it follows a link going to it.. so it knows the file exists. It may then list the page in the results pages without actualy needing to spider it.

Mack.

[riverstyx]

Thanks, I appreciate the response.

RS