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Redirect backlinks from certain websites

         

onlinesource

7:53 pm on Feb 8, 2016 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Currently I have a multi store setup for a variety of countries including a .ca domain, co.uk etc. The problem is, I see a lot of new backlinks from .co.uk sources pointing to my .com domain. Is there a way to redirect all traffic coming from that site and all of it's links to my .co.uk site instead? Or to say all backlinks from .co.uk domain point to my .co.uk domain?

Curious.

Since I use hreflang tags should I not care, assuming Google will direct the correct traffic to lands on each page.

Andy Langton

9:00 pm on Feb 8, 2016 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Theoretically, you can redirect this traffic based on where it came from, by redirecting based on an HTTP_REFERER. But, it's hard to recommend this approach. What if a US visitor clicks the link? What about the numerous occasions when the referrer will not be available? If you want to redirect based on location, you should do it based on location :-)

This is straightforward enough - detect the visitors location based on their IP and then redirect them. You likely want to also give users the option to select their location manually.

None of this makes any difference whatsoever to Google, which always crawls from US IP addresses and never (OK, not never, but never to all practical intents and purposes) sends a referrer header. It's a usability issue, not an SEO one.