.htaccess redirecting traffic

based on referrer or user agent

[vrtlw]

Hi I have a problem with a database that is allowing users to earn from affiliate referrals.

The URL that is required is mydomain.com/index.htm?referrer_id=xx

I have two issues with this:

1. I don't want to get stung with a Dup. content penalty.

2. I don't want the affilite to earn referrals from the SERPS (I already have 1 that is displayed in the SERPS)

As a side note, I would also like to benefit from the PR that these links can (and v. likely will) generate.

I found this thread [webmasterworld.com...] that seems to show how to use a .htaccess redirect on both referrer and user agent.

My questions are:

1. Would this be able to redirect spiders (if listed individually in .htaccess) to the original page without the referrer_id? (thereby eliminating duplicate content penalty)

2. Would I actually be able to redirect users that had clicked on the link in the SERPS? (This should only be a short term need as I would expect if the answer to Q1 is yes then the listing will be removed in the near/mid future)

3. Any better solutions?

TIA

Paul

[vrtlw]

Anyone?

[mcavic]

If you use htaccess to do a 301 redirect from the custom url to the real one, then yes, spiders will be redirected. Also, if the custom url is listed in any serps, the users will be redirected, and if they bookmark the resulting page, their bookmark should be to the real page. The spiders don't have to be individually listed, unless you want to treat them differently.

You might also put
Disallow: /index.htm?referrer_id
in your robots.txt (I think that should work) to prevent hits from any bots, and especially bots that don't obey 301's correctly.

[vrtlw]

Thank you for the reply.

I dont think this solution will quite work for my needs, here are the reasons why.

If you use htaccess to do a 301 redirect from the custom url to the real one, then yes, spiders will be redirected.

Correct, this is exactly what I want to achieve.

The spiders don't have to be individually listed, unless you want to treat them differently.

I think they do, I need the spiders alone to be redirected to the non-referrer URL so as to not allow the referrer_id=xx URL to appear in the SERPS. I however do not want any users to be redirected from a valid referral from the linking site, but if they are referred from the SE in the short term I would like to strip the referrer_id=xx.

The need of this last requirement will diminsh as the links in the SERPS disappear. I do however want to ensure that my affiliate earns comsission on sales from THEIR site.

You might also put

Disallow: /index.htm?referrer_id

in your robots.txt (I think that should work) to prevent hits from any bots, and especially bots that don't obey 301's correctly.

Again I think, this would stop the SE's in their tracks and the page would not be crawled. I would like it to be cralled (after a 301) so as I can benefit from the PR. The referring page in question has a PR of 9.

Thanks again,

Paul

[seoer]

Same problem here
[webmasterworld.com...]
too. i think the other problem with a .ht redirect is that bots will have already index the link from the referrer site wouldn't they?

i have yet to see a page www.blah.com/index.php?source=asdf

i have a hunch that source is ignored by bots. anyone care to venture a guess?

[vrtlw]

I currently have a page listed in the SERPS that has a referrer_id=xx

I dont want to get a penalty!

I will sticky anyone who wants the SERPS

[jdMorgan]

vrtlw,

This method [webmasterworld.com] might be useful to help with your problem.

Jim

[vrtlw]

Hey jdMorgan,

Thanks for the link.

I think that looks like exactly what I need :)

Paul