Sneaky redirect happening on my wordpress site.
-
On my site, gosandiego.com I have a couple links at the top which directly link to another site. However, I noticed that when I click on the link, it seems to go to another site for a few milliseconds before being redirected to the correct destination.
It took a little while but I was able to take a screenshot of the sneaky redirect. It starts awin1.com/awclick.php...
I am fairly sure that awin1.com belongs to Affiliate Window, an affiliate marketing company much like Commission Junction but smaller.
I just had someone email about my site and said the link redirected on him too but his browser got sent to viglink.com
I was wondering, Has someone hijacked my site or has someone hijacked my browser or is it something else?
Thanks
-
Yeah that is strange. I'm stumped on that one myself. The info I'm finding on awin1, awclick.php, etc. is all kind of loose and not very helpful anyway. Very odd. I'll be curious to hear if you figure out why that seems to be inserted in between destinations for you.
Good luck, and if I come across anything else I'll post here as well.
-
Thanks for the info Todd. I've seen the comments from Kaspersky but that is in the case where the site links to awin1.com. Kaspersky does not like the 1 by 1 tracking pixel or something like that.
The weird thing is that the link goes directly to smartdestinations.com. Why is the click being rerouted through awin1.com?
Googling the "awclick.php" has led me to some further research. I'll report back if I see anything
I think my solution is to cloak the link but I don't know if it will work.
-
I took a look and I'm not seeing anything that says "hacked" to me. I'm assuming this is only happening for you when click specific links? If so it seems unlikely it would be an issue with your browser either (something you need to clean off).
I'm afraid I'm not an expert here but it seems clean to me. I did a little digging on awclick.php and it appears that some people have noticed odd behavior similar to what you are describing when clicking links to different sites if they have:
- Certain ad blockers installed
- Certain types of internet/computer security software installed
I'm not seeing what your seeing when I move through the links. Again, it doesn't seem malicious or like an issue from what I'm seeing.
Sorry I can't be more conclusive!
-
Sorry. I forgot to mention. Both links at the top do this while I am using safari.
If you go down the page, there is a subhead "Save more with coupon codes". Both links also exhibit this behavior. I am considering a redirect plugin but not sure if that would solve the problem.
I have also tried this in other browsers but they react too quickly for me to see if anything is happening.
-
This is the link text:
Save $20 on orders over $300: Use Code FALLFUN15
The coupon has expired but I'll leave it up for a couple days to make sure you can look at it. Thanks!
-
Hey Edkim,
Can you let me know the anchor text of the link you're clicking that is causing this? I'd like to check it out myself and then I might be able to help you out some more.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Affiliate website redirection concern
First of all i want to say hi to everyone here since im a new guy! The issue: My website is a price comparison website. I create products and inside these products i list several shops with their priced offers from the lowest to the highest. When a customer clicks the "shop now" button to go to the desired shop a new window pops up telling the user that he is being redirected to that shop. Check the website here and click "shop now" to understand what i mean: https://www.pccdkeys.com/product/buy-world-of-warcraft-legion-cd-key-for-battlenet/ This pop up page is a custom .php called redirect.php. In order to create a unique url for each shop, we add parameters in every URL like this: /redirect.php?id=5030917189616&merchant=CDKEYS&game=4117. The redirect.php right now is under this setting: custom header 301 without destination URL (which probably is wrong) it is noindex, follow in meta robots the parameters: **id, merchant, game **are set to NO URL's in URL parameters in webmaster tools. If i remove the 301 redirect from the header it will lead to 200 OK but then its a soft 404 error because the page is small and for sure i dont want 8000 of soft 404 errors because google phantom will destroy me. Another setting was: No custom header so it was 200 OK noindex, nofollow (which was for extra protection from the disallow) disallowed in robots.txt Thi setting kept giving soft 404 errors in audits. I also had it with this setting: custom header 301 without destination URL meta robots in index, follow without disallow in robots This setting gave me Not followed errors in google webmaster tools. The question: Which is the proper setting for this php page? Maybe a combination of the above? Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.
Affiliate Marketing | | dos06590 -
I'm routating keywords to find my website and to get better ranking; I know i want to use the most keywords that are prevelant in my site; iss that the only keywords I want to use for ranking purposes; if not what keywords were do i find them?
I want better page ranking for my website; keywords that work and backlinks;
Affiliate Marketing | | prostene13590 -
Stopping these scum sites from sending traffic.
What is the best way to deal with these: http://www.goldenclicking.com/ and www.payclicking.com They keep sending my site traffic, however I am not paying for it, and would prefer to stop these sites. The traffic never converts, and I can't see anywhere that I am paying for the traffic (they are not an affiliate, and can't see them on the GDN) - so I don't even know whats in it for them. Has anyone ever dealt with these types of sites previously, tips on getting them to stop. I was just considering black listing there domains so they can't even reach our site. Thanks in Advance. Andy
Affiliate Marketing | | Andy-Halliday0 -
Why were all of my Amazon sites deindexed?
March 22nd.. The worst day of my Internet Marketing career. I got the dreaded message: Dear site owner or webmaster of http://www.ricecookerreviewz.com/ We've detected that some of your site's pages may be using techniques that are outside Google's Webmaster Guidelines. If you have any questions about how to resolve this issue, please see our Webmaster Help Forum for support. Here's some interesting points: All of the content is unique and highly targeted to each product. Site is around 4-5 months old Every single one of my Amazon sites were hit.. How did they connect my sites together..? Why were they hit? List of some of my deindexed sites: http://www.inversiontablereviewshq.net/ http://www.breadmachinereviewshq.net/ http://www.ricecookerreviewz.com/ http://www.cooker-reviews.com/ http://www.ab-machine-reviews.net/ They are most definitely not, "thin affiliate sites". They have dozens of reviews, tons of articles, recipes, video.. Each site is like this.. I have started over, fresh content from my writers, fresh theme, fresh everything. But still, I would appreciate an answer as to what I'm doing wrong so that I can learn to not make the same mistake. Thanks!
Affiliate Marketing | | leetk3zzer0 -
Should "white label" sites have a unique template
I am planning on launching white label sites for my company. Obviously they will have unique/valuable content. Is it important for them to have unique IP addresses and/or design templates? If yes - why?
Affiliate Marketing | | theLotter0 -
Will giving a blogger an affiliate url to my site reduce her links' seo value to me?
If a blogger were to write a post about one of my products and link to my product page, would giving her an affiliate url to link to rather than the normal link spoil the seo value of the link? So instead of mysite.com/product-one it would be mysite.com/affiliate/blogger/product-one Google would think... this is a transaction not a vote of confidence?
Affiliate Marketing | | Brocberry0 -
Google Analytics Tracking Pixels for Third-Party sites???
Hello, Does anyone know if it is possible to track an event on a third party site and have it post back to your Google Analytics account? For example, I am sending traffic to a partners site and I want to know if that traffic I am sending them will hit a specific point of conversion (a sale) and I'm wondering if it possible to place a tracking pixel on their thankyou.html page that gets recorded in my google analytics?
Affiliate Marketing | | shawn810 -
Shopping comparison site referral traffic growth
Over the last 12 months we have been working with affiliates and seen excellent traffic and revenue growth from this channel (golf market). Over the same period we have seen a massive (60%) drop in organic traffic and 40% drop in organic revenue. Our rankings are comparable to last year. However we are seeing growth in Googlebase traffic and direct traffic Is it the case that consumers are using comparison sites more that organic search queries. Is there any evidence to support this view if true? Having content on affiliate sites, could it be harming us organically (but as I say or rankings are comparable to last year - maybe a little worse since Panda updates). Confused? I am...
Affiliate Marketing | | cpdigital10