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
-
SEO expert for site
Hey guys, I am looking for an SEO expert for my website. I have talked to a couple different people, but since I know nothing about it, it is hard for me to get a good read on whether they know what they are talking about or not. The main keywords are in the sports betting industry, which I believe to be a highly competitive space. Any advice, suggestions, or recommendations? Thank you
Affiliate Marketing | | MachinesPicks0 -
Can linking out to a weak site harm my sites SEO?
We have an affiliate that wants us to link to his site to help him get started. His website looks okay and is in the same niche as us. However, he has PR 0 and no Page Trust. We could work in a natural looking link in a news article, but there is no way he could be considered any kind of "authority" link. Can linking to his site harm us?
Affiliate Marketing | | theLotter0 -
How do the engines look at pages populated using content from an affiliate site?
We are building out a section of our site using an affiliate partnership in the travel space. How would you suggest organizing the content so we do not get penalized for duplicate content? Do you suggest not suing the content at all?
Affiliate Marketing | | TSDigital0 -
Two Tier Internet, Bad Blogs and One page Affiliate Sites
Hi, I start a post on a popular internet marketing forum about how bad blogs - (i.e. the ones with one posts of over optimise spun garbage) - and the one page affiliate sites - trying to sell you something... (you know the ones) - were REALLY starting to annoy me and if/when something would be done by ISP's or Anyone really. Obviously google is aware of the issue with trying to push Google Plus to crowd source better search results. But with more and more sites popping up telling people how they can make money from having a niche website/page with adwords on it aren't we fast moving to a two tier internet.... How websites/pages exist purely to game search engines.... and will they ever disappear.... Sorry mini rant..... might even get some ideas for a blog post 😛 (not on a bad blog before anyone says anything)
Affiliate Marketing | | JohnW-UK0 -
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