How do you send traffic through a redirect URL and change the referrer?

**georgeyw** · 03-13-2011, 06:54 PM

Pretty sure it isn't possible unless you pipe everything through othersite.com/link1 and even then the url from before can be passed on.

Trying to pull a dodgy?

**PSD** · 03-13-2011, 07:10 PM

Only way I know of is if the page on othersite.com/link1 has a meta refresh tag like

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://finalsite.com/" />

but that has its own issues.

**Jakez** · 03-13-2011, 07:12 PM

Originally posted by georgeyw

Pretty sure it isn't possible unless you pipe everything through othersite.com/link1 and even then the url from before can be passed on.

Trying to pull a dodgy?

Well all the links WILL point to and go through othersite.com/link1, but like you said the referrer seems to randomly choose which place it wants to say it came from, and I need something that will show the correct referrer at least 99% of the time.

Not trying to pull anything slick at all, I just want to make sure my statistics are laid out very simple and not showing referrers from all over the place.

Originally posted by JCK

Only way I know of is if the page on othersite.com/link1 has a meta refresh tag like

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://finalsite.com/" />

but that has its own issues.

What type of issues? I don't care about SEO or anything for this, as long as the referrer is correct all the time.

Another example would be if you wanted to skim traffic coming to your site from your trade1 to your trade2 (not what I'm trying to do), the referrer for trade2's stats will usually show as trade1 and not YOUR domain, so you are losing credit for sending trade2 traffic.

Is it an on-page time problem? The redirect needs to happen slower in order to plant the correct referrer URL? Or is it a problem where the surfer needs to click something in order for the referrer to come from that URL? Maybe I'll just have to run some tests.

**glowlite** · 03-13-2011, 07:28 PM

How do you send traffic through a redirect URL and change the referrer?

It's called hypertext preprocessor.

~

**PSD** · 03-13-2011, 07:31 PM

The referer will be correct every time. The 0 or any other number before the URL inserts the delay before the automatic redirect so with a 0 there is very little if any delay. The acccuracy of the redirect is the same with any delay. The surfer does not need to click anything. One of the issues is the browser back button is not as functional with a short or no delay.

**PSD** · 03-13-2011, 07:33 PM

Originally posted by glowlite

How do you send traffic through a redirect URL and change the referrer?

It's called hypertext preprocessor.

~

php sends the original page as the referer so does not help but could be used to dynamically insert the final destination domain in the meta refrsh tag.

**glowlite** · 03-13-2011, 07:43 PM

Originally posted by JCK

php sends the original page as the referer so does not help but could be used to dynamically insert the final destination domain in the meta refrsh tag.

Go back to the books, you seem to have skipped a paragraph or two.

**Jakez** · 03-13-2011, 07:45 PM

Originally posted by JCK

The referer will be correct every time. The 0 or any other number before the URL inserts the delay before the automatic redirect so with a 0 there is very little if any delay. The acccuracy of the redirect is the same with any delay. The surfer does not need to click anything. One of the issues is the browser back button is not as functional with a short or no delay.

Not as funtional as in? There is no back, or the back button goes to the redirecting URL? Regardless I just need the stats on finalsite.com to show the redirect as the referrer. Thanks for the meta refresh I'm going to try that out.

Originally posted by glowlite

Go back to the books, you seem to have skipped a paragraph or two.

As far as I've seen, a PHP redirect does show the original source as referrer. Which is why I'm looking for an alternate solution that will show the redirect as the referrer.

**PSD** · 03-13-2011, 07:52 PM

Originally posted by Jakez

Not as funtional as in? There is no back, or the back button goes to the redirecting URL? Regardless I just need the stats on finalsite.com to show the redirect as the referrer. Thanks for the meta refresh I'm going to try that out.

There is a back but it goes to the redirecting URL if only clicked once and thus you get a loop. This should accomplish what you want however so give it a try. I don't know what books glowlite is reading but all the ones I have read indicate that redirection does not work in the way you are trying to get it to.

**Tempest** · 03-13-2011, 09:24 PM

Use the meta refresh... Helps to filter out some bots as well..

**Danmixz** · 03-13-2011, 09:45 PM

PHP Code:

<?php
 

$magic_number = 1234;

$url = 'http://www.google.com';



if (isset($_GET['mn']) && $_GET['mn']==$magic_number){        

        echo '<html><head></head><body><form action="' . 'http://'.$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] . '" method="post" id="form1">

<input type="hidden"  name="mn" value="' . $magic_number . '" /></form>

<script language="JavaScript"> 
    document.getElementById(\'form1\').submit();</script></body></html>';
        return true; 
        exit();
}

if ($_POST['mn']==$magic_number){        

    echo '<html><head></head><body><form action="' . 'http://'.$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] . '" method="post" id="form1">

<input type="hidden"  name="mn" value="' . $magic_number . $magic_number . '" /></form>

<script language="JavaScript"> 
    document.getElementById(\'form1\').submit();</script></body></html>';
        return true; 
        exit();
}    

$dom = preg_replace( "/^www\./", "", $_SERVER[ 'HTTP_HOST' ] ) ;
$ref= $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];


if (((strpos($ref, $dom)!=FALSE) || (trim($ref)=="" ) )  && ($_POST['mn']==$magic_number.$magic_number)){
        header( 'Location: ' . $url);
        exit();
    }


?>


<html>
  <head>
    <title>Your Fake Page</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <br><br><br><br>
     <center><h1>Your Fake Page</h1></center>
 
  </body>
</html>

Or use double meta refresh

**stonehammer** · 03-13-2011, 09:52 PM

will php redirect work ?? i never tried it before

**SmokeyTheBear** · 03-13-2011, 11:54 PM

javascript

**Emil** · 03-14-2011, 01:31 AM

Double META-refresh will clean the referer. I think you have to set the META-redirect to 5 seconds to make the new page the referer.

**TheDoc** · 03-14-2011, 03:46 AM

Code:

<?php $url = urldecode($_REQUEST[url]);?>
<html><head></head><body onload='top.location="<?=$url;?>"></body></html>

**Jakez** · 03-14-2011, 05:49 PM

Originally posted by JCK

Tried this. In Firefox and IE the referrer is left blank on the final page, Chrome is the only one that actually shows a referrer and it shows it correctly as the redirect URL. In Firefox and Chrome the back button on 1 click goes to the original source, IE goes to the redirect page.

Originally posted by Danmixz

PHP Code:

Or use double meta refresh

Nice, this code works. Tried a double meta refresh and it didn't work, might not have done it correctly though.

Originally posted by TheDoc

Code:

<?php $url = urldecode($_REQUEST[url]);?>
<html><head></head><body onload='top.location="<?=$url;?>"></body></html>

WINNING! This works also and is 100x more simple to deal with.

Final code I'm going with for the redirect page:

PHP Code:

<?php $url = "http://www.finalsite.com"; ?>
<html><head></head><body onload='top.location="<?=$url;?>"></body></html>

Shows the redirect as the referrer in all browsers.

Thanks everyone!

**TheDoc** · 03-14-2011, 07:11 PM

Originally posted by Jakez

WINNING! This works also and is 100x more simple to deal with.

Final code I'm going with for the redirect page:

PHP Code:

<?php $url = "http://www.finalsite.com"; ?>
<html><head></head><body onload='top.location="<?=$url;?>"></body></html>

Shows the redirect as the referrer in all browsers.

Thanks everyone!

Happy to assist...

Not that it makes any difference really, but if you're going to hard code the url in the php, you might as well take all of the php out and put the url in the location directly.

Either way works though.

How do you send traffic through a redirect URL and change the referrer?

How do you send traffic through a redirect URL and change the referrer?

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment