Anybody a 301 redirect expert

[andylink]

Hi all

I've installed a redirect plugin in wordpress with the idea of using it to 301 redirect my affiliate links

e.g.

/go/vauxhall

will redirect to

http://clkuk.tradedoubler.com/click?...?siteCode=VAUX)

The 301 seems to work but is stripping the () brackets out of the url so it is not resolving correctly. I've searched through the plugin page and googled the problem but not been able to find anything usefull, any ideas????

The website I'm trying to implement it on is here Guide to the Norfolk Broads if it helps. I'm guessing it is a apache setting but only a guess.

Cheers Andy

[ash]

I'd guess its a plugin issue.

Have you tried looking at the plugins code?

[andylink]

I'd guess its a plugin issue.

Have you tried looking at the plugins code?

I'm just having a look now, I wondered if they were being stripped when being added to the mysql database but a quick check shows the ()'s are there.

Better have a look at the code a bit deeper

cheers

Andy

[HOmERCIdAL]

Im sorry I am not able to offer you an answer with regards the double bracket problem but I am wondering why you are not just using a php script or one of the few link cloaking plugins available for wordpress instead of a redirect for your affiliate links?.

Personally I use the redirection plugin to create seo friendly urls and to ensure I have non duplicated webpages. I then use an affiliate cloak plugin for any affiliate links.

[andylink]

Im sorry I am not able to offer you an answer with regards the double bracket problem but I am wondering why you are not just using a php script or one of the few link cloaking plugins available for wordpress instead of a redirect for your affiliate links?.

Personally I use the redirection plugin to create seo friendly urls and to ensure I have non duplicated webpages. I then use an affiliate cloak plugin for any affiliate links.

I was trying to kill two birds with one stone to prevent the need for installing more plugin's than necessary. I already had this installed for similar reasons to what you outlined in your post and thought it would be ok to handle the affiliate links as well. It appears to handle the redirect outside of apache .htaccess anyway and looking at the code it's a bit heavy so I'll probably bite the bullet and look at a cloak plugin.

Can you suggest a good one

Cheers

Andy

[HOmERCIdAL]

Hi

I am currently experimenting with the 'link cloaking plugin' available here: ø Link Cloaking Plugin for WordPress | W-Shadow.com ø

It automatically cloaks all links barr your own domain by default. Thats from memory but pretty sure thats correct. Also it has an exception area. So if you were linking to say wikipedia or whatever that did not need cloaking then you simply add that to your exception rule.

I used wp-affiliate prior for a short period of time but it is a more manual affair as compared to the above but you could argue it gives you more control on how the url is displayed to the end user imo.

What I would say is that I am new to Wordpress myself and I do know that a lot of people use a simple php script to hide their links which I will do at some point myself but these plugins are easy to setup and let you concentrate on setting up the rest of your site.

Chris

[andylink]

Chris

Thanks for the links. On reflection I'll probably go down the PHP script route myself but will look at the plugins in the mean time.

Cheers again mate

Andy

[HOmERCIdAL]

Your Welcome

Its good to know that even when I am new to this I can still offer something that someone finds useful.

If I may, can I offer a great page from a blog that I think is great for someone using wordpress?. It is in no way a reflection on your site as its better than anything I have yet to produce but simply something I plan to follow when I finally decide in which area I am going to follow.
The site is: WordPress SEO - Definitive Guide To High Rankings For Your Blog He is highly respected I believe in this forum and have found the plugins and advice he suggests to be very beneficial.

Chris

[andylink]

Chris

No worries. Thanks also for the blog link. I'm already a regular reader of Joost de Valk and have that page bookmarked. Same reason I installed the above redirection plugin as it happens. Might be useful to others though.

I was studying that page yesterday as trying to understand why my organic traffic dried up, thought it might be the number of affiliate links and google taking a dislike to them. Its obviously still in development but has made a couple of bonus sales.

Anyway I digress, Thanks again

Andy