301 Redirection

[Tiggerito]

The OP is not asking about the case where he knows of, let alone controls, any re-directs, but rather if it is possible to detect if a given page is the target of any unknown re-directs, the answer to which is No."

The OP never said "unknown re-directs" or that they don't control them, hence I offered a solution if they did. I said "If you control the redirects".

I'd find it an interesting scenario where websites will start redirecting to your website without you having some relationship and potential influence with them.

We should let @shailender back in to clarify the problem and see if we are getting closer to solving it.

Maybe the referrer information would be of help? You would need to know which referrers are known redirects though, and I'm not sure how reliable referrer data is when redirects are involved.

[dgswilson]

If you get 404logger - a free script from http://www.perlscriptsjavascripts.com you can get some better read outs for anything that hits an error page. Referrer is included if available. Info is only as complete as the server access log. They also have a free access log viewer but I haven't tried it. You could set up ( <!--#include="404.cgi"--> ) on any error page, or all pages (using SSI's) to get an idea of who is coming from where.

[deepsand]

The OP never said "unknown re-directs" or that they don't control them, hence I offered a solution if they did. I said "If you control the redirects".

If they were controlled or otherwise known about there would be no need for the question re. how to detect.

I'd find it an interesting scenario where websites will start redirecting to your website without you having some relationship and potential influence with them.

Wouldn't necessarily be the case that your site be the target. It may be the case of trying to learn if another site is the the target of re-direct(s).

For example, Toolbar PR can be spoofed using a 301 to a page with the desired TBPR. Very easy to detect knowing the URL of the page with the bogus TBPR; not so the case if trying to find out if a given page's TBPR is being so used.

Maybe the referrer information would be of help? You would need to know which referrers are known redirects though, and I'm not sure how reliable referrer data is when redirects are involved.

I quite recently, in a case where there was no time for setting up anything better for tracking purposes, tried just that; structure looked like this.

• Source_URL A/Link 1 ---> Intermediate_Target_URL 1 ---> 301 ---> Final_Target_URL Z
• Source_URL A/Link 2 ---> Intermediate_Target_URL 2 ---> 301 ---> Final_Target_URL Z

The only Referer data received by Final_Target was Source_URL A.

[shailender]

The OP never said "unknown re-directs" or that they don't control them, hence I offered a solution if they did. I said "If you control the redirects".

Well, I don't know control any redirect in my query. I somehow got this question in my mind and I asked it. Meanwhile after all this long conversation, one thing is quite sure that you can't check the source page of 301 redirection from the target page.

[deepsand]

Well, I don't know control any redirect in my query. I somehow got this question in my mind and I asked it. Meanwhile after all this long conversation, one thing is quite sure that you can't check the source page of 301 redirection from the target page.

That should be obvious, as no page has any knowledge of what other pages might to linking to it by any of the several possible ways.

[Tiggerito]

Well, I don't know control any redirect in my query. I somehow got this question in my mind and I asked it. Meanwhile after all this long conversation, one thing is quite sure that you can't check the source page of 301 redirection from the target page.

It seems so.

There would be something you could do, but it would require some coding.

You could find all pages that send people to your website via sources like:

• Analytics Referrer data
• Header Referrer data
• Backlink data such as from Google Webmaster Tools

As @deepsand pointed out the referrer data relates to the source page and not the redirect page. From my backlink checker tool analysis I believe they also behave the same way.

So, you could parse each of those source pages. You would have to find every link on the page and follow it. If you have redirecting links to your website you should find them that way.

It's no way 100% and dependent on the source page being indexed or causing traffic to your website. And it would take some work to code.

Or you could persuade one of the backlink sources like SEOmoz or even Google Webmaster Tools to provide a flag if a link was via a redirect.

[Tiggerito]

If its a server-side redirect then you can't track it unless you have privileges to the hosting system logs or you are the administrator on that machine .Server-side redirects (ie. a 301, 302, or a "Location: "
header) there is no page rendered in the browser. But if this redirect is done through page(not server-side) java scripting, meta refresh or any scripting or web language then you can track it yourself easily .

CheerS!

Both 301 redirects (HTTP Header protocol) and in html redirects (HTML protocol) are sent in the response. Both can be tracked if you know how to do it. This is if you made the request.

The issue here is that the subsequent request to the next destination (done by the browser) does not contain any information that indicates a redirect happened or where the redirect came via. It may contain the original URL of the request, but that is of no use to this problem.

[LD]

A Web server function where an old URL can be redirected to a new one. 301 Redirect is a "permanent" redirect status indicating that the resource has moved permanently.

Hmmmm. Never mind this is a cut-n-paste from another source on the internet, but when did the United Kingdom, migrate to Mumbai in India?