If you are using PHPBay, Wade has already updated his Wordpress plugin and I highly suggest you download his latest version as well. If you are using any other plugin or platform, I highly suggest getting with the developer to make sure you get a fix in place soon.
Below is the post:
Hi all,
We have noticed recently that the use of temporary redirects (302 redirects) instead of 301 redirects can result in activity that is not compliant with our terms & conditions. We know that often this is unintentional, so we have worked together with a few of our affiliates to identify and prevent the problem. Here is an example to illustrate what can happen:
Many of our affiliates use a redirection page to help collect statistics on their click through to eBay. In these cases, when a user clicks on a link on the affiliate site, they are taken to a URL (redirection page) that logs the click through and then redirects them to an eBay page by using a 302 HTTP return code. The search engine crawler indexes the content it finds at the end of the temporary redirect (the eBay page) to the redirection URL. Therefore, when a user searches for content from the eBay page, the search engine results will contain matches to the redirection URL that link directly to eBay. This type of redirection is not compliant with our terms and conditions. A solution to this problem is to use permanent redirects, i.e. 301 return codes instead of 302. This will ensure that all the content on the destination page after the redirect is indexed to that page only.
If you are currently using a 302 redirect in a method similar to the one described above, please inform us by emailing CS and make the appropriate changes immediately. From June 8th 2010, we will treat this issue as an intentional breach of our terms and conditions and any affiliate exhibiting this behavior will be expired.
The eBay Partner Network team
7 comments:
Hi Dave,
Just to clarify, Sonjay's fix will fix and address ALL the redirect and referrer issues related to this EPN policy?
And is this a standard fix that needs to be done to all BANS sites or just those who use cloaking?
Thanks
It only applies to those using cloaking.
If you do not apply the patch and accidentally turn on cloaking, you run the risk of getting banned.
Brian, you may want to re-read what you wrote. Just a tip!
Dave
I downloaded the file... how do I edit the code to fix my bans store. I'm not getting it.
@Anonymous, I highly suggest you read through the thread on the BANS forum. It should clear things up for you.
Dave
What happened to the thread & instructions at the BANS forum for the fix - it's no longer there?
@Scott I do not know where that thread went. I did not delete it. You might want to see if sonjay removed it. it is news to me.
Dave
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