$HTTP_REFERER ?

[Anon]

I've written a simple script to create a click-thru counter based on link and source.

We have this on 3 sites, so I have 4 possible outputs.

siteone.com
sitetwo.com
sitethree.com
email (outside referer if page is sent by email).

I'm using $HTTP_REFERER to reference which site this is coming from. Yesterday when we emplemented the script, the numbers seemed realistic, about 40% for siteone, 30% for site two, 25% for site three and 5% for email.

Today those numbers are critically wacked, about 75% are coming from the email source. So basically what I'm wondering is there some kind of other source that wouldn't register as a $HTTP_REFERER?

$refer=$HTTP_REFERER;
if(eregi("siteone",$refer)){
$ref="1";
} elseif(eregi("sitetwo",$refer)){
$ref="2";
} elseif(eregi("sitethree",$refer)){
$ref="3";
} else {
$ref="4";
}

If there are any suggestions, I'm up for hearing them. Maybe the pages are being emailed and taken like crazy, but just doesn't seem realistic.

Ron

[Anon]

You should use stristr and not eregi for the checks. You don't need a regex for this and eregi is slower too.

There are proxies that browsers connect through such as Junkbuster that can block the referer. Maybe you should log the unknown ones to a file or database to see what they are.

[cheald]

If someone goes straight to the site, the referer will be null. That will greatly inflate your email stats.

[cheald]

Let me clarify - if they type in the address rather than clicking a like to it, the referer is null.

Haven't had my mountain dew this morning 🙂

[frog_]

Chirs is right, if they go straight to your site or come to your site from another, then there HTTP_REFERER will not be useful to you.

I believe $REQUEST_URI will get your current url or $REDIRECT_URL

Is that what you are asking for?