Encrypt urls
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[edit] URL Encryption or Redirection
When cloaking a URL, the most common method is the "URL redirect". This is done by many different methods. The use of javascript, PHP, and HTML encryption are the most common.[1]
URL redirection is accomplished most commonly with the use of a frame inside a web page. The frame within is an invisible window which points to the external website outside of the website that they are currently visiting. The viewer is seeing all of the content from the other website, yet the address bar on their web browser is still showing the URL of the website hosting the cloaked link. This is because they have never actually left the current site.
So why do people cloak links? The most common reason is if one is promoting online products under an affiliate program. When a person becomes an affiliate representing someone else's product, they are given a special link which includes their affiliate ID within it. This ID allows the affiliate to receive credit for a sale if someone clicks through their link and buys a product. Unfortunately for the affiliate, it is easy for someone to sign up for the same affiliate program and insert their own ID in place of theirs. The affiliate then loses their commission to the shady visitor. People also may give less credibility to affiliate links, because the reader might feel that the review is slanted in favor of generating a sale. This may or may not be the case depending on the affiliate.
A cloaked link makes a long messy link look like a short natural looking link which simply points to another "cloaked" web page on the same site. Embedded in that cloaked web page is a redirection script that will redirect the visitor to another web site's product page. PHP is a scripting language that is commonly used in redirection. One reason that PHP is a popular vehicle for this is because the redirection code cannot be read by simply clicking on "view source" in your web browser. This offers an added layer of security to the affiliate.
Another form of URL encryption is making a link invisible to a search engine spider. The reason someone may wish to hide a link from a search engine spider would be to help preserve their page rank. For example, the privacy "policy", and "about us" pages aren't always relevant to their main content and therefore is believed by some to "steal" Google page rank from their main page. By cloaking their link with a "rel=no follow" tag in their URL or some other method, one could increase the page rank value of their relevant links. This would in-turn keep the non-relevant pages off of the search engine listings, adding for a better quality experience for the searcher.
