Validating a URL
The CheckUrl page is a tool that enables you to inspect a URL to confirm if the page is a suitable landing page for Katalys traffic.
Preview of the CheckURL tool
Use Cases
This tool can also be used for the following use cases.
Determine if a website is down for just you or for others on the internet.
Ensure the entered URL is an acceptable endpoint to route Katalys Traffic via a Landing Page in Tune.
Test how many redirects are performed when sending traffic to a URL.
Identify the CRM technology stack in use on a certain page.
Parse and validate that a URL is encoded correctly.
Documentation
The CheckUrl tool performs the following tests.
Server Responds Correctly
Checks the server hosting the website is responsive and is serving valid webpages. If a server is having problems, it might take too long to respond or return invalid data.
If this check fails, then this link is likely bad and should not be used. Note: this check may return false-positive if the web administrator blocks our web crawler from accessing their website.
Target Page Exists
Checks that the destination URL returns or redirects to a page that is not a 404 or "soft 404" page. This is validated by ensuring the HTTP response code is 200, that the target page will not redirect again using meta-refresh, and that the page title does not contain verbiage like "Page Not Found".
If this check fails, then this link is likely bad and should not be used.
Target Page Redirects
Checks that the intended destination URL matches the starting URL. Relying on redirects is risky because they can easily be forgotten or changed. We should make sure that when we link to a page, we are linking to the correct destination page. Note: there are specific offers that use tracking domains for inbound traffic at the Advertiser's request; this setup will always fail this check since all inbound links will always redirect.
If this check fails because the number of redirects is greater than 0, then this link is not preferred. Use the “ending” URL instead.
End URL is using Katalys Tracking Script
Checks that the Katalys Tracking Script is installed on the page. Our Tracking Script needs to be installed on each landing page.
If this check fails, then it means the Katalys Tracking Script was not found. If the Advertiser is directly integrated with our tracking, then it means you should communicate to the Account Manager that the Advertiser should add the tracking script to this page. Note: sub-offers will always fail this check as we rely on the sub-network to perform attribution for us, instead of installing our Tracking Script.
End URL Retains Tracking Parameters
Checks the destination URL retains the Katalys tracking parameters our Tracking Script needs to see to correctly attribute traffic. These are URL parameters like "publisher_id" or "transaction_id". When these parameters are missing, we may not always get proper attribution on inbound traffic. When this check fails, it might be because a redirect is stripping them; try updating the URL to be the post-redirect URL.
If this check fails, then the link might need to be updated with additional tracking parameters so our script can detect sessions correctly. Note: sub-offers will always fail this check as we rely on the sub-network to perform attribution for us, instead of installing our Tracking Script.
Website Tech Could Be Detected
Attempts to determine what technologies are used to host the website. This information can be used when onboarding a new client to propose a specific plugin to install.
This test should never fail. It is for debugging/informational purposes.
URL is Well-Formed
Validates that the starting URL is well-formed and matches industry standards. When a URL is malformed, it might be interpreted differently by browsers, resulting in non-standard behavior, improper redirects, and lost revenue.
If this test fails, then the URL you have entered has improper characters in it. We highly recommend reviewing URL formatting to ensure all values are encoded correctly, or re-generating the link.
End URL is using Katalys Link Replacer
Checks if the page contains the Katalys Link-Replacer Script.