While PassiveWP’s link cloaking should “just work,” occasionally you might run into issues with your cloaked URLs. If a cloaked affiliate link isn’t behaving correctly (e.g., not redirecting properly), here are some common problems and how to fix them:

1. Cloaked Link Goes to a 404 (Page Not Found):
When you click a cloaked URL (like yoursite.com/go/product) and get a 404 on your own site:

• Check the Slug: Possibly the slug is wrong or doesn’t exist. Maybe you mistyped the link or changed it in PassiveWP. Go to PassiveWP’s Links list and verify the slug for that link. Use the exact URL it shows.
• If you changed the prefix or slug recently, old references will break. Update the links in your content to the new URL, or if feasible, change the slug back or add a redirect from old slug to new slug (could do in .htaccess or Redirection plugin).
• Ensure PassiveWP is Active: Sounds basic, but if PassiveWP got deactivated or the .htaccess rules (for pretty links) got messed up, the cloaked URLs may not resolve. Make sure the plugin is active and permalinks are working.
• Resave Permalinks: Go to WP Settings → Permalinks and click Save (without changing anything). This rebuilds WP’s rewrite rules. PassiveWP’s cloaked links use WP’s redirect endpoints, which rely on rewrite rules. If they glitched, this can fix.

2. Cloaked Link Redirects to Home Page:
If clicking a cloaked link just lands you back on your own homepage (instead of the target):

• This often means the slug isn’t recognized and WP is treating it as a normal page request it can’t find, so some themes redirect 404s to home.
• The root cause is similar to above: an incorrect slug or missing rewrite. Follow the same steps: verify slug, resave permalinks.
• Also check if the prefix is correct. If you changed the prefix (like from /go/ to /recommend/), and forgot to update content links, a link with old prefix might dump you to home (or 404). Either change those or (if you want old prefix to still work) maybe temporarily keep both prefixes via an .htaccess redirect (advanced).

3. Redirect Loop (Link Keeps Reloading or Bouncing):
If clicking the link makes the browser spin and perhaps eventually error out (too many redirects):

• Possibly you set the cloaked link’s target as your own site by mistake, causing a loop. E.g., cloaked URL yoursite.com/go/offer points to yoursite.com/offer (which might redirect back to yoursite.com/go/offer). Ensure the target URL in PassiveWP is an external link (http(s)://someothersite).
• If you truly need to cloak an internal link (rare, and not recommended), be careful not to point a cloaked link to a URL that will redirect into the cloaked prefix.
• Check your redirect type: 301 vs 302. A 301 is cached heavily by browsers, so if you previously had something mis-set, the browser might cache a wrong redirect. Try clearing cache or using a different browser. If that resolves it, a stale cache might’ve been causing a seeming loop.
• If the loop involves an external site (like clicking your link briefly goes to merchant then comes back to your site?), that’s odd. Possibly the affiliate network tried to check referrer and sent back? Unlikely. But test the target URL directly: paste the raw affiliate URL in incognito and see if it forwards correctly. If the raw link itself loops, issue is with the affiliate link, not PassiveWP.

4. Cloaked Link Not Cloaking (Shows Raw URL):
If you notice the link is not being cloaked at all (e.g., in your content the anchor directly has the long affiliate URL, not your domain):

• Perhaps you inserted it not using PassiveWP’s cloaking but manually. PassiveWP doesn’t magically cloak existing links; you have to use their system (shortcode or adding via their interface). So edit the link to use the cloaked URL.
• If you thought PassiveWP would auto-convert all outgoing links to cloaked ones, it doesn’t do that (some plugins have auto-link features but PassiveWP cloaking is manual unless using auto-keyword linking for non-Amazon).

5. Conflict with Another Plugin (or Cloudflare):
Sometimes other redirect or link plugins could interfere:

• If you have a security plugin or redirect plugin that also deals with URLs, see if it’s affecting PassiveWP’s prefix path.
• Cloudflare’s URL forwarding or other optimizations might possibly interfere if not configured. If using Cloudflare, try temporarily disabling “Automatic HTTPS Rewrites” or similar to see if that affects it (not common though).
• Check your .htaccess or Nginx config if any custom rules might catch the /go/ path before WP does.

6. Some Cloaked Links Work, Others Don’t:
If only certain links error:

• Compare their settings in PassiveWP. Maybe those broken ones have a slight format difference in target (like maybe a URL missing “http://” which could cause issues).
• Ensure every target URL starts with http:// or https://. If you accidentally left that out, WP might think it’s a relative URL on your site and thus cause a loop or 404.
• Check for typos in those URLs.

7. Cloaked Link Points to Wrong Destination:
You click and it goes to an affiliate site, but not the one you expected:

• Possibly you mixed up target URLs in PassiveWP (entered wrong one under a title). Go edit the link and correct the target.
• Or maybe the affiliate program changed something (like a deactivated campaign URL). In that case, update to a current URL.

8. HTTP vs HTTPS Issues:
If your site or the target site isn’t properly handling SSL:

• Ensure all your cloaked URLs use the correct scheme. If your site is HTTPS (it should be nowadays), your cloaked link should be https://yoursite.com/go/slug.
• If target is http and your site is https, user goes from secure to non-secure, which is okay but browser might flash a warning or icon. Not much to do except see if the affiliate offers an https link (many do).
• If something like HSTS is forcing https and the target doesn’t support https, that might cause an error. Try to use https targets whenever possible.

9. Debug Logging:
PassiveWP might log errors for cloaked links somewhere (maybe not, since it’s mostly WP’s redirect handling). If comfortable, you can add some debug in your .htaccess or WP debug to see if a request is hitting PassiveWP’s redirect code. But usually, just reconfiguring via settings fixes it.

10. Ask a Friend to Test:
If it works for you but someone reports it doesn’t for them, gather info:

• Perhaps a location-based issue (some affiliate links behave differently by country).
• Or user error (they copy-pasted the link wrong).
• Browser extension issues, etc.
• Having another person test can rule out local cache or login-specific behavior (for example, if logged in as admin, some plugins might bypass certain rules).

11. Recreate the Link:
If one link just won’t behave, try deleting that cloaked link in PassiveWP and add a fresh one with a slightly different slug. Update your content to the new slug. Maybe something glitched in the DB entry; a fresh record could solve it.

12. Keep PassiveWP Updated:
A bug in an older version could cause redirect issues. Ensure you’re on the latest version as it might include bug fixes for any known cloaking problems.

13. Known PassiveWP Specific Issues:
Check PassiveWP support forums or documentation if any known issues:

• e.g., “Link cloaking not working on Nginx servers – solution: add X rule to config” or similar.
• If you find nothing, their support can help if it’s a persistent issue.

Usually, cloaking issues boil down to misconfiguration. Once properly set, PassiveWP’s cloaked links should be rock-solid. So a systematic check of slug, target URL, prefix, and environment usually unearths the culprit. Fix that, and your links will whisk users away to the right destination without errors – making you money instead of confusion. 🔗✅