Instagram "link in bio"

colak · Yesterday 03:44:58

I have a problem with the “links in bio” we have in Instagram @nemeorg. On desktop browsers all works as intended, but when using the IG app on mobile devices (which is how most people visit the platform), I get a 403 error.

The link(s) look like https://www.neme.org/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZnRzaAPs8DtleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAafl1JK196eNmoXAFo04FyvDOSSQj-hIYXA9JWwUdkQu-ywof2jYqnrAty_soA_aem_0rzS-didWHbO7vJT-rzn_Q and I’m scrutinising our htaccess file to locate what I have done to block them, but I see no issues.

We are currently having 2 open calls with the 3rd one coming soon so I’m panicking that we will not be able to properly disseminate them in the platform,

gaekwad · Yesterday 11:26:14

You can safely remove the fbclid=PAZnRzaAPs8DtleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAafl1JK196eNmoXAFo04FyvDOSSQj-hIYXA9JWwUdkQu-ywof2jYqnrAty_soA_aem_0rzS-didWHbO7vJT-rzn_Q part of the URL as that’s a Facebook-specific (and session-unique).

What happens if you just link to https://neme.org with no queries?

gaekwad · Yesterday 11:29:05

Likewise, the utm stuff related to Google Analytics v4, and I don’t see any evidence of GA4 on neme.org on first pass…so unless you’re using another analytics app that uses utm queries, you can ditch the utm stuff, too.

phiw13 · Yesterday 12:13:19

@gaekwad, those query strings are set by FB/IG after you insert the link in your profile (or in a post or whatever). X.com né Twitter does the same but less visibly in their t.co/ links

Yiannis, I vaguely remember you had previously problems with those FB/IG links leading to a 403, that led you to add some redirect in your htaccess. Details are fuzzy though and I couldn’t find the post where you mention this.

gaekwad · Yesterday 12:16:19

phiw13 wrote #342454:

gaekwad, those query strings are set by FB/IG after you insert the link in your profile (or in a post or whatever). X.com né Twitter does the same but less visibly in their t.co/ links

Ah – I misread – I thought colak had set the target URL to be the lengthy one as specified in the OP. Thanks for clarifying.

Last edited by gaekwad (Yesterday 13:04:21)

gaekwad · Yesterday 13:09:30

What’s triggering the “Nice Try” text on your side? Is it a web application firewall or similar? I can reproduce the issue on Instagram for iOS, so I wonder if it’s the Instagram user agent that’s getting tripped up at your server end.

etc · Yesterday 14:07:35

The only reason for ‘Nice Try’ is a too long URL. Try a greater value of max_url_len pref, maybe. It issues a 503, though, not 403.

Desktop browsers often remove tracking stuff from URLs (natively or via an extension), so the problem gets hidden. When I try to access www.neme.org/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZnRzaAPs8DtleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAafl1JK196eNmoXAFo04FyvDOSSQj-hIYXA9JWwUdkQu-ywof2jYqnrAty_soA_aem_0rzS-didWHbO7vJT-rzn_Q, FF actually takes me to www.neme.org/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio.

colak · Yesterday 15:30:41

etc wrote #342457:

The only reason for ‘Nice Try’ is a too long URL. Try a greater value of max_url_len pref, maybe. It issues a 503, though, not 403.

Desktop browsers often remove tracking stuff from URLs (natively or via an extension), so the problem gets hidden. When I try to access www.neme.org/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZnRzaAPs8DtleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAafl1JK196eNmoXAFo04FyvDOSSQj-hIYXA9JWwUdkQu-ywof2jYqnrAty_soA_aem_0rzS-didWHbO7vJT-rzn_Q, FF actually takes me to www.neme.org/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio.

Thanks so much guys. The problem was indeed the url length. In my prefs I had a max length of 200 characters which I had to increase to 260 until I come up with an htaccess rule to trim everything after link_in_bio.

phiw13 · Today 00:20:34

I am not sure your value of 260 is enough to cover URI of articles or sections. When I try¹ with my own test domain and a link to an article I quickly reach 300+ characters.

The default is 1000 I think, which seems a little generous.
–^–

¹ manipulating the URL you provided at the start of the thread

peterj · Today 01:07:39

A client was getting “nice try” clicking her link from IG. I took a while to track the issue down. The fbclid was 155 chars long, total of fb crap query parameters 219 characters. I bumped it to 300 in TXP Publish prefs, but will boost again after reading this.

Not sure when the default changed to 1000, but most of my sites pre ~2018 still have 200 max length. Working through them all now but perhaps the value could be updated in a future version of TXP, if the site is still on 200 char default?

Last edited by peterj (Today 01:27:27)

colak · Today 01:20:23

A long url also opens the doors for site hacks.

Added the following rule to the site’s htaccess instead, reverted to the 200 max characters, and all works as intended… for now:).

RewriteEngine On
# Remove tracking parameters but keep utm_ parameters as they are also used by txp
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^(.*)&?(?:fbclid|gclid|msclkid)=[^&]*(?:&(.*))?$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /$1?%1%2 [L,R=301]

Does anybody know if other social media or newsletters such as mailcimp add any tracking strings? If so, let’s see how we can trim them.

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#1 Yesterday 03:44:58