Step by Step solution

Phase 1: Quick Wins (Start Here - 70% Success Rate)

1. Open private/incognito browser window
2. Test your referral link
3. If it works → Clear all browser cache and cookies
4. If still broken → Continue to Step 2

• Log into Cloudflare dashboard
• Create page rule: yoursite.com/*ref* → Cache Level: Bypass
• Go to Caching → Configuration → Set "Caching Level" to "No Query String"[3][4]

• Deactivate WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, etc.
• Test referral links
• If working, configure exclusions for referral URLs[5][6]

Phase 2: Server-Level Issues (25% Success Rate)

1. Backup your .htaccess file first
2. Via FTP/cPanel, rename .htaccess to .htaccess-backup
3. Test referral links
4. If working, the issue is redirect order in .htaccess[7][8]

# Custom redirects MUST come BEFORE WordPress section
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^(.*)ref=(.*)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /$1?%1ref=%2 [L]

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
# WordPress rules here
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

Phase 3: WordPress Code Solutions (30% Success Rate)

// Force early referral tracking
function force_early_referral_tracking() {
    if (isset($_GET['ref']) || isset($_GET['referral']) || isset($_GET['affiliate'])) {
        // Force WooCommerce session start
        if (class_exists('WooCommerce')) {
            WC()->session->init();
        }
        // Force session start
        if (!session_id()) {
            session_start();
        }
    }
}
add_action('init', 'force_early_referral_tracking', 1);

# Bypass caching for referral URLs
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (ref=|referral=|affiliate=) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [E=no-cache:1]
Header set Cache-Control "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate" env=no-cache
</IfModule>

Note Hosting-Specific Quick Fixes

• server level caching serves cached pages before WordPress loads
• CDN/Cloudflare caches URLs with query parameters
• .htaccess redirects interfere with referral parameters
• WordPress hook timing - plugins load after other systems intercept requests
• Session management issues on shared hosting with limited PHP session timeouts

Advanced Solutions (If above Steps Fail)

1. Create folder /wp-content/mu-plugins/
2. Add file force-referral-early.php:

<?php
function force_referral_plugins_early() {
    if (isset($_GET['ref']) || isset($_GET['referral'])) {
        while (ob_get_level()) {
            ob_end_clean();
        }
        if (!headers_sent()) {
            header('Cache-Control: no-cache');
        }
    }
}
add_action('muplugins_loaded', 'force_referral_plugins_early', 1);

To make sure this never happens again

1. Always backup files before making changes
2. Test on staging site first if possible
3. Document changes so you can reverse them
4. Contact plugin support with diagnostic data if nothing works