This is an awesome question and I surprised the topic hasn't been more deeply covered by someone. A thread in HighRankings asks whether or not he is risking it with Google if he serves different content on a page based on the search term source. He switches out content by looking at the HTTP_REFERER details for the specific search query if its avaliable but serves Google the default content when GoogleBot comes crawling.
Certainly this is against Google's guidelines, however the site owner is simply trying to customize content for his user thus enhancing their experience, Google mantra 'design for the user not the search engines'. Only 2 comments but both seem to suggest that the site owner is dangerously walking the line here.
I have to believe this is going to become a big issue down the road for search engines as sites look to customize user info more and more. Consequently I would have to believe that Google will come to accept this practice. Guess it remains to be seen.
No comments:
Post a Comment