Serving Different Content Based on Search Query: Is This Allowed?

Jun 25, 2008 - 9:45 am 0 by

A High Rankings Forum member has an interesting question about a website he maintains. In the particular example, he is selling a niche item within a broader category. I'll use an example for illustrative purposes: he's basically selling "children's books." However, he notices that he's getting general traffic from "books" sites, though his specific focus is children's books. Now he realizes that he could potentially benefit from the "books" site traffic, so he's coded some different content to be served based on a particular search phrase. If you're searching for "books" in general, you'll get different content than if you're searching for "children's books," he explains.

Is this a problem?

High Rankings forum member rolf says it might be. It feels like a win-win situation -- you're serving the right content for your visitors while still benefiting from the traffic. But is it safe? It's hard to say. As rolf puts it, "you are technically breaking the rule about serving one thing to spiders and another to visitors."

Forum discussion continues at High Rankings.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: June 13, 2025

Jun 13, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google AI Mode Search, Apple Intelligence Updates, Google Live Search, AI Content, SEO & Google Ads

Jun 13, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google

Google Is Now Rolling Out AI Mode In The US

Jun 13, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Drops Support For Seven Existing Structured Data Markups

Jun 13, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Shows Audience Size For Custom Segments

Jun 13, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google

Google Search Autocomplete With Back To All

Jun 13, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Google Map Maker Launched