How can I create separate entry page for those who come from Google?

I'm receiving decent amount of traffic from Google (for my blog site - link in my sig if you want to check) and I was wondering whether I should create a separate page for those who come to my site using google?

I was hoping to either create an entry page that would easily explain what the site is all about, and why you should read it - or alternative possibility could be to create a product page selling something for those who come from google.

Question is... how can I do this (technically - any links to PHP tutorials? or to some wordpress plugins?).

 

There's a variable in php which holds the referrer link i think.

Check if that has google in it, if so, send headers or javascript (better of with headers) to redirect.

Should work i think

 

It can be done by sniffing the referring domain and performing a redirect or simply serving different content.

The real question is how would the search engines interpret this separate landing page. You would have to be very careful to avoid looking like you are cloaking your content and would want to make sure you serve all of the Google bots the same content that you are serving Google visitors.

But then that brings up a different problem. Google is probably ranking you because of the content on your page and if you are getting good traffic from that source, I doubt you want to risk that by moving to a product centric page.

The technical aspect of how to do what you are talking about is the easy part. Whether or not it is a good idea is more tricky.

 

I think that it is a good idea to have a site to use from google. Preselling people to go to your blog is a great way to get them to really read it.

I would not recommend trying to sell a product right from google though. Create a landing page and then redirect them to 3-7 different options. Of course, making the first and best option your site.

Benjamin

 

Uh, what is it? How can I get it in PHP

My front page content is exchanging anyway completely every 10 days (I'm posting at least one new blog entry per day, so it will change). The reason my domain is ranked high is - I believe - the name of my domain, and having lots of sites linking there (I have worked on this site for a good amount of time, and put plenty of effort in doing it)

Yes... I thought I could give them headlines of the recent blog entries or something, and also explaining them how my site benefits them, why they should read etc. Although - not sure yet, that's why I'm asking.

I was thinking of creating a survey that would ask browsers why the used google to browse my site. That way I could get information on what people surf when they come here. Depending on the answers I could then choose my product line (it could be ads, it could be ebook, it could be business offer, consulting, job offerings - anything). But I would need to know what they were after.

Or... instead of selling I could explain why they should visit my blog more often.

Nevertheless, PHP code would help (anyone?) - and of course more suggestions regarding "this is good idea - or not"

 

<?
$ref=$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']; 
if(substr($ref,0,18) == "http://www.google.")
	header("Location: http://www.yourdomain.com/googleonlyurl");
?>

PHP:

That should work. Basically, it gets the url of the referring link, and if the first 18 characters are http://www.google. then it redirects to http://www.yourdomain.com/googleonlyurl

By only checking the first 18 chars, it ensures that any google will work, regardless of the country (.com, .co.uk etc.)

alternatively, instead of putting out a header, you could just echo a different page content.

Hope that helps.

 

Thanks d0m1n1c, I'll give it a go.

 

Realize that this is a slippery slope...

Google does not look kindly upon stealthed links.

 

I see... although I believe showing a "welcome popup" (or similar) for those who came from google should be okay, what do you think?

 

On one of my sites, we provide a different section of content to ALL guests. It seems to work well.

 

Like was mentioned before in the thread, make absolutely positively sure that the google bots see the same information that your visitors will see. If that rule gets broken, the big G will smack you down, big time. A lot of people do this and make a lot of money with throwaway domains, but if this is a big investment, taking the risk is not worth it.

Forwarding your traffic based on where it came from can be done by altering the .htaccess file. You might want to dig up some info on that.