Geo-tagging using cookie - Is it Good or Bad for Rankings

[Webmaster_SEO]

We have a fairly large site which does a cookie-based 302 redirect to the the specific city page if someone types in the Home page URL. Though if the cookie is not available (first time user) it goes to the Homepage and asks user to select the city as our services are city specific. Everything is working fine with this setup.

Though our tech team now wants to display the contents of city page on homepage URL itself if the cookie is available without 302 redirecting to new URL. Though no-cookie available scenario remains unchanged.

Technically, I think this change should work fine without any ranking issues as still the first time users see the actual homepage as does Googlebot.

Please confirm possible issues in rankings with this change from your experiences as based upon city present in the cookie homepage will display different content.

[Dr-Pete]

As long as the no-cookie variations stays the same, I don't see much practical difference. Either way, the default behavior is equivalent, and users see different content based on geo-location. What Google sees should be essentially the same, and any human editor who looks at the page should realize this is geo-tagging and not any kind of cloaking or deceptive practice.

That said, I haven't used this specific tactic, so I'll leave the question open for discussion if community members want to chime in.

[MiriamEllis]

Hello AnkitMaheshwari, Thanks for coming to Q&A with your question. I do feel some concerns about the redirects, as a Local SEO, but I am going to ask some of our traditional SEOs to step into this discussion to give their expert opinions. Sit tight. Miriam