Using IP Detection to Filter Directory Listings without Killing Your SEO?

[Jeremy_Lopatin]

I have a client who maintains a directory of surgeons across the United States (approx. 2,000 members at present), and wishes to use IP detection to dynamically filter their surgeon directory to a sub-set that is relevant to the geography of the visitor. At the same time, however, we want the pages in the surgeon directory to rank nationally for terms like "[insert specialty] surgeons". Any tips/best practices for implementing an IP detection solution without shooting yourself in the foot from an SEO perspective? Is it even possible?

Thanks!

Jeremy

[DirkC]

Just to be sure - you want to present something like this:

IP Address = New York
Visitor is seeing a page

domain.com/results_for_new_york

with canonical domain.com/results_generic

This might work - but it's not really a correct use of a canonical url (which is intended for duplicate content which is not really the case here) - so not sure if Google is going to respect the canonical in this case (canonical = hint - not a directive)

Personally wouldn't do it this way.

Dirk

[Jeremy_Lopatin]

Thanks, Dirk. That's a great solution. If my client is disinclined to introduce another click in the visitors' path, can you think of a solution that would still utilize a dynamically-presented selection of directory listings (based on IP), backed up with a canonicalized version of the complete directory?

Cheers,

Jeremy

[DirkC]

I would give the choice to the user rather than forcing him to a certain page. You could use the IP detection to trigger a message like "We noticed that you are from New York. Would you like to visit the <new york="" page="">or rather view the <generic page="">?". You could consider to store the choice in a cookie, so that on subsequent visits the visitor always goes to the New York pages rather than the generic ones.</generic></new>

This solution is both user friendly and doesn't have impact on SEO. If you use IP detection to force users to a certain page, there is always a risk (depending on the implementation) that Google is only indexing the Californian pages (as main Googlebot IP is Californian)

Dirk