Targeting by IP Address... SEO Issues?

[JMagary]

I'm setting up a site to display a different site header graphic depending on which U.S. State the IP address is coming from.  In theory we may end up doing 50 different images, although we'll probably start with 4 or 5 and then the other states will get a "default".

How will the SE's treat this... if it's just an image change, but the text on the page is the same, will it affect anything?  Any best practice advice out there?

thanks!

[retailgeek]

That variable image shouldn't cause you any SEO trouble.  You should consider changing the meta data for the image (Alt Tag, etc...) with the image.

If you want to be extra safe, and avoid any cache problems with your geolocation feature, you will want to use a HTTP Vary header with "*" on the pages that have the GeoLocation personalization.

-Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg

[Everett]

Jim I agree with Jason and don't think you have anything to worry about. Where you run into trouble is when you are specifically trying to show Google (or any other search engine) something different. For example, if Googlebot was using an IP address from Kansas you'd want to show them the Kansas image just like you show everyone else. Don't complicate things by saying "Show Kansas.jpg to all Kansas IPs, but always show Googlebot the default.jpg file). That would be cloaking. What you are doing is simple IP delivery and it should be safe.