Automatic redirects on doorway pages?

From: Philip Mak <mfraser_at_SEAS.GWU.EDU>
Date: Thu 07 Sep 2000 11:30:34 -0500

I had an idea about implementing an automatic redirect
for doorway pages on my site. I could setup a server
side script that checks the visitor's referring URL. If
the referring URL is from a search engine, then it can
send a redirect to the real page. Otherwise, it can
show the doorway page (which would also hopefully be
seen by the search engine spider).

Is the referring URL a reliable method of determining
whether someone came from a search engine?

That is, if someone's referring URL is
http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query*, can I be sure
that they are a human who clicked in from AltaVista (as
opposed to the AltaVista spider)?

I am thinking that this would be a reliable method of
determining that. HOWEVER, it would be very trivial for
the AltaVista spider to send a fake referring URL to
trick my script, so I'm wondering if anyone has
specific information about this.

-Philip Mak (mfraser_at_seas.gwu.edu)





Received on Thu Sep 07 2000 - 11:30:34 CDT