Intentional redirect for international visitors to a website

[CleverClicks]

We are doing PPC for a new client, and using Clicktale to improve conversion rates.

However, Clicktale won't work because the client does not want international visitors looking at their website (competitive reasons! - yeah don't get me started...).

They have a redirect on for all international visitors which points to a "coming soon..." page

Are there any SEO implications on traffic in their own country (they currently do rank for terms)?

I'd like to go back with a strong case for them removing any international redirect.

Thank You

[CleverClicks]

Thanks for taking the time to reply Hannah, and for some solutions. I'm investigating them some more... Cheers, Philip.

[Hannah_Smith]

Hi Philip,

The short answer is yes - it can do. As Google crawl from the US, if they're redirecting US traffic it may mean that their site doesn't get crawled. If Google can't crawl... well, you get the picture.

As such this sort of redirect isn't something I'd readily recommend. That said, as long as Google can still crawl the 'live' version of their site they should be ok.

Nevertheless, typically in a case like this I'd recommend either:

1. Redirecting to some sort of international choice page (where all links are crawl-able). Cheap Flights do this pretty well - for example if you visit cheapflights.com from a UK IP - they push you to this page: http://www.cheapflights.com/workers/profile-select.aspx?sref=CFUK&redirect=GeoIP&geoip=GB&cfref=CFUS&spt=Home&rp=/

or

2. Using IP detection to show a javascript overlay with appropriate messaging - in this case I'd probably display a message to international visitors which said something like -

"It looks like you're visiting from (XX country). Unfortunately we're not able to ship to you just yet, however our (XX country) site is being developed right now. Click here and we'll email you once our new store opens."

I hope this helps,

Hannah