Apache rewrite help

Showing pages based upon refferer

[mcouvillon]

I need an apache url rewrite file that lets users reffered from search engines see the requested page and all other users see another page. The location of the other page should be able to be altered in the htaccess file for other websites.

So:
users reffered from google, yahoo, msn, altavista, ect. will see the requested page.

All others will see a page that I specify.

The reason is that I want to only have users that are reffered from search engines to see my pages. This is an experiment for my marketing class.

Does anyone know how to do this?

[jdMorgan]

mcouvillon,

Yes, many people know how to do this, and we'll be happy to help you learn [webmasterworld.com] to do it, too. :) Or you could contract their services to write the code for you.

Before starting, however, you should know that using HTTP Referrers for access or content control is only about a 75% proposition. The HTTP Referrer header is not always sent by the client, and in many cases, clients behind corporate or ISP proxy servers or using "Internet Security" software will never send a referrer.

Then there is the issue of cloaking -- serving a different page to a search engine spider than you serve to a search engine user. Such practices can get your pages or domains banned, leaving you with a 'marketing problem' of the first order. So caution is advised.

Jim