How do they trget search terms on the fly

I've seen this occasionally myself, and it's indeed an intriguing question. While a webmaster can dynamically optimize a page based on one or more query string parameters, it's beyond me how they'd be able to manipulate the SERP titles based on search terms because what shows up in the SERPs is what's already in Google's index. Therefore, it could be Google itself that inserts the query term into the page title, and from that point on, the web page checks the referring URL (Google's redirect URL from the SERPs) and can then extract the keywords and use them to dynamically populate parts of the web page, which is why you're seeing that keyword on the page in the title, header, meta tags, and footer, even though nothing else on the page appears to be relevant to the query.

I did some searching on this and didn't find much. The only plausible explanation that I found was from a post at webmasterworld that said, "One thing that you may find Google and other search engines doing, is changing the clickable title that they display -- based on the user's search terms. The idea is to attract more clicks. So if the keyword isn't in the title, they may generate a variation based on anchor text - or even the DMOZ title or the Yahoo Directory title."

Sorry I can't give the URL where I took that quotation from because my post count is too low, but if you Google it, you should find it.

Well, you CAN get the search terms from the calling site URL, and store them to later provide a link on the page. They can be initially stored in google by cross linking keywords and links. Most big sites DO have such cross linked pages. AMAZON.COM is a good example of such a site. They MIGHT have done that ONLY because it increases the chances of a bigger order, but google will gooble it up in the same manner. Look for a watch and you may see top sellers, equivalent watches, relevant jewelry, and related repair kits, and the most popular items ordered with them. THOSE pages then link in the SAME way! A repair kit may link to a book on watch repair, and wrenches. The wrenches might link to power drills, and chain saws! AW HECK, the main page links to the top sellers for amazon OVERALL and then the main department for each category that links to the top sellers for that area.

Can you see how it is AMAZING that google doesn't just stall on that ONE site!?!? Saying it would gobble it up is like saying a locust swarm gobbles up plantlife.

Steve

In PHP, the value $_SERVER ['HTTP_REFERER'] identifies how people reach your website.

If you are a programmer, or hire a programmer, you can do this too...

First you check to see if the referring url is a search engine, then you dissect the url and pull the search terms from the url. Once this is done, you can feed the search terms back into the output for your web page...

As an added feature it may be a good idea to track what people search for on your site and automatically create pages for those searches...

any other suggestions?