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Changing content based on visitor IP or cookie?

by BusinessGuy7
4 replies
Hey warriors,

We're trying to research possible solutions for a client of ours. Has anybody heard of a solution that allows webmasters to change out their content based on a user's IP address or cookie?

Here's what we're thinking:

If a user accessed an insurance website and browsed for a new auto policy. The website would record that user's IP or place a cookie on their browser. This way if the user decided to return to the main domain name, the website could automatically display content relating to auto insurance.

Anybody know of any solutions out there? Or what this type of service is even called?

Any info is appreciated...
#based #changing #content #cookie #visitor
  • Profile picture of the author onSubie
    Yes, I don't know specifically which solutions there are that would do what you want but they do exist so you should be able to find something.

    A geo-locator can prompt the website to display custom content or behaviour depending on where the visitor is coming from using the IP address.

    For example, when I visit U.S. retail sites, many offer a pop-up saying "Are you shopping from Canada? Click here to see our special Canadian Deals"

    You can also use cookies to restore a session for a user or identify what they were doing and return the same content, etc. Such as sending them directly to their cart if it was abandoned.

    As you surf the web you may see the same ads following you- for example you search for "Subaru headlights", for the next while no matter where you are YouTube, CNN, ESPN, you see ads for Subaru Headlights.

    This is "retargeting" and is managed using cookies on the visitor's machine.

    There should be a number of options to do what you want.
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  • Profile picture of the author JensSteyaert
    This isn't hard to do at all for a coder, i'm not aware of a custom script though.

    The best thing you can do is to post a project on a site like freelancer and you'll see how uch that will cost you. But i assume this is a pretty easy job so won't cost you $1000's.
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  • Profile picture of the author Humbee360
    I have seen it done with javascript and a form submission, not that hard to do, but its sort of a limiting thing, I have seen it most often done with OTO offers a few years ago, )
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  • Profile picture of the author Vin Venture
    Assuming you're not using a database or account system ( which it doesn't sound like you are ) the best way to do this would be via a cookie. Don't do it by IP, given that the majority of ISPs provide dynamic IPs these days it would be unreliable.

    Without much info about your side, I'm guessing you would want to something along the lines of:
    1. Have every page on your site, or category of content contain some sort of flag that indicates what it is.
    2. When a user visits a site, create a cookie that is regularly updated with either their last visited "content type" or continually build a string that concatenates the content types they have visited.
    3. When a user returns to your site, grab the values from the cookie and display the appropriate content.

    This is a very simple task, don't let someone charge you a bunch for this! On that note, if you're looking to hire a programmer to take care of this - give me a shout .

    Hope this helps!
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