I am about to launch an international product and want to re-direct my visitors based on what country their IP originates from. This is mainly to display country specific info and local currency.

Before i implement this i would like to get some feedback if possible on the implications this will have to search engine rankings.

I think googlebot's IP is always in the states, would this mean that only the US version would be indexed? How could i make a redirect of this kind SE friendly?

Do not redirect the bots and also have an option of viewing the international version or even a country specific version like ebay or google. We are redirected based on country info but we can also use the some other country Google homepage or even at ebay.

Another problem is that every AOL user in the world comes from either Virginia or New York and sometimes both in any one session.

if i redirect visitors but not bots then that is IP cloaking which is a definate ban and very detectable.

Thanks for the heads up on AOL users Chris. I'm not so sure if its such a good idea now. I wanted to make the site seem like it was based in whatever country the visitor is from to build trust in the site but I cant see an easy and effective way to do it.

No It's not cloaking, It is targeted content delivery. Bots will see essentially the same content just with minor differences I assume.

The "but Google Cloaks" argument has been used many times to justify what the cloakers do

"Real" cloaking is showing the various SE bots one thing and users something totally different.

OK, I'll give it a go. Im curious to see how well it works anyway.

if i redirect visitors but not bots then that is IP cloaking which is a definate ban and very detectable.

You probably misunderstood my concept or probably I did not convey you the message. What I meant is if the user accepts the cookie redirect him to the concerned country specific pages and if it does not just let him select the country and then navigate. This will not redirect the bots and users who also dont wish to get redirected.

sounds like a good idea shabbirbhimani, thanks