Does it make sense to show a referrer-specific greeting to users?

Question

There's a jQuery plugin that displays specific greetings to users based on the location they reached the current URL from. If they found it through Google, it would show a greeting that mentions Google or something.

I can see how this could create a more compelling experience for users—as far as I know, "talking" to them is how to best communicate.

I'm considering using this system for my new blog, but needed confirmation that it is a worthwhile effort. Will users really appreciate something like this?

Answer 1

Given that users appreciate features that add value I think it doesn't make sense to just add something like 'Hello Google searcher'.

Let's say your new blog is a website about cooking. If the user searched for 'lemon chicken' on Google it can add value to display the search term, and if you have more postings containing this search term, display a link fire a search on your site to find even more related to the search term. Effort might not be low though.

Not all users might be aware of the fact that it's not a secret to the visited website how they got there. Do you want them to figure this out on your site?

Having said this I would rather not implement this feature.

Answer 2

Typically when I see something like this on a homepage or blog post it I think it is pretty gimmicky & useless. There isn't any value to me as a visitor.

That being said, at the dot-com I work for we have landing pages for specific partners that present different offers to visitors coming from partner sites... In this case there is a definite benefit for the visitor, partner, and my company.

If you're providing special content or offers based on the referrer then I'd say go for it, otherwise it is probably something you can do without.

Answer 3

In general, I don't know if this adds enough value to be worth the effort.

I would evaluate the list of major referrers that are already coming to your blog. What is the context of how they are being referred? Is the site they are coming for one that they are on regularly?

A good example I can think of where this would be worthwhile is if visitors were coming from a website related to an event where you were a speaker or maybe a featured product. The special greeting could be meaningful to a user in that sort of context.

Disclaimer: the above is rather subjective, but hopefully thought-provoking

Answer 4

It would depend a lot on the site itself whether it is appropriate or not. A site which panders to security paranoid conspiracy theorists may react quite badly, for example.

You mention a "more compelling experience" .. for a personal blog, this might translate into more return visits, rss subscriptions, commenting, forwarding of links, etc. All these can be measured, so what you could try doing is setting up an AB test.

Then you'd know if it's a good thing or not for your blog.