Cookies on the index page

How does it affect the search engine spiders when you have a cookie on your index page so that when a returning visitor comes back they go directly in to the site? My understanding is that the spider would not see the "cookie" and therefore always return to the index page and then spider through the rest of the site. Is this a correct assumption, and if not please explain your thoughts.
Thanks.

are cookies mandatory on your site in order to proceed? If so, then there's a problem for sure as the spiders do not accept cookies. If the spider can go to your index page and not have to accept a cookie to browse/index your site, then there should be no problem that I can see.

They are not mandatory. The cookie detects if you have been to the site previously and then redirects you if you have. My thought is if the spiders do not accept cookies, then there should be no problem as they will always go to the index page, which is optimized.

Hi Sherrillh,

I can't see there being any problems. The best thing to do now is check the page with a Lynx Viewer. If there are any problems with that program being able to see the text and links on the page, then most likely the spiders will have problems as well.