Allow google to see private content

Discussion in 'Site & Server Administration' started by AspDotNetGuy, Sep 15, 2005.

  1. #1
    Is there a way to and would you suggest allowing google to index your private content that is for members only and would you suggest it as long as you don't allow google to cache it?

    I was thinking that there might aloow a lot more hits but you don't want the people to be able to read it without registering first.

    Thanks,

    AspDotNetGuy
     
    AspDotNetGuy, Sep 15, 2005 IP
  2. Liminal

    Liminal Peon

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    #2
    Create an guest acct that does not require authentication and make sure all pages for this acct are spiderable
     
    Liminal, Sep 15, 2005 IP
  3. johnt

    johnt Peon

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    #3
    Depending on what authentication method you're using you could always check to see if the user agent is Googlebot and then treat them as if they were logged in.
    The downside to doing it this way is that people can maniuplate their UserAgent to masquerade as GoogleBot, though the vast majority of web surfers wouldn't know how to do that, or even that it was possible. I guess that it would depend on the technical capacity of your target audience, and whether you were prepared to accept a few people reading your material without registering.

    John
     
    johnt, Sep 15, 2005 IP
  4. Willy

    Willy Peon

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    #4
    Welcome to DP, AspDotNetGuy ;)

    Like John said above, it's fairly simple in technical terms. However, be aware that what you would be doing qualifies as "cloaking", from Google's point of view.

    Then again, unless my memory fails me, I have heard of some large and respectable paid-subscription news services doing this. In any case, to become informed about the dangers and rewards, have a look at Webmasterworld's cloaking forum or any "black hat" SEO forum.
     
    Willy, Sep 16, 2005 IP