Blocking query strings in URLs

Hey guys,

I have a small problem.

I have a site where I'm blocking some php files for example:

example.php

I have this entered in robots.txt and the page isnt being indexed but the query string versions are, like...

example.php?u=4545

What do i put in my robots.txt to stop all variations of this file.

Some on suggested simply /example but one would assume that would affect a directory?

Please help

Thanks.

 

Hi,

User-agent: *
Disallow: /example.php

Code (markup):

This robots.txt disallows access to:
- /example.php
- /example.php?u=4545
- /example.php_followed by_any_characters

Jean-Luc

 

In Google that works, but it does not for Yahoo.

Yahoo is not indexing example.php but is indexing example.php?u=222

 

Do you mean that Yahoo does not even respect the most basic robots.txt directives ? I can hardly believe that.

Jean-Luc

 

Why would I lie?

It respects the block in the robots.txt its blocks example.php

Query strings are not in the robots.txt so why should it respect them?

 

Dave,

The Robot Exclusion Protocol is very clear :

Yahoo claims it respects this 1994 standard. Of course, you might have found a bug in Yahoo's algorithm.

Jean-Luc

 

Blocks all query string urls :
Disallow: /*?*

Blocks all example.php query string urls :
Disallow: /example.php?*

 

You never read the specification.

Jean-Luc

 

Thats great, I will block them all as all URLS are rewritten anyway.

Thanks.