How do I hide a Joomla site from search engines?

[ViewFactory]

Is there a way to "hide" a Joomla site so it does NOT get indexed by search engines?

Thanks in advance!

[jmc]

Hi!
Theoretically, yes. It can be done by setting the appropriate switches in your .htaccess and/or robots.txt files. However, given that not all search engines actually respect and obey said files, it may be somewhat problematic.
A simple robots.txt file, which should deny all robots from crawling your site would be like this:

Code: Select all

# Make changes for all web spiders
User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Check out the Joomla default robots.txt file in your install.
If you're talking about hiding a site whilst it's under development, the best way is to simply develop it offline, using one of the many WAMP packages out there. The finished article can then be uploaded as "good-to-go" to your web server. Of course, you may then find that you encounter some difficulties due to server configuration not matching your own setup
But life is a learning curve!
HTH,
John Mc

[ViewFactory]

Thanks for the info John,
Yes, my client is asking for a resume site, but only wants to hand out the url to companies he is applying to. He has had bad experiences with old college buds, etc, googling him and finding his site, I guess.

So I will try to edit the robots.text file as you have suggested.

[ptmike]

What I do is password protect the root directory with cpanel. Then give out usernames and passwords to who ever.

Regards

Mike

[trichnosis]

you can also use <meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW"> meta tag to prevent bots

[baconi]

Hi everybody

The most imortant question which makes me wondering is how to hide only part of joomla contents (articles) from search engines.

[jmuehleisen]

makes me wondering is how to hide only part of joomla contents (articles) from search engines.

You can fine tune the robots directives on an article by article basis if you want.

In the article editor, look at the "Metadata options" section.

I don't know how to do it globally for all articles, though. But you can turn it on and off on an article by article (and therefore page by page) basis.

[baconi]

makes me wondering is how to hide only part of joomla contents (articles) from search engines.

You can fine tuen the robots directives on an article by article basis if you want.

In the article editor, look at the "Metadata options" section.

I don't know how to do it globally for all articles, though. But you can turn it on and off on an article by article (and therefore page by page) basis.

Thank you for the quick reply, but I didnt fully understand what is supposed to write in the metadata options section, maybe s.th like NOROBOT, please tell me

Description:
Key words:
Robots:
Autor:

[jmuehleisen]

There is a robots option right in there.

Just choose "No index, no follow" from the drop down.

Like this:

ss-robots.gif

[baconi]

There is a robots option right in there.

Just choose "No index, no follow" from the drop down.

Like this:

ss-robots.gif

that was wonderful, thank you very much

[baconi]

There is a robots option right in there.

Just choose "No index, no follow" from the drop down.

Like this:

ss-robots.gif

sorry for the clarification, but my Meta information is without drop down menu for the robots

SO... can I write down no index, no follow

[jmuehleisen]

Which version of Joomla do you have?

Sorry. I gave you information for Joomla 2.5 and forgot that you were using 1.5.

So, simply type in there "noindex, nofollow".

[baconi]

Which version of Joomla do you have?

Sorry. I gave you information for Joomla 2.5 and forgot that you were using 1.5.

So, simply type in there "noindex, nofollow".

yes, my joomla is 1.5.22

and final queston
"no index, no follow" - with space
or
"noindex, nofollow" - without space

[jmuehleisen]

You do need to update your Joomla to 1.5.26 for sure.

And there is no space in noindex and nofollow

[baconi]

You do need to update your Joomla to 1.5.26 for sure.

And there is no space in noindex and nofollow

my joomla is already 1.5.26 but there is still no drop down menu, so I manually write down in robots field "noindex, nofollow" - without spaces

is it already OK?

[jmuehleisen]

Yes, that is OK. The drop downs came in the Joomla 2.5 series.

[irandream]

(For GOOGLE ONLY ) you can use the URL removal tool in google Webmaster Tools if you need to urgently remove your site from Google search results

[Yesceeohhh]

You can do it in 2 ways wither in robots.txt disallow bots to crawl your website or in the meta data options give "no index, no follow"

[mostafa2012]

use a robots.txt file. Place the file in the root of the site with this content:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

[malfooh]

There is a robots option in the control panel . You can use no index , no follow.. so it will not appear on search engines

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