Allowing spiders to have access to password protected directories via htaccess file?

They have: 3 posts

Joined: Jul 2006

Is this possible at all?

Many thanks for any assistance.

Richard

Renegade's picture

He has: 3,022 posts

Joined: Oct 2002

I'm not sure if it's possible or not, but I'm wondering, what's the point in password protecting a file but having it indexed in the first place?

They have: 3 posts

Joined: Jul 2006

Just to have some pages indexed in Google, as I'm creating a small site but would like to keep a section away from the public eye.

Sounds silly I know Smiling But I believe it cannot be done anyway.

Renegade's picture

He has: 3,022 posts

Joined: Oct 2002

Wouldn't having it open for Google be the same as having it open for the public?

They have: 3 posts

Joined: Jul 2006

Practically yes, I was just hoping that there were a way to give spiders access.

pr0gr4mm3r's picture

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Actually, what you could do is redirect people away from the part of your site if they aren't a search engine judging by their user agent.

Busy's picture

He has: 6,151 posts

Joined: May 2001

user agents aren't fool proof, example I often surf around on FF with user agent set as google (is a ff extension), can set it to anything you want, I believe Opera has similar option.

Why do I do it? Because a lot of silly people redirect per browser (usually to a sorry I can't code properly, get ie to view this site type message) so using a no biased user agent like google gets the bare facts without the bull

Back to the question though. whats the point in it? Even if the spider does spider the directory and lists it on search results people aren't going to be able to view the pages, will call you lots of names and go elsewhere. Unless you want to drive people away there is no sanity in it

teammatt3's picture

He has: 2,102 posts

Joined: Sep 2003

Just thought of an example for this. Check out all the indexed pages by WebmasterWorld.com. They are all indexed by Google but when you go to them you have to buy a membership. Notice how they are not cached either.

Busy, since you have user agent string set to Google, can you see the pages when you click on a link from site:webmasterworld.com (go about 10 pages in.) If busy can, then they are redirecting you based on user agent string. If you can't see the pages Busy, then you are being redirected based on IP, which is a TON of work. You would have to gather all the IPs of every single bot for each search engine.

Busy's picture

He has: 6,151 posts

Joined: May 2001

I think it's IP as I've tried accessing those pages before with no luck

pr0gr4mm3r's picture

He has: 1,502 posts

Joined: Sep 2006

Ya, me to. The user agent switcher FF extension didn't help me get into these pages.

Isn't is illegal to grant search engines access only over the common visitor?

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