Allow search engines to read the archive but not other logged out users

[cmiller1014]

We want the site indexed but we dont allow non members to visit the site. It would be nice if the engines could get in and index everything but still not allow everyone else. Could we somehow check the user agent and if its a bot of some type, let them access the entire site to index it? This would help us with search engine placement but would still stop non members from viewing entire posts because once they click the link from the search engine they would be prompted to log in.

Can someone set me in the right direction for something like this?

[diesel08]

excellent idea,

id be interested too

and should be possible as vbulletin can list search engines in 'whos online'

[noppid]

This is cloaking and is a violation of the SE ethics. It'll get ya banned faster then it will get you ranking.

Cheers.

[joeychgo]

Originally Posted by noppid

This is cloaking and is a violation of the SE ethics. It'll get ya banned faster then it will get you ranking.

Cheers.

Exactly. This is not something you want to do.

From Google:

The term "cloaking" is used to describe a website that returns altered webpages to search engines crawling the site. In other words, the webserver is programmed to return different content to Google than it returns to regular users, usually in an attempt to distort search engine rankings. This can mislead users about what they'll find when they click on a search result. To preserve the accuracy and quality of our search results, Google may permanently ban from our index any sites or site authors that engage in cloaking to distort their search rankings.

So, as you can see, doing this will dramatically harm your site. If your interested in How to SEO VBulletin, then you might consider visiting our forum, VBulletin Webmaster. We frequently discuss such issues.

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[cmiller1014]

Then how does one get listed with google without opening the site up to everyone? This is quite a dilemma.

[joeychgo]

its an impossibility. Even if you could, what you dont want public would still be indexed in google and thus viewable.

[noppid]

I wouldn't call it impossible. Make some HTML content and link to your forum on each page. Maybe make one forum publicly viewable to get the actual forum indexed.

Get the public useful content indexed that guests can see that leads them to the forum.

Maybe a news feed page or a fast glossary in html.