Thread: robot txt file

Help me, please.

My partner's site is exclusively for family members (reunion info, photos, etc.) and she does not want it indexed by any SEs. I have used the meta tags on each page for noindex nofollow but this site is going to become rather large once the families send their stuff in and will have pages for each. How exactly do I do a robots.txt file for just the one domain name?

Step by step...pretty please. :) I have the code:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

BUT I don't know what to do with it!

I have read nearly every thread with the search terms "user-agent" and "robots.txt" and they say to upload to root directory(????). How do I make it and how do I upload it? Do I use BV builder or what? Help, please.

Thank you,

Karen,
Someone else can help with that - BUT - you'll still need the nofollow on every page - as if anyone links to one of your pages (a friend/family member, etc) the se's will follow that link to the specific page - So, the site is GOING to be indexed no matter what unless there is never ever anywhere a link to it.

You might want to consider a landing page (index page) and making the rest of the site password protected - then they have to come in through the home page and enter their password to get to the rest.

If you really don't want it online, it's the best option.

To back up on what Beth says above.. Sites will link to you without your say-so, directories, search engines, WILL pick you up somehow, and once one has you, others will follow... So as Beth says, unless you put a 'nofollow' on every page, you are quite likely to get indexed at some point.

I must agree with Beth though that Password protecting your site after visitors come to your index page, is probably going to be your best bet.

I just noticed you had a robots.txt question too sorry..

This is easy, just creat a file using notepad and call it robots.txt. Then enter the code you want to tell the SE's by placing that within this notepad.

Then just upload to your directory folder:

If the domain is the main account domain, then just upload it to the public_html folder.

If it is an addon domain, then add it to the addon domain folder within the public_html folder.

You can do this in a couple of ways,

My preferred method is to upload via FTP manager.

BV Web builder > Tools > FTP Manager

Log-in using your account details.

On the LH side will be your PC files, on the RH side will be the Server

Just find the file on the LH side, and make sure the RH window is open in the folder you want to place the file in and then just drag it over.

Done

Thank you so much Bethers and Ramsey. You guys are the greatest! Now I've got some more serious reading and learning to do, lol. Password protect sounds like the thing for me to do. And you pointed out what I had not considered--relatives send relatives links, lol. Thanks a bunch for the step by step, Ramsey, I really needed the part about the note pad. Thank you.

You are more than welcome Karen.