LHMARK From United States of America, joined Jan 2000, 7255 posts, RR: 51 Posted (6 years 9 months 4 weeks 1 hour ago) and read 3554 times:
I have just built a website for a once very high-profile band. It's the media and contacts guide for their upcoming tour, and it's accessed as a subdirectory off their main URL (www.[bandsname].com/media).
The problem is, the band's fans are googling the band name and finding the media site which contains direct contact information, financials, and tour specifics. How can I stop this from happening?
"Sympathy is something that shouldn't be bestowed on the Yankees. Apparently it angers them." - Bob Feller
EWS From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 1, posted (6 years 9 months 4 weeks 1 hour ago) and read 3553 times:
Quoting LHMARK (Thread starter): The problem is, the band's fans are googling the band name and finding the media site which contains direct contact information, financials, and tour specifics. How can I stop this from happening?
Password protect the /media directory and give access to those only who need it?
Zudnic From United States of America, joined Oct 2005, 61 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (6 years 9 months 3 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 3425 times:
Quoting AeroWesty (Reply 7): In the upper level folder, create: robots.txt
Type in the text document and save -
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
Correct answer. Works like a charm.
However, it may be too late. You should put the directory you want to disallow on robots.txt BEFORE uploading the content.
Finally, it sounds like you have some rabid fans out there. If I were you I would password protect your content. Not sure if there are any hosting services out there that would do it for you, but it's a relatively simple Perl script to ask for a password then set an access cookie.
NoUFO From Germany, joined Apr 2001, 7798 posts, RR: 13 Reply 12, posted (6 years 9 months 3 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago) and read 3389 times:
Quoting LHMARK (Thread starter): The problem is, the band's fans are googling the band name and finding the media site which contains direct contact information, financials, and tour specifics. How can I stop this from happening?
You definitely need to protect the folder with a password!!
As an interims measure, embed a flash movie where visitors need to enter a password first before proceeding AND use the AS Obfuscator to protect the code. Yes, I can be of assistance here.
Edit: Oh well, that way you could protect the folder itself. But no password = no protection, really.
Quoting LHMARK (Reply 2): Can't. We've got to make it accessible to journalists all over the world, not all of whom we'll have contact with.
How so if none of the journalists knows of this little media-folder?
From what I know, journalists have to ask the management for additional information and then receive either a link with some log-in data or a CD-ROM.
Aircraft From France, joined Jan 2007, 0 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (6 years 9 months 3 weeks 6 days 20 hours ago) and read 3330 times:
Quoting AeroWesty (Reply 7): In the upper level folder, create: robots.txt
Type in the text document and save -
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
There are many other options you can mess with, but this is the quickest and easiest way.
If you want to restrict any current traffic that comes from search engines, you can make use of the Environment Variables of the web server. Grab the HTTP_REFERER (it's actually spelled 'referer, not 'referrer' in this case). If the HTTP_REFERER variable contains a url containing google.com, msn.com, ask.com, askjeeves.com, yahoo.com, etc., then you can take measures to prevent the page from showing, or you can choose to redirect the traffic elsewhere.
Send me a note if you need clarification.
Quoting Diamond (Reply 8): Isn't this the sort of thing that "Aircraft" specializes in?
Klaus From Germany, joined Jul 2001, 20861 posts, RR: 55 Reply 14, posted (6 years 9 months 3 weeks 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 3227 times:
Simply keeping the sub-directory un-linked should do the trick already - disallow directory listing (should be standard anyway) and mail out the link but never place it on any link-reachable page.
Google et al "crawl" along existing links; If your pages are only linked among themselves, the crawlers shouldn't find them. You might want to refrain from using Google Mail to e-mail the link to be certain, however...
Sponsor Message: 
From United States of America, joined Jan 2000, 7255 posts, 
From , joined Dec 1969, posts, 
From , joined Dec 1969, posts, 
From Germany, joined Apr 2001, 7798 posts, 
From France, joined Jan 2007, 0 posts, 
Printer friendly format 
