SEO & Locked Forums

[azbryanw]

I am looking for some feedback on an idea for my forum. There is a section of my forum that I really really want to lock up and make private from non-registered members of my site. However at the same time I want to make sure that the SEs index those pages for consideration in my rankings. Is there a way to give Google and Yahoo a username and password or is there another way around that. Any help and feedback is greatly appreciated ....I am a total neophyte.

[Brian Cummiskey]

This is not possible. Any attempt to make it possible is a cloaking penalty.

you may NOT show different things to guest humans and guest bots.

Further, why would you want a ranking of a page that leads to a login box? All it will do is add to your bounce rate.

If you want it indexed, leave it open. Unless it's a pay service, there's really no good reason to lock it down.


A member with 0 posts and never to return might as well just be a guest anyway....

[azbryanw]

10-4

Do you recommend keeping the "private" areas of the site public for SEO.... or does it matter if there is enough quality content out there?

[Brian Cummiskey]

THe only areas i recommend keeping private are staff/internal forums. Everything else should be left open.

[azbryanw]

Okay. Thank you for your insight.