Can I prevent indexing on a single page of a website?

[Mpaige]

I have a webpage that isn't password restricted by that there are no links to from the main website. It's a page that you have to be "invited" to and can only access by typing a direct URL.

Is there a way to prevent this page from being indexed? To make the page invisible to spyders? I was able to do this with HTML editors by manipulating the header data.

Also is there coding that I can place to block access?

[mwenz]

The short answer is yes, you can. Between copy and paste/put this into the head section of your page:

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">

That will keep all bots that respect the command to not index that page.

But bad bots can and will still find it, though it is unlikely to show up in a search engine.

The best protection is to put this page into a separate folder on the server that is password protected inside the .htaccess file (only on a linux host site). You can then, in the .htaccess also place a command to not allow indexing by anyone/any bot.

Once someone knows the url, they can link to it. Once linked, bots will find that link. True they can share a password, but it is a layer of protection.

Take care, Mike

[Mpaige]

thanks Mike!