Robots.txt Question - Hide viewmember.php?

[bgordon +]

I have noticed an issued where Google is spidering my viewmember.php and indexing my clients with their phone numbers. This is not a desired action. I have a line in my robots.txt disallowing /viewmember.php but it does not stop recursion so /viewmember.php?member=whatever still gets indexed.

Any ideas how to stop this?

I support an statement like if the current user is a guest, don't show any phone fields might fix it (don't know the syntax) but there might be another way in the robots.txt.

Any ideas?

[Lhotch +]

Originally Posted by bgordon

I have noticed an issued where Google is spidering my viewmember.php and indexing my clients with their phone numbers. This is not a desired action. I have a line in my robots.txt disallowing /viewmember.php but it does not stop recursion so /viewmember.php?member=whatever still gets indexed.

Any ideas how to stop this?

I support an statement like if the current user is a guest, don't show any phone fields might fix it (don't know the syntax) but there might be another way in the robots.txt.

Any ideas?

If your using the SEO mod you may have to change the file name in robots.txt.

For hiding phone numbers from non-registered users, you can do that in admin under user groups.

[bgordon +]

Originally Posted by Lhotch

If your using the SEO mod you may have to change the file name in robots.txt.

For hiding phone numbers from non-registered users, you can do that in admin under user groups.

The phone number is hidden (as defined for guests in user groups) on the viewlisting page but the link to the member (viewmember.php) which takes them to the member's detail page, the telephone number is viewable there and does not seem to care that I I have turned it off for guests.

I suspect that if this is the default behaviour that all our clients personal details and telephone numbers are getting spidered.

I need to either add intelligence to the viewmember page to hide the field or add something to the usergroup hook that turns off ALL instances of the telephone number. The alternative is a way to hide it from spidering in robots.txt

I don't see that the SEO mod is affecting this page's url...

[Lhotch +]

Originally Posted by bgordon

I suspect that if this is the default behaviour that all our clients personal details and telephone numbers are getting spidered.

That is correct. You also need to go into admin -> User View Settings and select the fields that are viewable.