About forum profiles and their visibility by G

[malcomxar]

Hi BHW!

I have a question regarding forum profiles in forums.
For instance, http://www.odfalliance.org/blog/ allows registration, but a "members list" is not visible anywhere on the site (at least on that page), therefore if I create an account and add my links its quite useless as my profile is unreachable by G, right?

If so, would pinging my profile link make it visible for G?

Regards!

 

[klawre1221]

Yes if you cannot make a publically viewable link google cannot find it.

 

[Royalserviceteam]

Yes if you cannot make a publically viewable link google cannot find it.

Exactly that........

 

[malilibog]

Google / Yahoo can find non-public links. Don't believe me? Just look at any site's yahoo site explorer, a site with thousands of backlinks. I've seen multiple indexed backlinks that were private/required login to view.

Google/Yahoo can see all, they're like the main guys on the internet.

I totally agree with this...

 

[malcomxar]

Google / Yahoo can find non-public links. Don't believe me? Just look at any site's yahoo site explorer, a site with thousands of backlinks. I've seen multiple indexed backlinks that were private/required login to view.

Google/Yahoo can see all, they're like the main guys on the internet.

Exactly, thats what I have found and that is what generated my doubt.

Maybe by pinging it they make it "viewable", because otherwise I dont know how that can happen

 

[mrmidjam]

Google / Yahoo can find non-public links. Don't believe me? Just look at any site's yahoo site explorer, a site with thousands of backlinks. I've seen multiple indexed backlinks that were private/required login to view.

Google/Yahoo can see all, they're like the main guys on the internet.

More likely that the forum was recently changed to private/required login to view.

 

[lanbo]

More likely that the forum was recently changed to private/required login to view.

Wrong for the most part. Certain forums give the "googlebot" agent the ability to see everything.

 

[malcomxar]

So, who is firght and who is wrong??

 

[Gedankenex]

As always, you have the right to doubt the authenticity and truth of what I am saying, but this is the truth based on my actual experiences.

1. Google can see profiles, even if it requires you to login.

How do I know this?

I regularly check the backlinks google has picked up of mine, because I am curious about which of my strategies are effective. Obviously, to protect my website, I won't be revealing it, or my niche =)

When I looked at my backlinks, I saw forum profiles, when I clicked the link and went to the website, it required me to login. BUt
when I clicked "CACHE" on Google, it showed me the exact profile, with the backlink, and all relevant registration info, as if I were logged in.

From this, I can state that Google does see private profiles.

 

[malcomxar]

Hey Gedankenex could you provide of a screenshot?

Anyhow, I wasn't refereing to sites which don't allow profile view (http://www.gptlatino.com/profile/?u=1428)... I was refering to sites like http://www.odfalliance.org/blog/which allow registration but DOESN'T have a "member list" link or sth like that which G can crawl.

Regards

 

[SuperLinks]

As others have mentioned sometimes certain areas of the forum aren't visible to ALL members but are for Googlebot and other search engine bots.

A good example of this is when you look at indexed pages for that forum and find members profiles indexed, then when you click on the result from Google it'll show that you must be logged in to view it.

Then check the Google cache of that members profile and you'll see it how Google see's the page. Chances are if its indexed, then Google's bots can see it (as you can see via cache). Google's not gonna index a user login page, remember that.