Inappriopriate listings in Google

[Christylh]

We are having some problems with our .cat files being archived in search engines. For example, check out the 3rd and 4th listings here

What can I do to insure these files are not available in this fashion?

Thanks!

Christy

[vance]

read

http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/faq.html#prevent

[webyourbusiness]

Upload a robots.txt with the following in:

User-agent: *
DISALLOW: /acatalog/*.cat

hth

Greg Hewitt-Long

[NormanRouxel]

It may also be a side effect of you not having an index.html (or.htm) in your sites acatalog directory. If I go to http://www.uniformcorner.com/~uniformc/acatalog/ i get a full (hacker friendly) directory listing.

[webyourbusiness]

It may also be a side effect of you not having an index.html (or.htm) in your sites acatalog directory. If I go to http://www.uniformcorner.com/~uniformc/acatalog/ i get a full (hacker friendly) directory listing.

eek!

That should be addressed ASAP... either upload an index page, or turn OFF directory listing:

Either google for ".htaccess directory listing"

or visit this .htaccess tutorial listing explanation.

hth

Greg Hewitt-Long

[Christylh]

Thank you everyone for all your input! I uploaded an index file into acatalog which resolved the open directory issue and also uploaded a robots.txt file. How long does it normally take for the robots.txt file to go into effect?

[NormanRouxel]

Make sure that ALL your directories have an index.html. I was able to move up one layer from your acatalog one and poke around there (and some other directories off your root) too.

Robots.txt is obeyed by (good mannered) search engines so it will only be read when they next visit.

[Mike Hughes]

I'd say it's best to turn off directory listing as actinic likes to create the odd subdirectory for some reason. i.e.

/acatalog/COM/actinic/catalog/

It also seems to like setting the permissions on these to 777 which surely isn't needed?

Mike

[webyourbusiness]

I'd say it's best to turn off directory listing as actinic likes to create the odd subdirectory for some reason. i.e.

/acatalog/COM/actinic/catalog/

olderscot is right - you will generally have potential problems with security type issues if the directory listing is turned on - use the belt and braces approach and upload directory index turned off .htaccess file to cover your bases a little better.

hth

Greg

[Christylh]

It's been almost a month and the robots.txt file hasn't seemed to work yet. Any ideas on the Google listings as explained in my first post?

Thanks!

[pinbrook]

it often takes longer than a month for listings to drop.

your robots file is probably doing its job, but its too early to see the results

[webyourbusiness]

it often takes longer than a month for listings to drop.

your robots file is probably doing its job, but its too early to see the results

what are the exact files being listed incorrectly?

You might consider using a .htaccess redirect for those files - if it doesn't affect the working of actinic, they will disappear within a week normally.

regards

Greg Hewitt-Long

[Christylh]

Greg,

In this particular scenario it is: http://www.uniformcorner.com/~unifor...og/A000182.cat
http://www.uniformcorner.com/~unifor...og/A000183.cat

I'm awaiting instructions from my ISP on .htaccess. I'm embarassed to say I've never had to use it before.

Thank!

Christy