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Does using htacess to hide site directories harm SEO ? (8)


02-15-2013 02:26 AM #1 sandyone (Member)
Does using htacess to hide site directories harm SEO ?

Thanks!


02-15-2013 03:19 AM #2 szmudo (Member)

no, why should it. It's not a "trick", it's for improved security. Options -Indexes hides on directories from direct access that do not contain index files like index.html or index.php etc.
Files in those directories can still be linked to from other files/dirs.


02-15-2013 10:32 AM #3 caurmen (Administrator)

Just to be sure- by "hide", what do you mean in this case? Can you post the .htaccess code?


02-15-2013 08:18 PM #4 sandyone (Member)

I mean remove the ability for people to view each directory using a back space of the url in their address bar.

I think simply using a cpanel's index manager is the best way.

I still want then crawled by Google, just not so easily found by lurkers.


02-16-2013 01:23 AM #5 szmudo (Member)

That was what you meant or not? What you were asking in the other thread... Options -Indexes?


02-16-2013 02:42 AM #6 sandyone (Member)

What folks seem to do via htaccess and Options -Indexes.

I cant get it to work. No matter where i drop the htaccess it breaks the site. root,public_html, www.

Any folder on the site in which i put that htaccess , broke the site. Tried on HostGator, I tried in Beyond Hosting it would never work.

I did find a better way via the cpanle Index manager.

Which must automate the task.


02-18-2013 10:48 AM #7 caurmen (Administrator)

That's straight-up weird. Should work fine. What happened when you added that .htaccess file? Did you make sure to include any existing .htaccess code?

And no, I've never heard that doing "Options -Indexes" would have any effect on SEO at all - most big sites do it and don't have any trouble.


02-20-2013 11:57 AM #8 kyuss (Member)

I really really doubt it would make a difference so long as your site pages are linked together well.

If they aren't you could use XML sitemaps: http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

More info: http://support.google.com/webmasters...&answer=156184

I agree that it is strange for it to break anything because Options -Indexes works completely fine with my sites.


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