Can a Locked Site from unauthenticated users still be crawled by Search Engines?

Hello UNA Team,

I have seen this setting in UNA 13-Bx: 'Lock site from unauthenticated users' and I have found it very useful. It forces unauthenticated users to login to view a page content. That's awesome!

Does this feature also lock site from Search Engine bots like Google, Bing etc?

Can a locked site from unauthenticated users still be crawled by Search Engines and its content shown in their organic search results? @Andrey Yasko @Alex T⚜️ @LeonidS 

Thanks!

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Replies (4)

    • Since it's blocking unauthenticated users, search engines are blocked as well.

      • It would be nice to have a way to load a pop-up (iFrame) "signup/login" window that overlays over the content after a single or combination of criteria is met. Similar to that on Twitter, Facebook, and New York Times .

        Examples of (and/or) options:

        1. Load "sign-up/login" after _____ seconds on site. (Don't show on policy pages: about, privacy, contact....)
        2. Load "sign-up/login" after _____ number of visits to the site over ______ number of days.
        3. Load "sign-up/login" after scroll length of ______ by visitor.
        4. Load "sign-up/login" after _____ mouse clicks by visitor.

        @Alex T⚜️

        1. I still can't "ctrl-v" and paste an image into a comment.
        2. Numbered list is showing double numbers: 1. 1.

        image_transcoder.php?o=sys_images_editor&h=645&dpx=2&t=1661180074

        • @InPage You nailed it! Thanks a lot. You took the words right out of my mouth as I was about to write the very same thing. ;)

          Locking a site from unauthenticated users is a good feature (thumbs-up) as it encourages them to sign-up or login while they can still have a site overview through navigation menu items (Discussions, Groups, Events etc). Some people will not sign up if they can just browse the site as a vistor.

          On the other hand, locking it from search engine bots/spyders is a bad SEO practice (thumbs-down). New sites rely a lot on organic search traffic, specially those with no or limited SEO budget.

          UNA should be able to lock the site from unauthenticated users while allowing search engine bots to crawl its content.

          Using a pop-up/iframe signup/login window over the content as mentioned above by InPage, will do. Many sites do it and they perfom well on organic search engine results.

          • K

            Yes! 🙌🏻 I like this

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