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1. justinegduke
   Member
   Nov 10, 2009, 6:59 PM

   When this blog was created, I specifically chose to block search engines, but allow normal visitors who knew the URL. When I google the blog name, it doesn't appear in the search results. However, when I google the name of a person mentioned in the blog, the blog appears in the search results. I have made the blog completely private while I figure this out, just to be safe. To confirm, I had originally selected the Privacy Setting: "I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors".

   Any one know how this happened? And how to prevent it?

2. husdal
   Member
   Nov 10, 2009, 7:07 PM

   It is hard to help you without a reference to the private blog, let alone the post in question, since I assume you would like to keep things private as they are?

3. thesacredpath
   Member
   Nov 10, 2009, 7:17 PM

   If anyone anywhere on the web happens to link to a blog that is set to block search engines, then that link can be picked up and you can end up in searches via the other site's link. The search engines honor the privacy settings on your blog, and will not crawl it, but all it takes is one link from an outside source to a post or something you said in a post or page, and you can then end up in searches via that outside link.

   The only way to prevent it is to keep the blog set to private (from the very beginning - never public). Once it has been public, it make take up to a year for the blog to disappear from searches entirely and if there are still links to your blog from other sites, then you may never get off of the search engines.

   My old blog here that was set to private 2 years ago still shows up with 1 link in Google. In Yahoo, because my old blog is linked to from various other sites, I still show up with 12 links.

   Even Bing, which didn't go live till 2 years after my blog was set to private has 11 entries (links from other blogs and sites).

   Once someone links to you from another site, your cover is forever blown.

4. thesacredpath
   Member
   Nov 10, 2009, 7:25 PM

   Oops, I'm sorry Google has 10 listings for my 2-year private blog. I had a typo in my search.

5. timethief
   Member
   Nov 10, 2009, 7:25 PM

   "Once someone links to you from another site, your cover is forever blown."

   Here's a suggestion. Do understand that it's an after the fact suggestion that may or may not prove to be useful. Find out who linked to your post and get them to delete their post. Once a post/page has been deleted it will produce a "404" (not found) and then the person who deleted the post linked to yours can use the URL removal tool. This removal will not be immediate, Google will investigate and provide an update on the status of your request as soon as possible. Removals that are processed through this tool are excluded from Google search results for six months. For more information about how to use the URL removal tool to remove data from Google's cache please read http://onecoolsite.wordpress.com/2008/03/21/how-to-remove-data-from-googles-cache/

6. husdal
   Member
   Nov 10, 2009, 7:43 PM

   Thanks TSP and TT for this useful information. I wasn't aware of this.

7. yarnaholic
   Member
   Nov 10, 2009, 7:56 PM

   Find out who linked to your post and get them to delete their post.

   Unless you know that other person really, really well, I would think it highly unlikely that they would delete their entire post just to remove the link to your private blog.

   Doesn't removing the ping/trackback link from that other post accomplish the same thing?

8. timethief
   Member
   Nov 10, 2009, 8:02 PM

   Like I said above: "Do understand that it's an after the fact suggestion that may or may not prove to be useful."

   Although I could be wrong, I'm thinking that whoever linked to the private blog in question was probably one of the "trusted" people who had access to it in the first place. If I were such a person then I most certainly would delete an entire post, particularly if it named another person and if the content could in any way construed to be defamatory.

   Question: "Doesn't removing the ping/trackback link from that other post accomplish the same thing? "

   No. If a post linked to the one in question has been indexed then it will be in Google's cache and easily available to anyone who searches.

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