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How to secure a pdf file?

by chase8705
7 replies
I have a pdf e-book that I am selling on my website but if I search the title of the book on google I find a link that opens the file right up and you can see the whole book for free.

Does someone know the best way to make the file not available to people searching for it besides through my website?

Please help and thank you so much!

Also, I just looked and found the page that you go to once you purchase the book. It is just available for anyone to see. How can I take that specific page off of google?

Thank you.
#file #pdf #secure
  • Profile picture of the author jeffreyhuan
    You can set up a robots.txt file to prevent search engines from indexing your download page.

    Detailed instructions can be found here: The Web Robots Pages
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    • Profile picture of the author chase8705
      Originally Posted by jeffreyhuan View Post

      You can set up a robots.txt file to prevent search engines from indexing your download page.

      Detailed instructions can be found here: The Web Robots Pages

      That looks so confusing even with the detailed instructions. I guess I will just have to give it a try. Thank you for your help.
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  • Profile picture of the author briankno
    Just create a file in notepad called robots.txt

    Copy and paste this in notepad
    User-agent: *
    Disallow: /name-of-ebook-page

    Save it

    Upload to the main directory of your site.

    It's pretty simple.
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    The easiest way is to not just upload the file onto your server as you have done. You should be using some type of membership script or download protection (DL Guard or Amazon S3) to protect the file so it is not just available as a file on your server.
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  • Profile picture of the author pageranked
    Get Adobe acrobat pro then you can make your PDF with password protection. So even if they go to it they cant open it. Then after your customers order you can send them the password. Or you can use a service like e-junkie.com to send your pdf to your customers after they have purchased. That will give you more protection than just putting it up on your server. Hope this helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author DustonMcGroarty
    You can also just add a 'rel="nofollow"' tag to the hyperlink for your PDF on the download page. Be sure your download page is also set to NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW using a meta tag.
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    • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
      Place the PDF file in a non-web accessible folder above
      your root (i.e. above public_html or htdocs).

      That way, it cannot be indexed in Google and people
      will not be able to download it.

      You then need a script that will only allow buyers of
      your PDF to access the file.

      Some great scripts I use are DLGuard or RapidActionProfits.

      Dedicated to mutual success,

      Shaun
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