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Could Google index my ebook?

by RSK3000
9 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I'm getting my first site together. I will offer a free ebook in exchange for email addresses. There will be a download page "www.mysite .com/ download.htm"and the ebook will be something like "www.mysite.com/myebook.pdf".

But, I dont want Google to index the book as its a free gift for subscribing to my email newsletter.

What do most people do here to stop Google finding the ebook and indexing it?
#ebook #google #index
  • Profile picture of the author NicoleBeckett
    Since you're trading the book for email addresses, I assume you've set up an automatic way to email them the PDF file when they sign up. As long as you don't have the content of the book actually published online, it will not get indexed.
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  • Profile picture of the author Don Schenk
    Yes, Google can index your .pdf book, unless you put it in a zipped folder. If you zip it, Google will see "www.mysite.com/nameofzippedfolder.zip," and not know what is in there.

    Folks who download your ebook will just need to unzip it.

    If you really want protection you will need to use a service like eJunkie or Sam Stephen's DL Guard.

    Also if Google indexes your Thank-You page (the one your autoresponder will send to someone who has confirmed their registration with your email system - the page with the link to your ebook) people can steal it.

    Use a robots.txt file and a robots meta tag to keep Google from snooping. However there are other search engines that will ignore your robots.txt and robots meta tags. Some copies of you ebook will probably get downloaded without registration. It is the nature of the beast. Don't lose any sleep over it when it happens.

    :-Don
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      Why put the ebook online? You have their email, send it to them as an
      attachment.

      Or, make the page password-protected. Just google it for easy ways.
      Then auto-respond the password.

      But I gotta tell ya. Free ebooks in exchange for an email address are
      just not worth it. I know people have a "build your list" mentality, but
      that method is just not like it used to be.

      I would make the ebook available to all, but put a newsletter signup
      box on the page.

      Paul
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      If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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  • Profile picture of the author evamarthy
    Just make sure you put a keyword as the name of the file so it will be indexed properly.
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    • Profile picture of the author Tommy Perez
      Use a robots txt file and put it into your root folder.

      In the robots txt file...exclude spiders from reading pdf files.

      Just copy and paste the following into a notepad and rename "robots.txt"

      # Make changes for all web spiders
      User-agent: *
      Disallow: / *.PDF$

      That will STOP all indexing of PDF files.
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  • Profile picture of the author fanatic123
    Probably, block your file with some password or something that won't be so easy to access. Even if google would index it, people won't find it easy to access, without submitting their email address.
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  • Profile picture of the author jeffjohnson
    Google will surely indexed your pdf file..Although, you can protect it through robots.txt...and use nofollow , no indexed coding on the page...and you can easily prevent it from indexing...
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