How to make sure I'm NOT indexed

also - a guest book question

[webwoman]

I am making a website for my family and I want to ensure that it is not indexed by the search engines. Should 'noindex,nofollow' do the trick? Is there anything else I can do? It is important that names do not show up on the internet.

Also, I'd like to create a little message board for family members to post news items they want to share. Our family is spread out all over the place, so this is my way of encouraging we stay in touch. Would the free guestbook feature that comes with my hosting be applicable for this use? Is there something inexpensive and simple that I could use as an alternative? Any suggestions most appreciated.

-webwoman

[AmericanBulldog]

Webwoman,

You should add a robots.txt file to deny all, you can find examples using the site search here.

[amznVibe]

only the most "polite" search engines will obey such commands...

if you do not want the page scanned by ANY search engine (or stray visitors) you need to do something like password protect it... if your site is on an apache server this is very easy to do, if not you'll have to do some research

[lorax]

You could also use .htaccess and only allow certain IP blocks - like those that your family will use - and deny all others.

[amznVibe]

lorax I am betting at least one family member is going to be on AOL, and leaving the site open to all the AOL proxies is probably a very bad idea