Google Sitemap

How to prevent people from seeing *.txt file

[notbob]

I signed up for google sitemap the other day.

My url listing is as a text file. According to the google faq, it indicates that I can have it so that others can not view my sitemap text file, only google.

I'm not sure on how this is done. Would someone be able to explain this further for me.

Thank you

[jonrichd]

The Google FAQ suggests putting your sitemap in robots.txt, and limiting access to Google. This means that other bots should not spider it, however, it won't prevent anyone from looking at it.

AFAIK, you don't have to name the file sitemap.txt (or sitemap.xml), although it seems that that is what everyone is doing. If you gave it a name that nobody would expect, and then pinged Google with the name, I think it would reduce (but not eliminate) the chances of someone else finding it.

If you do that, I wouldn't suggest putting the exclusion for other bots in Robots.txt, since you'll be advising the world of your secret name.

[notbob]

Thanks for the information.

I ended up naming it something other then sitemap.txt and will go that route