How well does bots meta tag work?

Mousetyme · 2008-01-21 8:28 am

Does anyone know if this tag is effective?

{META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW"}

Thanks

yannick · 2008-01-21 5:13 pm

that is only an indication for searchbots like the ones from google. Spambots don't follow it and just keep going. It's not very logical that bots would follow it, then they would be very badly designed .

Mousetyme · 2008-01-21 5:21 pm

Thanks Yannick, I thought it only helped with the 1 that obey the rules of someones site lol And it made no sense that they would be inclined to do so. :-)

yannick · 2008-01-21 5:47 pm

well they oly obey that meta tag if they are scriped to do so, most search bots to so because it usally means that there is either something not worth indexing, like a confirmation screen or something. Or something you don't want to be added to the index list, like a private area on a forum.

Mousetyme · 2008-01-26 4:42 am

I find this interesting. Since I placed the tag on my forum 5 days ago. I have had 3 spammers try to register. This is a very low number, as I had anywhere from 2 to 5 a day before that.

It could be just a fluke, not 100% sure as its only been 5 days. just seems interesting.

Last edited by Mousetyme (2008-01-26 4:44 am)

Captain Red · 2008-01-27 9:22 am

Mousetyme wrote:

I find this interesting. Since I placed the tag on my forum 5 days ago. I have had 3 spammers try to register. This is a very low number, as I had anywhere from 2 to 5 a day before that.
It could be just a fluke, not 100% sure as its only been 5 days. just seems interesting.

I have a theory about that:

The spammers that try to register(register, not necessarily the one's who post) do so so that they can leech a higher search engine rank off of your site. Thus, if your site, or a subset of pages on it, is not counted by the search engines, it does them no good to dump their links, because there's nothing to leech.

I'm only blocking the googlebot from my forum at this point, but I've noticed a drop in the number of spammers I'm seeing(now, I've also been employing a bunch of other counter-measures, so I can't be sure how much of that the bot block is responsible for. Back in mid-December, before I started in on the spammers, I was getting around 42 registrations a day. Now I'm down to seven or eight a day, and I'm actually on a streak of a bit over two days without posted spam.(I just jinxed myself, didn't I?))

Mousetyme · 2008-01-27 5:14 pm

You are probably correct about them wanting a higher ranking. For months I had the message board set at registered users only. Then I added no one can even view the board without registering. The bots didn't seem to slow down.

Since I placed the meta tag, I have only had 3 and we are now on day 7. I am sure those 3 are the ones that would have posted "filth" I will give it another week then decide what I will do about people being able to at least view the board.

I own a Disney Vacation agency and the boards are to help people plan. When I opened the boards again this month. it took them a couple of days to catch on that I am open again. I deleted everyone that has not posted at all. That reset my guests to 49 . lol was over 2,000.

I hope we both didn't just jinx ourselves

Captain Red · 2008-01-29 2:53 pm

Mousetyme wrote:

I deleted everyone that has not posted at all. That reset my guests to 49 . lol was over 2,000.

Heh.(gallows laugh) My forum has close to six times that number of registered "users." (Most of that came from doing nothing about the spam problem but deleting their posts for a couple years) It... gives me something to do if I ever get bored.

I hope we both didn't just jinx ourselves

Going on four and a half days, no spam posts. The next one that hits is going to hurt all the more because it will have broken a streak.

[edit]the streak ended at five and a half days, after one hit :¬( Time to start a new streak![/edit]

Last edited by Captain Red (2008-01-31 4:48 am)

Mousetyme · 2008-02-01 4:05 am

It was a nice break. Got a few today. :-(

Captain Red · 2008-02-03 1:27 am

I snuck in an edit to my last post in here saying that my streak ended too. :¬(

It lasted about five and a half days, but I'm back into a new streak: three days so far.

I think this does work to cut down on a large amount of spam. What I'm wondering now is whether there's any difference in effect between using a robots.txt file and putting the robots tag on the pages themselves.(and also, perhaps, which crawlers the spambots look to piggyback off of the most)

Captain Red · 2008-02-03 3:52 am

Captain Red wrote:

It lasted about five and a half days, but I'm back into a new streak: three days so far.

Err... just got a spam post.... so there goes that.

Mousetyme · 2008-02-03 6:06 am

Unfortunately, they have not even given me a "new streak" :-(

I am happy I had a 10 day streak. woot

Captain Red · 2008-02-03 3:04 pm

Mousetyme wrote:

Unfortunately, they have not even given me a "new streak" :-(
I am happy I had a 10 day streak. woot

Cripes... ditto here. Twelve hours later and another hit. Ah well, I'm with you: It was nice while it lasted.

#1 2008-01-21 8:28 am

How well does bots meta tag work?

#2 2008-01-21 5:13 pm

Re: How well does bots meta tag work?

#3 2008-01-21 5:21 pm

Re: How well does bots meta tag work?

#4 2008-01-21 5:47 pm

Re: How well does bots meta tag work?

#5 2008-01-26 4:42 am

Re: How well does bots meta tag work?

#6 2008-01-27 9:22 am

Re: How well does bots meta tag work?

#7 2008-01-27 5:14 pm

Re: How well does bots meta tag work?

#8 2008-01-29 2:53 pm

Re: How well does bots meta tag work?

#9 2008-02-01 4:05 am

Re: How well does bots meta tag work?

#10 2008-02-03 1:27 am

Re: How well does bots meta tag work?

#11 2008-02-03 3:52 am

Re: How well does bots meta tag work?

#12 2008-02-03 6:06 am

Re: How well does bots meta tag work?

#13 2008-02-03 3:04 pm

Re: How well does bots meta tag work?

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