Technical question about ability to access WebmasterWorld

[Dj Morri]

Hi,

I would like to know how to do the same as Webmasteworld. All content indexed and spiderable but when a new user do a search and click on serp's goes to the registration page.

Google Serp

Problems with Flash
http://www.webmasterworld.com Welcome to WebmasterWorld Guest from 66.249.65.104 ... I posted my problem in the Flash forum and got help from 'helpful'. ...
www.webmasterworld.com/forum36/1774.htm

forums36/1774.htm takes you to:

http://www.webmasterworld.com/login....s=google.&url=

Thank you

[Marcia]

We dont handle the tech support for WebmasterWorld here.

You'll have to post over there in the Community Center forum, but I can give you an idea. You probably have to be signed in. In the first instance, if you were greeted wth your IP number, then you weren't recognized as a registered member or you would have been greeted with your username. Then, apparently you registered and signed in if you were able to post, and now if you're greeted with the sign-in screen you just need to sign in.

[Dj Morri]

Understood Marcia, but how search engines pick up all their content and take me to the registration page instead of the content page?

[bhartzer]

Most likely you've clicked on a link that is in a member-only area; since you are a new user and not a member you are taken to the registration page so you can be a member. Only members get access to that content.

[Dj Morri]

I understand how it works.

I want to know how to optimize a password protected content for search engines like the webmasterworld site.

Google indexed all their content but when you are not a member takes you to the registration page, that is my concern, how they do it?

[Marcia]

Most likely you've clicked on a link that is in a member-only area;

I think what Dj Morri is asking is that if that's the case, that it takes being a member to access forums, then how are search engines indexing those forums. I think that's what he's wanting to know.

Added:

Here's the thread about requiring cookies:

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum9/9618.htm

That should explain a good deal of it.

[dannysullivan]

So what WMW is doing is complicated. You might check out this post from Matt Cutts and especially read the comments to get a better sense of what's going on.

My understanding is this. WebmasterWorld is allowing the major search engines to spider its public content without being cookied. And if you click on a link from a major search engine, that's seen in the referrer data, and you are allowed in. But if you block passing referrer data (say you run ZoneAlarm), they don't see you've clicked on a Google link, and so you get the signup screen. Other sites are also allowed to link to WMW and not cause people to get a sign-up prompt.

All of this impacts the public, non-paid area of WMW. None of the members-only paid content is spidered. There's no way for you or anyone to do that unless you are in a special program such as Google Scholar, which I doubt WMW is in.

[bhartzer]

unless you are in a special program such as Google Scholar, which I doubt WMW is in

Are you sure? I've always considered everything out of BT's mouth to be scholarly.

And you too, DS, for that matter