Stopping Google indexing Archive (lite)

[hotpotato]

Hello

I have noticed that a few mybb forums I have visited on the internet have indexed the archive (lite) section and not the main forum.

My question is how do I stop google and other search engines from indexing the archive (lite) section of the forum.

Would it be a good idea to remove the link to that section in the footer template of the theme I am using?

Thank you in advance for your help.

[Shukaku]

You can't really stop them doing so, that's how they spider your site.

[Polarbear541]

You'd need to use robots.txt for this.

Tut (found on google): http://www.searchtools.com/robots/robots-txt.html

[labrocca]

You can add the robots but also add a rel="nofollow" for the anchor tag in the footer template. Both will help ensure Google doesn't bother with the pages. But the truth is that those pages are mainly made for search engines and easier indexing since they are streamlined with no graphics. So make sure you actually want them removed.

[dandv]

The answer is "Canonical tags". And this thread should be closed or merged into http://community.mybb.com/thread-75815.html.