# Enabling google/other to crawl a 'login required' forum
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/enabling-google-other-to-crawl-a-login-required-forum/125205
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [August 8, 2019, 7:35am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/enabling-google-other-to-crawl-a-login-required-forum/125205 "2019-08-08T07:35:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@btsimonh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/btsimonh)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 7:35am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/enabling-google-other-to-crawl-a-login-required-forum/125205/1 "2019-08-08T07:35:18Z")
Hi all,
may seem like a really stupid question, but I’ve setup a discourse forum with ‘login required’ checked.
I’m assuming that google and other crawlers will never get to see it’s content.
I don’t really want tom dick and harry having access to freely read the forum, but am interested in knowing if there is a way to enable search engines to index it? (yes, I know the information will be exposed in google searches… but that’s kind of the idea - to encourage people who are really interested to sign up…).
br,
Simon
p.s. a plugin which supports something like this may be good:
[https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2008/10/first-click-free-for-web-search.html](https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2008/10/first-click-free-for-web-search.html)
i.e. allowing viewing of posts when referred by google, but requesting login if navigating direct?
p.p.s - now with the correct search terms, I see this has already been discussed:
> [@Let googlebot see content, but make users log in](https://meta.discourse.org/t/let-googlebot-see-content-but-make-users-log-in/13724):
>
> I want to require my users to login to view topics, but I assume that makes all content invisible to Google? Ideally the topics/posts would still be indexed by Google for their SEO value to help drive traffic, and then when a user clicks a result they would be taken to the front page where I can tell them why they should sign up. Some more technical users will probably be able to spoof the googlebot useragent and get access to the content that way, but I’m sure that is a small percentage. Any …
A little sad about the negativity - in our case the forum is in support of a product website, which is free to sign up, and only costs if you use the product (pay per use). I guess when we’re more confident about what the forum will contain, or if we get time to moderate correctly, the forum _should_ be publicly readable.
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### Author:  [@Dannii](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Dannii)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 8:06am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/enabling-google-other-to-crawl-a-login-required-forum/125205/2 "2019-08-08T08:06:42Z")
This is an obnoxious practice.
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### Author:  [@btsimonh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/btsimonh)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 8:40am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/enabling-google-other-to-crawl-a-login-required-forum/125205/3 "2019-08-08T08:40:43Z")
I guess for us it’s more about not having run a forum before, and being concerned about what may be written - but that’s what moderation is for. We’ll just have to make it publicly readable once we have a little experience.
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2019, 2:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/enabling-google-other-to-crawl-a-login-required-forum/125205/4 "2019-08-08T14:09:11Z")
Mostly you want people to be able to see your stuff. You probably won’t have people saying bad stuff unless you have problems with your product. If you have problems with your product you want to know that so that you can fix them.
Having problems that you fix makes you look good, not bad.
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2023, 7:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/enabling-google-other-to-crawl-a-login-required-forum/125205/5 "2023-02-16T19:07:17Z")
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### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2023, 8:58pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/enabling-google-other-to-crawl-a-login-required-forum/125205/6 "2023-02-16T20:58:05Z")