Robots.txt File

Blog Test Beds

While preparing to head down the road for another day at the office, I always check in on traffic reports (to my websites, that is) and look in on the serps. When looking around Google, I keep coming up on “Bloggers Market Group.com”. This is one on my sites! However, I only use this site as a “test bed”. I actually have two test beds, the other is; “Bloggers Market.net”

I manage 11 blogs so ……… needless to say I stay pretty busy. The last thing I need is to make a change to one of my sites with a time-line in mine and then have something fail along the way. Whether it be a rouge plug-in, rouge code, or just plain carelessness on my part; a break in the rhythm is a total “Buzz Kill”.

I like to push the edge of the envelope when it comes to blogging and the CMS. When attempting to challenge the limits of physics for a blog it really is a good idea to have a test bed so that if your site should suddenly go back in time, you want have to wonder what to do next while your readers are wondering what is going on with your site. If you break, you can just walk away and worry about it later. Man …….. what a luxury.

Of the two test bed sites that I use, I have one that I completely blow-up every time I experiment with it just to see what the CMS will stand. The other is for long term testing to see, if say ……. an ad is received well by others that I ask to review it, or a particular hard code remains stable, or I just wish to see how a new theme will look. When I expect it to break, it doesn’t; when I am absolutely sure it will work, it doesn’t.

One thing is certain, I have never regretted the use of test bed blog websites. Just remember to restrict Google from crawling your online experiments by setting your “Privicy settings in your Dashboard or setting your “Robots.txt” file (I actually use both). If you fail to do so, you just may find that your “Frankenstein” Online has been indexed for all the world to see.

Robots.txt Files

Killer Problem Number …….. well why worry at this point, this one damn near killed me and my blog! While delving into the abyss that is “Hi-Tech Blogging” it is sometimes easy to overlook the seemingly obvious, along with the simple things which can become “Hi-Tech” problems rather quickly.

I have been looking into a problem that has plagued two of my most popular blogs for the past three months. Ever since I did an extensive re-build I have noticed a steady decline in traffic. No matter what I have attempted, I continued to lose traffic.

Someone asked me the other day to supply them with “the world according to Google stats” for one of the sites that I have for sale on this blog, and I responded that I just did not have that info as I find it unnecessary on a blog that is brand new …….. I mean ……… what’s the point? Plus I’m busier than a three legged cat in a sandbox, the last thing I need to do at this time is climb into Google’s sandbox and play.

I found myself with some spare time the other day and I thought that I would at least take a look at Google’s “Webmaster Tools” and discovered much to my dismay that the “Google Bot” was being blocked on two of my sites as per my “Robots.txt” file settings. Do What ???????? I have never had any type of “Robots.txt” file in any of my blogs.

I did a did a double check and ran a server side check on any and all “Robots.txt” files and the search came back negative. I did a general search engine check and found that my site was indexed and indexed as recently as a week ago. Ok ……… I just don’t get it!

After another two hours of searching, I came to the nasty understanding that the “Robots.txt” file that was causing all the trouble was a virtual file found at the bottom of the options table in my database for the WordPress Software; what was being indexed were the directory files of the site not my posts’ created by the WordPress Software. You just can’t think this stuff up! Wow ……… that was expensive!!!!!!

To avoid becoming road kill on the “Information Super Highway“, I present you with this Plug-in solution.