How to prevent Google from indexing only certain forums?

[Still Waters]

How can I prevent certain forums from being indexed in Google, while allowing other forums to be indexed in Google? And does the following option (in admin cp) relate to my question? Thanks.

Index New Posts in Search Engine (Setting this to 'No' will prevent anyone from being able to search in this forum)

[Floris]

That setting is not for search engine bots, but for users on your forum using the search engine from vBulletin (from navbar button: search).

If you set that to no then posts in that forum can't be found using the search engine from vBulletin - but google can still search that forum.

[Still Waters]

How can I prevent certain forums from being indexed in Google, while allowing other forums to be indexed in Google? Thanks.

[Floris]

Forum Permissions > edit the usergroup 'unregistered / not logged in'.
Set the permission 'Can View Threads' to 'no'.

Now guests can't view threads from that forum.
Bots are the same usergroup as guests.

[Still Waters]

So easy, thank you!

[Floris]

You're welcome. And apologies for the confusion. I'm glad we found something that works for you.

[digitalSite]

Need help with permissions please...

Hello:

1) I have a similar situation...but I need some help to make sure I am doing this correctly (because whenever I think I am doing it right, I second-guess myself and start to change permissions, only to find out I was doing it right the first time, lol).

This is what I would like to do:
Block all non-registered users (including Google and other search engines) from accessing anything, with the exception of one forum.

This is what I am doing:
I am using CMPS for homepage. Because this uses articles from a specific public forum, I have this so far in the usergroups section:

Unregistered / Not Logged In, Users Waiting Moderation, Users Awaiting Email Confirmation
Can View Forum = YES
Can View Other Threads = YES
Everything else = No

However, I do NOT want Google indexing ANY of my forums; Google can, however, index my home page or the ONE public forum I have open to the public.

So I went to the forum permissions and pressed RESET (So that it can use the usergroup permissions). Then I went forum by forum and changed the settings for Unregistered / Not Logged In, Users Waiting Moderation, Users Awaiting Email Confirmation as:Unregistered / Not Logged In, Users Waiting Moderation, Users Awaiting Email Confirmation
Can View Forum = NO
Can View Other Threads = NO
Everything else = NO

BUT with exception to the ONE public forum I have, which stayed the same as above.

In summary, in the usergroups Unregistered / Not Logged In, Users Waiting Moderation, Users Awaiting Email Confirmation, I set Can See Forum to Yes, but then in the Forum Permissions Changed all the can see forum = No, with 1 exception.

I have a feeling that I am doubling work here. Would the following work instead?

Set usergroups to:
Unregistered / Not Logged In, Users Waiting Moderation, Users Awaiting Email Confirmation
Can View Forum = NO
Can View Other Threads = NO
Everything else = NO

Then in Forum Permissions go to the ONE public forum and ALLOW to see forum and view threads? Would this override the usergroup permission?

Your help is greatly appreciated...sorry for not being clearer, my brain is fried from work and I seem to keep going around in circles changing things and I am get lost...lol

2) Although I am preventing Google and other search engines from accessing my forums because they are considered to be Unregistered/Not Logged In Users, does this also prevent them from indexing my archive page? I don't want them archiving any content in my forums, except for the one public forum. How would I go about doing that?

3) I am using Google Adsense on my forumhome page and showthread pages...does that mean they are indexing the forum because I am "let them inside the forum"?