Is a hidden link to a blocked internal page bad?

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Is a hidden link to a blocked internal page bad?

to catch bad bots

Mike521

9:13 pm on Nov 27, 2012 (gmt 0)

I'd like to start building a list of bad bots that are hogging up server resources. One idea I found while researching is to create a new directory, and block it in robots.txt. Then put a hidden link to the new directory on my homepage. Something like:

homepage:

<a style="display: none;" href="/doNotEnter/"></a>

robots.txt:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /doNotEnter/

No human will see the link, and no reputable bot will follow it. Therefore anything that does enter that directory can be scrutinized and perhaps added to a block list.

Sounds like a good idea, I'm just concerned that search engines will see the hidden link to a blocked directory and assume something fishy is going on. Any thoughts?

not2easy

9:52 pm on Nov 27, 2012 (gmt 0)

I have a similar setup on sites that are doing fine. I'm using a file that is blocked rather than a directory but it is in many places on the sites and is doing what it is supposed to do. I do not use the

style="display: none;"

but it is a nofollowed link with onclick set to false.