I just want to publicly display the first page only & be able to still find my site via google.

[Debra Baker]

I make my site public with only showing the first page, in doing that my URL wont crawl on Google unless I expose all pages, how do I get around that?

[Eric Suesz]

I don't think you can get around that, Debra. There is a trade-off between privacy and SEO. If you want privacy for your members' content, it can't be broadcasted or included in Google search results. 

[Debra Baker]

Eric, I'm pretty sure there is a way around it, I've seen other sites that only display their main page and the rest of the pages require you to either log in or sign up and you can still google their url.  When I set my site to view only the first page, the ability for me to google my url seems to disappear.  Do you think that it's a google problem?

[HELP SEEKER]

there is a thing , called 'first click free' - google, but i have not gotten any specific answer from ning on how to implement it, i have emailed google, but there is no way i'm expecting response anytime soon

[Debra Baker]

Help Seeker, I checked out the first click free link and this sounds exactly like what I am looking for.  Thank you for the information.

[Eric Suesz]

You may not believe me, but there's no way around it. Google will not index private pages. If you set your Main Page to public, Google will crawl that main page's content. So, your site will be findable by Google, but only that tiny sliver of content that you are showing on the Main Page at the time that Google's bots crawl that one page. 

[Debra Baker]

Eric, that's fine with me just as long as my url comes up, but even when I set my first page to public, I don't see it on google, that's the problem.  I half to set all of my pages to public in order for my url to come up on google.

[Debra Baker]

Thank you both Eric and Help Seeker for your input.