Making a site back link checker proof

[onlinemediadirect]

Is it possible to make your site un readable by the back link checkers such as open explorer ?

Or would it have a negative effect on search engine rankings.

Sorry I have been in the business for 10 years and it has never crossed my mind. Figured I would say that before I get all the "I can't believe you don't know that" type comments

[PeterM22]

if you know the ip of the robot, I think you could deny it access in robots.txt

[RyanKent]

You can block "good" bots. For example, OSE uses the linkscape crawler with rogerbot which can be blocked. For bad bots, the process becomes a lot harder. You can take steps to prevent them from crawling your site, and they can take steps to bypass your steps. It really depends on what your end goals are and how much time and resources you are willing to commit to this project.

[KeriMorgret]

In addition to Ryan's good answer, there is specific information about Roberbot and blocking it available at http://www.seomoz.org/dp/rogerbot.

[onlinemediadirect]

what concerns me is rival seo companies checking our back links.

[RyanKent]

There is nothing you can do to stop it.

In order for the link to have value, you need search engines to have visibility to the link. If search engines can see the link, the world can see it.

What you can do is ensure the content on your site is of the highest quality which your competitors will have a difficult time matching, and earning links based on your site's quality. You can also raise the level of quality surrounding your site's products or services and earn links accordingly.