Content behind a login does not exist for Google
A page that requires a login is neither crawled nor indexed. Google asks that its crawlers reach the content without an account and without a password. A product catalog reserved for account holders, a methods library or a client documentation space: none of it answers a search.
The case is common in large Quebec B2B businesses, and it is rarely seen as a visibility issue. The account-only portal was built by the IT team to serve existing clients. Nobody asked what the market sees from the outside, because that was not the point of the project.
The cost shows upstream of your funnel. A buyer, or the person putting the file together, is looking for a specific detail: a reference, a capacity, a compatibility, a standard, a service term. The page that answers belongs to a competitor who published theirs, to a reseller who redistributes your offer, or to a sector directory that captured the information its own way, sometimes with errors you cannot correct.
You then fund the same product twice: once to design and document it, a second time in advertising to find the buyer your own documentation would have attracted for free.
Where to draw the line
The question is not whether to open the portal. It is to separate two kinds of information that currently live in the same place.
On one side, what describes your offer: references, characteristics, compatibilities, standards met, methods used, usage documentation. That information already circulates among your partners and in sector directories. Keeping it closed does not protect it, it only stops you from being its source.
On the other, what describes your commercial relationship: net prices, availability, order history, negotiated terms. That stays behind the login, and it is precisely what justifies the account existing.
The two-minute check
- Count your indexed pages with the site: command followed by your domain, then compare against the number of products or services you actually offer.
- Search three of your references or precise service names in Google and note who owns the pages that answer.
If your own references lead to a reseller or a directory, the demand exists and someone else is capturing it. If they lead nowhere, it is still unclaimed.
Drawing that line product by product, with sales and the IT team in the same room, is part of what we cover in a paid audit.
Blocking a page in the robots file is not the same as protecting it. That file asks crawlers not to fetch, it protects nothing. Confidential information is protected by authentication, never by an instruction to crawlers.
The overall view of search is in a complete guide for SMBs and large companies.
Managing product data between your business system and your site is covered in why your online catalog is unmanageable, and the constraints specific to Quebec B2B in B2B websites in Quebec.
- Google Search Central, Google Search technical requirements, official documentation, accessed November 2026.
- Google Search Central, Introduction to robots.txt, accessed November 2026.
Geneviève puts the strategy for your engagement into action. She leads all our web development projects: Shopify, WordPress and the new ways of building a site with AI. She manages our team of developers and translates your business needs into technical language. She runs your organic search (SEO), your visibility in AI answers (GEO) and your site's conversion rate optimization (CRO). Her work is at the heart of three goals: Attract customers with SEO and AI, Improve your site's conversion, and Strengthen your visibility in AI answers. With Gabriel, she also builds the landing pages for your advertising campaigns. She writes mainly about SEO, AI visibility and web design.
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