Google has announced a minor but notable change to its robots meta tag documentation. As of October 2, 2024, the noarchive rule has been moved to a historical reference section.
Key Points:
The 'noarchive' rule is no longer actively used by Google Search.
This change reflects the fact that Google no longer offers cached links in its search results.
Website owners do not need to take any action to remove existing 'noarchive' tags from their pages.
The tag may still be used by other search engines or web services.
This update comes just weeks after Google officially removed the longstanding cache: search operator from its documentation. The cache: operator had been a popular tool for users to view archived versions of web pages.
As Google phases out its own caching features, it has enhanced its "About this result" feature with links to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. This provides users with an alternative method to access historical versions of web pages.
Implications:
While these changes don't require immediate action from webmasters, they signify a shift in how Google handles and presents archived web content. Web developers and SEO professionals should note this evolving approach to web page caching and archiving.
Google continues to recommend keeping the 'noarchive' documentation for reference, as other platforms may still utilize this tag.
