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Google Updates HTTP Status Codes, Googlebot & Job Posting Help Documentation

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2 years ago

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Google Updates HTTP Status Codes, Googlebot & Job Posting Help Documentation

Google has made changes to a few of its Google search help documentation over the past couple of days. The documents updated include HTTP status codes, the Googlebot and job posting help documentation. Note, the HTTP status code aspect is not new, the content was just moved from one location to another.

Googlebot

On the Googlebot how many bytes of textual content, such as HTML, Googlebot will crawl specifically over here. Here is the new lines of text:

Googlebot can crawl the first 15MB of content in an HTML file or supported text-based file. After the first 15MB of the file, Googlebot stops crawling and only considers the first 15MB of content for indexing.

Job postings

On the job postings, Google specified that when you use the jobLocation property, you must also include the addressCountry property.

HTTP Status Codes

The HTTP status codes document added a whole large section for 404 errors which was not there in the old version. Here is what has moved into this document:

soft 404 errors

A soft 404 error is when a URL that returns a page telling the user that the page does not exist and also a 200 (success) status code. In some cases, it might be a page with no main content or empty page.

Such pages may be generated for various reasons by your website’s web server or content management system, or the user’s browser. For example:

  • A missing server-side include file.

  • A broken connection to the database.

  • An empty internal search result page.

  • An unloaded or otherwise missing JavaScript file.

It’s a bad user experience to return a 200 (success) status code, but then display or suggest an error message or some kind of error on the page. Users may think the page is a live working page, but then are presented with some kind of error. Such pages are excluded from Search.

When Google’s algorithms detect that the page is actually an error page based on its content, Search Console will show a soft 404 error in the site’s Index Coverage report.

Fix soft 404 errors

Depending on the state of the page and the desired outcome, you can solve soft 404 errors in multiple ways:

Try to determine which solution would be the best for your users.

The page and content are no longer available

If you removed the page and there’s no replacement page on your site with similar content, return a 404 (not found) or 410 (gone) response (status) code for the page. These status codes indicate to search engines that the page doesn’t exist and the content should not be indexed.

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If you have access to your server’s configuration files, you can make these error pages useful to users by customizing them. A good custom 404 page helps people find the information they’re looking for, and also provides other helpful content that encourages people to explore your site further. Here are some tips for designing a useful custom 404 page:

  • Tell visitors clearly that the page they’re looking for can’t be found. Use language that is
    friendly and inviting.

  • Make sure your 404 page has the same look and feel (including navigation) as
    the rest of your site.

  • Consider adding links to your most popular articles or posts, as well as a link to your
    site’s home page.
  • Think about providing a way for users to report a broken link.

Custom 404 pages are created solely for users. Since these pages are useless from a search engine’s perspective, make sure the server returns a 404 HTTP status code to prevent having the pages indexed.

The page or content is now somewhere else

If your page has moved or has a clear replacement on your site, return a 301 (permanent redirect) to redirect the user. This will not interrupt their browsing experience and it’s also a great way to tell search engines about the new location of the page.

Use the URL Inspection tool to verify whether your URL is actually returning the correct code.

The page and content still exist

If an otherwise good page was flagged with a soft 404 error, it’s likely it didn’t load properly for Googlebot, it was missing critical resources, or it displayed a prominent error message during rendering. Use the URL Inspection tool to examine the rendered content and the returned HTTP code. If the rendered page is blank, nearly blank, or the content has an error message, it could be that your page references many resources that can’t be loaded (images, scripts, and other non-textual elements), which can be interpreted as a soft 404. Reasons that resources can’t be loaded include blocked resources (blocked by robots.txt), having too many resources on a page, various server errors, or slow loading or very large resources.

Hat tip on this from Kenichi Suzuki on Twitter.


Those are the changes spotted in the past couple days to Google’s help documentation.

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Forum discussion at Twitter.



Source: www.seroundtable.com

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Google Says Again, Sites Hit By The Old Helpful Content Update Can Recover

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10 hours ago

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May 6, 2024

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Google Torn Paper Logo

Google’s John Mueller said again this morning that sites hit by the old September helpful content update or even new core updates can recovery. He said on X and on LinkedIn that it is possible to recover but it is not a simple change you can tweak on your website, but rather it takes a lot of effort, over time, to recover.

John said that not only can you recover but you can grow. He said this morning, “Yes, sites can grow again after being affected by the “HCU” (well, core update now).”

Last week we covered how John said it may just take a lot of time to recover from that helpful content update. This is despite Google telling some people it can take weeks (then said several months) to recover.

I know the helpful content update is no more, it is now a core update. But many were expecting some of those hit by the September helpful content update to recover with the March 2024 core update – but that did not happen.

John Mueller from Google said on LinkedIn, “It’s just that some kinds of changes take a long time to build up, and that applies to all kinds of systems & updates in Google & in any other larger computer system.”

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He wrote on LinkedIn fully:

I realize this is from the title of Barry’s post, but to be clear, it’s not that “helpful content update” “recoveries” take longer than other updates. It’s just that some kinds of changes take a long time to build up, and that applies to all kinds of systems & updates in Google & in any other larger computer system. Saying that this is specific to the helpful content system, or to core updates would be wrong & misleading.

There is, however, the additional aspect of the “core update” being about how our systems assess content overall, how we consider it to be helpful, reliable, relevant to users’ queries. This does not map back to a single change that you can make on a website, so – in my experience – it’s not something that a website can just tweak overnight and be done with it. It can require deep analysis to understand how to make a website relevant in a modern world, and significant work to implement those changes — assuming that it’s something that aligns with what the website even wants. These are not “recoveries” in the sense that someone fixes a technical issue and they’re back on track – they are essentially changes in a business’s priorities (and, a business might choose not to do that).

He added on LinkedIn:

making a site more helpful (assuming that’s what you’re aiming for) doesn’t mean you have to add more content. There’s a lot that goes into making a helpful site – content is one part, and more content is not necessarily more helpful. Think about how you use the web.

He also posted this morning on X, “Yes, sites can grow again after being affected by the “HCU” (well, core update now). This isn’t permanent. It can take a lot of work, time, and perhaps update cycles, and/but a different – updated – site will be different in search too.” He added, “Permanent changes are not very useful in a dynamic world, so yes. However, “recover” implies going back to just-as-before, and IMO that is always unrealistic, since the world, user-expectations, and the rest of the web continues to change. It’s never “just-as-before”.”

Here are some of the new posts on this topic from John over the weekend:

So keep working on your site and maybe you will recover in the long run?

Forum discussion at X and LinkedIn.

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The Industry Mourns The Loss Of Mark Irvine

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1 day ago

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May 5, 2024

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Mark Irvine Rip

I am deeply sad to report that Mark Irvine passed away unexpectedly last night. Mark was deeply involved in the search marketing community, known as being a brilliant paid search specialist who always spent his time helping others over his long career in the space.

Mark has been in the search marketing industry for well over a decade, seven years at WordStream and the last four or so years at SearchLab. He was always a bright and welcoming smile at industry events, sharing advice with colleagues and friends.

Navah Hopkins worked with Mark for many years and she sent me the following message:

“Do less”

These were the words Mark would always say to me when we worked together. Yet he was incapable of doing less. He brought so much love and care to everything he did.

I was lucky enough to work with Mark directly for about 5 years, and counted him a friend since then. Beyond being a brilliant data scientist and a natural leader, Mark was one of the most human humans I’ve ever known. He understood people at a fundamental level and always made sure others around him could shine.

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Mark would often say that I was his dedicated PR team and even as I’m writing this detailing his accomplishments and his amazing (and all together too short) life, I can hear him laughing that I’m doing it again. Well – tough…just enjoy the love we have for you and sip those heavenly pumpkin spice lattes.

Mark was always put data first behind every major project at WordStream, Navah told me. He was a worldly person who traveled abroad to speak at many events. He was really good at connecting with people abroad. Mark was named the #1 PPC influencer in 2019 and was consistently was on that list year-after-year. PPCHero has recognized him as one of the top PPC Influencers every year since 2015, as did Microsoft and in 2019.

Here is Mark’s bio at SearchLabs.

He leaves behind his partner, Bobby Main and his mother, Virginia Hall.

Here are some early reactions to the sad news of Mark passing:

Forum discussion at X.

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Daily Search Forum Recap: May 3, 2024

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2 days ago

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May 4, 2024

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Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.


Google got their cost down to generate AI answers in search by 80%. Google is interested in alternatives to hreflang. Google may recrawl URLs multiple times per day or per month. Google is testing custom search filter templates in search. Google AdSense removed its privacy policy as a placement for withdrawal of consent. And I posted the weekly SEO video recap. And deeply sad to report that passing of Mark Irvine.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

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Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Other Search

Feedback:


Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

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