Understanding the Noarchive Tag
When delving into SEO and webpage indexing aspects, one can often encounter various HTML meta tags. One of the less commonly discussed tags is the ‘Noarchive’ tag. So, what exactly does this tag do and how does it influence your webpage’s visibility on search engines? Let’s find out.
The ‘Noarchive’ tag is a specific command that we use to instruct search engines not to store a cached version of the page. Essentially, when this command is in use, the ‘Cached’ link that usually appears beside your website’s description on the search engine results page will be absent.
The Implication of Noarchive Tag
In SEO terms, a cached version of a webpage is a ‘snapshot’ or a backup copy that Google takes and stores when it indexes a page. These cached versions can be extremely useful for users. For instance, if a website is temporarily down or has heavy traffic that prevents it from loading, users can still access its content through the cached version stored by Google.
Moreover, caching also benefits webpage owners. When Google creates a cached version of your page, it means that the search engine has successfully crawled and indexed the webpage, indicating that your webpage is likely to appear in the search results.
However, there can be scenarios where website owners do not want a cached copy of their webpage to be available. It could be due to frequently changing content, privacy concerns, or simply to hinder competitors from viewing their original content through the cache.
In such instances, the ‘Noarchive’ tag comes into play. When you include this metatag in your webpage’s HTML code, search engines understand and honour your request not to archive the page, effectively preventing them from creating or showing a cached version of the page in their search results.
The Implementation and Impact of Noarchive Tag
To implement the ‘Noarchive’ tag, you need to insert the following line of code into the ‘head’ section of your webpage’s HTML: ``. Adding this line of code instructs all the web robots not to archive the page.
But what is the impact of this tag on SEO? The ‘Noarchive’ tag does not negatively impact your webpage’s search ranking. Search engines, including Google, have confirmed that using the ‘Noarchive’ tag does not affect how they crawl or index webpages.
The primary effect of using the ‘Noarchive’ tag is the disappearance of the ‘Cached’ link from the description snippet of your webpage in search engine results. This makes the tag very useful when dealing with pages that contain time-sensitive or frequently updated information.
However, one must consider potential drawbacks before deciding to use the ‘Noarchive’ tag. Removing the cached version of your page can potentially limit the accessibility of your content. If a page is removed or if the server goes down, the content is not retrievable via the cache, which might turn away some users.
The decision to use the ‘Noarchive’ tag ultimately depends on your unique website needs and the nature of content on your webpage. Remember, the tag is a powerful tool when used strategically. It can protect your content from being copied and keep your information up-to-date, but it must be used reasonably and responsibly to avoid unnecessary disruptions to user accessibility.