Google warns against disabling websites during Coronavirus pandemic
- Reference: 1585298766
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/27/google_warns_against_disabling_websites/
- Source link:
An important step, Google says, is to not disable your website altogether. Although business owners might find it tempting to turn off their websites to avoid paying fees or disappoint customers they can't serve, Google says that this might harm your website rankings when the site it brought back online.
Turning your site off "is an extreme measure that should only be taken for a very short period of time (a few days at most), as it will otherwise have significant effects on the website in Search, even when implemented properly," wrote John Mueller, a trends analyst at Google, in a blogpost.
"That's why it's highly recommended to only limit your site's functionality instead. Keep in mind that your customers may also want to find information about your products, your services, and your company, even if you're not selling anything right now."
Instead, the search'n'ad giant recommends being up-front with customers about a temporary inability to secure stock and/or disabling shopping carts. Then re-index using Google's Search Console for a small number of pages, or sitemaps for a larger number of pages.
But if closing your site for a short time is necessary, Google advises you to return an information error page with a 503 HTTP result code instead of removing content. If you need to disable the site for longer, then use a 200 HTTP status code to provide an indexable homepage as a placeholder for users to find when they search for your site.
But Google warns that doing so could have a number of lasting effects on how your site interacts with its search engine. For example, the Search Console verification will fail, meaning you will lose access to information about your business in Search. Ramping up again will be harder as your website will need to be re-indexed, and it might not appear in search results in the same way as it did before the disable.
"This is the recommended approach since it minimises any negative effects on your site's presence in Search. People can still find your products, read review, or add wishlists so they can purchase at a later time," Mueller [1]said .
Mueller also advised against temporarily blocking access to entire regions from your site or using the Remove Tool to wipe out-of-stock products. Just mark it out of stock, Mueller said. "That way people can still understand what's going on, even if they can't purchase the item. If you remove the product from Search, people don't know why it's not there." ?
[1] https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2020/03/how-to-pause-your-business-online-in.html
Re: Yes, Google
Gotta keep the revenue from those bot advert impressions coming in! Can't do that if the website is offline...
Google warns against disabling websites during Coronavirus pandemic
Spoken like a true advertising agency. Next up: "We need to monitor everyone to ensure social distancing during this crisis" (? Facebook, Google, Twitter et al)
I stopped concerning myself with web-rank back when SEO became a thing.
Hmmmm
Google has released a set of guidelines to website owners on how to minimise the long-terms effects on their its business. 's search ranking.
FTFY
Using a 503HTTP or 200HTTP page is probably worse than temporarily closing your site, most people don't read the page or even understand the message, they just think the site is broken and go elsewhere.
Google are only worried about their bank account rankings.
Website owners warn Google
Google, now that most people are playing games and watching videos on-line, this would be a good time to fix your crappy search algorithms and actually make google search work again instead of just serving up vaguely relevant adverts.
Re: Website owners warn Google
They should also un-obsfucate their code.
It should be possible to block any object type (i.i. People Also Ask) because some of us know and understand that more than 50% of their userbase are stupid (i'd suggest its closer to 80%) so telling us what stupid people ask is collosal waste of time, bandwidth, and screen real-estate.
Signed
A user who's been using the Internet since before the concept of a search engine
Re: Website owners warn Google
Or leave out a vital word.
As in Housecats pet-food Tuna Brazil
= Housecats pet-food -Tuna -Brazil .
.
.
Not to mention they have entered the Final Endgame of Google Search, whereby all the top entries, and most of the rest are geared to commerce.
Historical Development of Roman Swords over 5 centuries
= Buy replica Roman Swords at [Amazon][Walmart][Home Depot] ad infinitum
re. Google warns against disabling websites
in response: Google, I fart in your general direction. Your "advice" is a hamster, and your search result smell of elderberries.?
I would have thought a temporary 302 redirect to a "bugger off" page would have been better?
Although I would also have thought that Google would give websites a bit of leeway.
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results."
Quoting Google:
"Ramping up again will be harder as your website will need to be re-indexed, and it might not appear in search results in the same way as it did before the disable."
Yes, Google
This is absolutely the time to worry about website rankings. Congratulations for reminding us that you exist.