Lately, Google’s not-so-major yet impactful move has taken the internet by storm– yes, the removal of cache from the search results it is. Google announced this update in February 2024, but eventually it has now been implemented. SEOs and web developers are now encouraged to utilize Wayback Machine and some other tools to retrieve previous web pages and troubleshoot codes respectively. In today’s post, we’ll discuss what exactly the scenario is post-Google removes cache from search results.
Key Takeaways: Google Removes Cache
Google Cache was quite handy for users willing to assess previous web page versions. But now that it has been permanently retired, things have changed:
1. Cache Searching Will Return No Results
Google removes cache, which means now users can’t see previous web pages like before. Earlier entering “cache:websitename.com” into Google returned archived versions of web pages to analyze the changes, however, now you’ll see a page like this:
2. Find Archived Web Links On Wayback Machine
Google has added previous URLs to Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine so that users can get access to them. On the particular search result on SERP, click on the three vertical dots. Then click on “More about this page,” and then scroll down a little to locate and click on the “See previous versions on Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine” link. You’ll be redirected to the previous version of the page in the Wayback Machine.
3. Alternative Ways To Check Crawling
Now no user can check when Google bots crawled their web page like earlier. So, where exactly should you head to check this? Well. Google has suggested all Search Console account holders to utilize its URL inspection tool or the rich result testing tool.
How Does This Matter?
Well, Google cache removal from search results has a significant implication on how it used to handle previous versions of web pages. This is to say that the No. 1 search engine has adopted a unified approach to handle web history preservation and provide users with a more seamless experience. It has picked a trusted web archive platform– Wayback Machine for this purpose. In a nutshell, it won’t be wrong to say that users can accelerate the speed of accessing the archived web with Google removes cache update.
