Google Search documentation changes
Every entry on Google's Search Central documentation updates page since January 2024, newest first, in Google's own words. Where we covered a change, the entry links to our piece.
Last checked
- 174entries logged
- 34months covered
- Oct 8latest entry
- 8covered by our reporting
2026
October 20262 entries
Added documentation on the UGC Fresh Data Program
What
Added a new page about the UGC Fresh Data Program.
Why
To explain the purpose of the program and help prospective applicants understand the eligibility criteria and how to participate.
Our coverageGoogle adds UGC Fresh Data Program for large platforms
Updated guidance on using generative AI content
What
Updated the using generative AI content guide with information from the Search Quality Raters guidelines.
Why
To get our documentation in sync with our presentations we use at our developer events.
Our coverageGoogle says fact-checking AI content is critical before publishing
September 20264 entries
Added creator property and updated interactionStatistic in VideoObject structured data
What
Added the creator property (noting support for author) and updated interactionStatistic to document supported interaction types in the VideoObject structured data documentation.
Why
To document support for the creator and author properties, and clarify supported interaction types for interactionStatistic in VideoObject structured data.
Our coverageGoogle documents creator for VideoObject structured data
Added local business query support to the aggregator and supplier units
What
Updated the aggregator unit and supplier unit documentation to include support for local business queries.
Why
The aggregator unit and supplier unit now support local business queries.
Added documentation on adding a Search profile badge to your website
What
Added a new guide on how to add a Search profile badge to your website.
Why
To help site owners point their audience to their Search profile.
Added documentation about regional differences in Search experience
What
Added documentation about regional differences in Search experience, which includes information about search experiences available in certain countries, such as aggregator units, supplier units, and carousels.
Why
To help publishers, businesses, and aggregators learn about the different regional search features available and understand the eligibility criteria and how to participate.
August 20264 entries
Updated the European Search Dataset Licensing Program page
What
Updated the Google European Search Dataset Licensing Program page.
Why
Refreshed the program overview, eligibility criteria, and application details.
Updated the favicon documentation
What
Updated the favicon documentation to specifically list out the supported favicon file formats.
Why
To be clearer about which favicon file formats are supported by Google Search. Previously, the documentation linked to an external reference that evolved over time and caused ambiguity about which favicon file formats are actually supported in Google Search. Google Search's supported file formats haven't changed; this update explicitly lists them in the documentation.
Updated the site reputation policy
What
Updated the site reputation policy.
Why
We've adjusted our enforcement approach within the European Economic Area (EEA). For more information, see our blog post.
Our coverageGoogle splits site reputation enforcement along the EEA border
July 20267 entries
Added a new review snippet guideline
What
Added a new guideline to the review snippet documentation about fake and undisclosed incentivized reviews.
Why
To improve user review transparency.
Our coverageGoogle adds review snippet rule on fake and incentivized reviews
Updated the package tracking documentation
What
Updated the feature availability and eligibility requirements sections package tracking early adopters program documentation.
Why
The package tracking early adopters program is no longer accepting new partners.
Updated the canonicalization troubleshooting guide
What
Updated the canonicalization troubleshooting guide with clarifications on re-evaluation time.
Why
To provide better expectations about how long it takes for canonicalization changes to take effect.
Added category to merchant listing structured data
What
Updated the Merchant listing documentation to detail how the Product.category property can be used with both Text and CategoryCode types. This aligns with the Google Merchant Center feed specifications for the product_type and google_product_category attributes.
Why
To help merchants provide both merchant-defined and Google-defined category information within their schema.org markup, enhancing product information for Google Search and Shopping.
Clarified how to specify sale price effective dates in Product structured data
What
Added a new section on "Sale duration" to the Merchant listing guide. This explains how to use the validFrom, validThrough, and priceValidUntil schema.org properties to set the effective range for sale prices, including best practices and examples for placement on either Offer or PriceSpecification nodes.
Why
This aligns schema.org usage with the Merchant Center feed attribute sale_price_effective_date, providing clear instructions and best practices for merchants using structured data.
Updating our AMP documentation
What
Simplified our AMP documentation by removing outdated references to the AMP viewer, AMP Cache, and signed exchange.
Why
Starting today, Google Search is updating how it connects users to AMP pages, and will now take users directly to the publisher's AMP host pages. This change simplifies and reduces maintenance efforts for publishers who are creating AMP content, as they no longer need to update the AMP cache or configure signed exchanges. AMP content will continue to rank just like any other web page.
June 20265 entries
Site move guidance now includes information on domain variants
What
The site move guide now includes information on using the Change of Address tool for all subdomain variants (including www and non-www) during domain migrations.
Why
The domain migrations work best when all variants of a site are migrated properly.
Clarifying guidance on llms.txt files
What
Added a note to the AI optimization guide clarifying Google Search's usage of llms.txt files.
Why
To address questions from the community and clarify that while these files aren't needed for Google Search (and won't negatively or positively impact your visibility or rankings), it's fine if you want to maintain these files for other services or systems that use them.
Removing documentation for the FAQ rich result feature
What
Removed documentation for the FAQ rich result feature.
Why
The FAQ rich result feature is no longer shown in Google Search results, as announced in the changelog entry in May 2026.
Our coverageGoogle removes FAQ rich results from Search
New article for small business owners in Tennessee
What
Created a new article explaining how small business owners in Tennessee can receive notifications from Google Search.
Why
To help small businesses in Tennessee learn how they can get notified if their web content is removed or restricted on Google Search (for example, signing up for Search Console, Business Profile, or Merchant Center).
Guidance on third-party SEO tools, services, and advice
What
Added Google Search's guidance on using third-party SEO tools, services, and advice. Also added guidance to the Do you need an SEO? page on evaluating your SEO's recommendations and tools, along with other minor updates to the page to simplify and modernize the content.
Why
To highlight important considerations when evaluating third-party SEO tools and advice, and to simplify some sections and remove outdated examples in existing documentation.
May 20265 entries
Preferred sources is available in AI Mode and AI Overviews
What
Updated the feature availability section of the preferred sources documentation to include AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Why
The preferred sources feature is starting to roll out to AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Adding a new guide on optimizing for generative AI features
What
Added a new guide on optimizing for generative AI features on Search. Notable new sections include guidance on the importance of providing non-commodity content, tips about providing local, shopping, image, and video content, mythbusting common "AEO/GEO" misconceptions, initial guidance on AI agents, and more information on why SEO best practices continue to be relevant for success in our generative AI features on Search.
Why
To help site owners, SEOs, and developers better understand how to optimize their content for appearance in generative AI features on Search, and what they can ignore.
Clarifying that spam policies apply to generative AI responses in Google Search
What
Clarified that our spam policies also apply to generative AI responses in Google Search.
Why
To make it clear that the spam policies apply to all of Google Search, including generative AI responses.
Deprecating the FAQ rich result feature
What
Added a deprecation notice to the FAQ rich result documentation.
Why
This feature will no longer appear in Google Search starting May 7, 2026.
Our coverageGoogle removes FAQ rich results from Search
April 20265 entries
Expanding preferred sources to all languages where Google Search is available
What
Added that the preferred sources feature is now available in all languages where Google Search is available, including new translated downloadable button assets.
Why
The preferred sources feature is now available in all languages supported by Google Search.
Clarifying when and why we may take manual action based on spam reports
What
Further clarified when and why we may take manual action based on spam reports.
Why
To address feedback we received about the change on using spam reports to take manual action.
Added a section about "read more" deep links
What
Added a new section on "read more" deep links to the snippet documentation.
Why
To explain how to increase the likelihood of your content appearing with a "read more" deeplink in Google Search results.
Clarifying the use of spam reports
What
Clarified that Google may use spam report submissions to take manual action against violations.
Why
Google may now use spam report submissions to take manual action.
March 20264 entries
Added new supported properties for Discussion Forum and QA Page markup
What
Added more supported properties for Discussion Forum and QA Page markup.
Why
For providing more clarity on comment thread structure to Google ingestion systems. This prevents misinterpretations in our handling of forum and Q&A content.
Removed outdated information about JavaScript and accessibility
What
Removed a section on accessibility from the JavaScript SEO basics documentation.
Why
The information was out of date and not as helpful as it used to be. Google Search has been rendering JavaScript for multiple years now, so using JavaScript to load content is not "making it harder for Google Search". Most assistive technologies are able to work with JavaScript now as well.
Added preferred image best practices
What
Added a new section on specifying a preferred image with metadata to the image SEO best practices and Discover documentation.
Why
Based on feedback, we're clarifying that Google uses both schema.org markup and the og:image meta tag as sources when determining image thumbnails in Google Search and Discover.
February 20262 entries
Added information to the Get on Discover page for site owners
What
Added more information on how sites can increase the likelihood of their content appearing in Discover.
Why
We're rolling out the February 2026 Discover Core Update.
Clarified information about the default file size limits for Googlebot
What
While moving over the information about the default file size limits of Google's crawlers and fetchers to the crawler documentation, we also updated the Googlebot documentation about its own file size limits.
Why
The original location of the default file size limits was not the most logical place as it applies to all of Google's crawlers and fetchers, and the move enabled us to be more precise about Googlebot's limits.
January 20263 entries
Adding preferred sources documentation
What
Added preferred sources documentation for website owners.
Why
To help publishers understand how to help their audience find their site as a preferred source.
Adding more supported query types to South African carousel documentation
What
Updated the structured data carousels (beta) documentation and the South African badges and refinement chips blog post to include additional query types.
Why
The South African carousel, badges, and refinement chips now support queries related to food delivery, car hire, and bus booking.
Removing documentation for the practice problem structured data type
What
Removed documentation for the practice problem structured data type.
Why
The practice problem structured data type is no longer shown in Google Search results. Learn more about this change in our blog post and changelog entry announced in November 2025.
2025
December 20255 entries
Clarifying JavaScript execution on non-200 HTTP status codes
What
We added a note on how Googlebot processes JavaScript.
Why
While pages with a 200 HTTP status code are sent to rendering, this might not be the case for pages with a non-200 HTTP status code.
Migrating more crawling documentation to a new location
What
Migrated the following documentation to Google's crawling infrastructure site. The functionality hasn't changed, only the location of the documentation and some minor wording changes to clarify that some guidance applies to both Google Search and other Google products.
Why
This documentation is more relevant to many Google products that use Google's crawlers, not just Search.
Clarifying canonicalization best practices for JavaScript
What
We added a section on canonicalization best practices for JavaScript to our JavaScript documentation and the best practices for consolidation of duplicate URLs.
Why
Canonicalization happens before and after rendering, so it's important to make the canonical URL as clear as possible. With JavaScript, this means setting the canonical URL to the same URL as in the original HTML or if that isn't possible, to leave the canonical URL out of the original HTML.
Clarifying noindex and JavaScript
What
Clarified in our JavaScript documentation how Google's crawler handles noindex tags in pages that use JavaScript.
Why
While Google may be able to render a page that uses JavaScript, the behavior of this is not well defined and might change. If there's a possibility that you do want the page indexed, don't use a noindex tag in the original page code.
Adding a section on smaller core updates
What
Added information to the core updates documentation about how Google continually makes updates to our search algorithms (including smaller core updates), and how that can affect your website.
Why
To clarify that site owners that make content improvements can see a rise in position in Google Search results without having to wait for the next major core update.
November 20257 entries
Migrating Google's crawling documentation to a new location
What
Migrated the following crawling documentation to a new location, Google's crawling infrastructure documentation (the content hasn't changed, only the location). Notable moves include: To subscribe to updates about Google's crawling infrastructure, add the URL of the new changelog page to your feed reader, or add the feed URL directly: https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/changelog/crawling_docs_updates.rss.
Why
Google's crawling infrastructure is shared across a variety of Google products beyond Search, including Google Shopping, News, Gemini, AdSense, and more. The new site is a more logical home for this documentation and makes it easier to document new features and updates that are relevant to all of these products.
Removing guidance on the Follow feature in Discover
What
Removed guidance on the Follow feature from Google Discover documentation.
Why
The Follow feature is no longer shown in Google Discover.
Clarifying nesting in reviews and aggregate ratings
What
Clarified the review snippet documentation to explain that site owners should avoid using multiple ways of indicating what's being reviewed.
Why
To prevent ambiguity and make sure Google can better interpret your review and aggregate rating structured data.
Adding a new user-triggered fetcher
What
We added the Google-Pinpoint fetcher to the list of user-triggered fetchers.
Why
The Google-Pinpoint fetcher is used by the Pinpoint research tool.
Launching new merchant shipping policies documentation
What
Added documentation for shipping policies.
Why
We now support merchant-level shipping policy markup in Search.
Removing and clarifying documentation for some structured data types
What
Added a deprecation notice to the practice problem documentation. Starting in January 2026, we'll also be removing support for that feature in Search Console rich result reporting, the Rich Result Test, and the list of Search appearance filters. The Search Console API will continue to support the practice problem type through January 2026. Clarified that Dataset structured data is only used by Dataset Search, and not Google Search. Removed the deprecation banner from Book actions documentation, as there's still a feature using the markup in Google Search.
Why
As part of our ongoing efforts to simplify the search results page, we are phasing out the practice problem and dataset structured data types from Google Search results.
Adding a new user-triggered fetcher
What
Based on feedback, we added the Google-CWS fetcher to the list of user-triggered fetchers.
October 20252 entries
Update the list of Google products that use the Read Aloud service
What
Update the documentation on Google Read Aloud with an updated list of Google products that use the Read Aloud service.
Why
Other Google products can now use the Google Read Aloud service.
Adding Google-NotebookLM to the list of user-triggered fetchers
What
Based on feedback, we added Google-NotebookLM to the list of user-triggered fetchers.
September 20251 entry
Removing documentation for some deprecated structured data types
What
Removed documentation for the following structured data types: course info, estimated salary, learning video, special announcement, and vehicle listing.
Why
These structured data types are no longer shown in Google Search results. Learn more about this change in our blog post.
August 20252 entries
Adding guidance for JavaScript-based paywalls
What
Added new guidance on JavaScript-based paywall considerations.
Why
To help sites understand challenges with the JavaScript-based paywall design pattern, as it makes it difficult for Google to automatically determine which content is paywalled and which isn't.
Expanding the structured data carousels (beta) feature to South Africa
What
Updated the structured data carousels (beta) documentation to include South Africa.
Why
The feature is available in South Africa.
July 20252 entries
Updating the Google Read Aloud user agent
What
Updated Google Read Aloud user agent in HTTP requests with newer browser versions.
Why
To accommodate sites which don't support old browser versions.
June 20259 entries
Revamped the URL structure documentation
What
Reorganized the URL structure documentation so it has a clearer flow and is easier to navigate, with added examples based on real-world URLs we've encountered.
Why
Every now and then, we revisit our documentation and look for ways to make it better. This is a docs-only change, no change in behavior.
Adding feature availability information for loyalty program structured data
What
Added a section on feature availability to the loyalty program documentation.
Why
The feature is available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico, the UK, and the US, on both desktop and mobile.
AI Mode is now counting towards totals in Search Console
What
Updated the AI feature documentation to point to the section about how AI Mode is counted towards the overall search traffic in Search Console.
Why
Data from AI Mode is now counting towards the totals in the Search Console Performance report.
Retiring a few structured data features
What
Added banners to a few structured data features to indicate upcoming changes: book actions, course info, estimated salary, ClaimReview, learning video, special announcement, and vehicle listing.
Why
As part of our ongoing efforts to simplify the Google Search results page, we will be phasing out support for a few structured data features in Search. Learn more in our blog post.
Spring cleaning in our multilingual documentation
What
Removed a section from our multilingual documentation about using robots.txt to block all automatically translated pages.
Why
To align with our spam policy update in March 2024. This is a docs-only change, no change in behavior.
Launching new merchant return policies and loyalty program documentation
What
Added documentation for loyalty programs and migrated the merchant return policy documentation to a separate page.
Why
We now support loyalty program markup in Search. We migrated merchant return policies from the Organization documentation to a new dedicated document to make it easier to find return policy guidance.
Updating our guidance for event structured data
What
Added more examples of eliglible and illegible events to the events documentation. Also removed the online event properties.
Why
To be eligible for the event experience on Google, events must be bookable by the general public and held at a physical location.
Clarifying the use of the image property for recipes
What
Clarified that the image property in Recipe structured data doesn't influence the image that's chosen as a text result image.
Why
The image property in Recipe markup is only used for recipe rich results, not for text result images.
Revamping our SafeSearch documentation
What
Revamped our documentation for sites with explicit content to make sure our guidance is up-to-date with Google Search policies and algorithmic protections. Among other updates, we introduced best practices for moderating content and eliminating CSAM and non-consensual content, expanded documentation for sharing video bytes, and added more guidance on what to do if your site is incorrectly flagged as explicit.
Why
To better help site owners reach their target audience while respecting user preferences around explicit content and minimizing access to violative explicit content. Also, the troubleshooting section has been separated for more clarity. Finally, Google Search is updating the ranking algorithms to more strongly affect the sites that host explicit videos but don't allow Googlebot to fetch those video files (these sites may experience a significant drop in ranking, especially in Video mode).
May 20253 entries
Adding documentation on AI features and using generative AI on your site
What
Added new documentation on AI features and your site and Google Search's guidance on using generative AI content on your website. Learn more in our blog post on succeeding in Google's AI experiences on Search.
Expanding the structured data carousels (beta) feature to Turkey
What
Updated the structured data carousels (beta) documentation to include Turkey.
Why
The feature is available in Turkey.
April 20256 entries
Updated the description of the Google-Extended product token
What
Based on publisher feedback, we updated the Google-Extended product token description to provide additional specificity and clarity.
Correcting the description of the crawler preferences addressed to the Googlebot-News user agent
What
Updated the Googlebot-News user agent description.
Why
The description for how crawling preferences addressed to Googlebot-News mistakenly stated that they'd affect the News tab on Google, which is not the case.
Updating the merchant listing documentation on energy efficiency
What
Updated the merchant listing documentation on energy efficiency. Specifically, removed the EnergyConsumptionDetails properties, added a note on backwards compatibility for developers that implemented the original markup, and added an alternative solution to the certificationIdentification property for merchants that don't have EPREL codes.
Why
As announced in October 2024, the EnergyConsumptionDetails type has been replaced with the more robust Certification type.
Deprecating the special announcement feature
What
Added a deprecation notice to the special announcements documentation.
Why
This feature will be deprecated starting July 31, 2025.
Updating the interest forms for structured data carousels (beta)
What
Updated the structured data carousels (beta) documentation to include the current interest forms and supported query types.
Why
To reflect the current state of the feature and process for expressing interest.
Expanding the education Q&A carousel to Portuguese
What
Updated the education Q&A documentation to include Portuguese.
Why
The education Q&A carousel is available in Portuguese.
March 20255 entries
Removing AI while browsing documentation
What
Removed the AI while browsing feature from the paywall documentation.
Why
The AI while browsing feature is no longer available.
Expanding the education Q&A carousel to more languages
What
Updated the education Q&A documentation to include Spanish and Vietnamese.
Why
The education Q&A carousel is available in more languages.
Updating the return policy examples
What
Added returnPolicyCountry to the return policy examples.
Why
returnPolicyCountry is required for MerchantReturnPolicy.
Removing page annotations documentation
What
Removed the Page Annotations feature from the control what you share with Google documentation.
Why
The Page Annotations feature is no longer available.
Adding AI Mode to the robots meta tag documentation
What
Added information about AI Mode to the robots meta tags, data-nosnippet, and X-Robots-Tag specifications page.
Why
AI Mode is now available in Search Labs.
February 20252 entries
Explaining how to encode various types of prices in structured data
What
Added examples and instructions for using the priceType property and new beta validForMemberTier property to encode active prices, sale prices, strikethrough prices, and member prices in JSON-LD to the Merchant listing structured data guidelines.
Why
To make it easier for merchants to specify complex pricing through structured data and bring parity with price features in Merchant Center.
Adding documentation for using Google Analytics and Search Console data together
What
Added new documentation about using Search Console and Google Analytics data for SEO.
Why
Using Google Analytics and Search Console together can help you understand how people discover and experience your website, which can you make more informed decisions as you work on your site's SEO.
January 20253 entries
Clarifying the site reputation abuse policy
What
Updated the site reputation abuse policy to include guidance from our blog post's FAQ on site reputation abuse.
Why
To make it easier to find this guidance. These are editiorial changes only, no change in behavior.
Adding a recommendation about accepting ratings and reviews
What
Added a recommendation to our review snippet documentation.
Why
We recommend implementing a setup that only accepts ratings and reviews that are accompanied by a review comment and author's name, as this approach can help your users understand the context for a given rating.
2024
December 20243 entries
Consolidating the robots.txt error handling documentation
What
Consolidated robots.txt error handling documentation into a single spot.
Why
We previously had information about robots.txt error handling in several places (specifically, HTTP status codes and Search Console documentation), which lead to some confusion. This is a docs-only change, no change in behavior.
Documentation for cache control support of Google's crawlers
What
Added a section about how Google's crawlers handle cache control headers in the overview of Google's crawlers.
Why
While the information was already public in form of a blog post, it was never officially made into documentation.
November 20246 entries
Removing sitelinks search box documentation
What
Removed the sitelinks search box documentation and archived the nositelinkssearchbox rule.
Why
The sitelinks search box feature is no longer available in Google Search results.
Added information about opting out of the Page Annotations feature.
What
Added information about opting out of the Page Annotations feature that's available on the iOS Google App.
Why
The new Page Annotations feature was launched recently.
Updated our site reputation abuse policy
What
Updated language to make it clear that using third-party content on a site in an attempt to exploit the site's ranking signals is a violation of this policy — regardless of whether there is first-party involvement or oversight of the content.
Why
See our blog post for more details on what changed and why.
Updated our Guide to Google Search ranking systems
What
Brought over and expanded language from March 2024 blog post FAQ about site signals.
Why
To make it easier for those interested to understand through our documentation that we have both page-level and site-wide signals used in ranking.
Added information on how C2PA metadata can appear in Search
What
Added information on how Google extracts C2PA metadata for use in Search.
Why
Google Search now supports this metadata in the "About this image" feature.
Added notice about links for large websites with differing mobile and desktop pages
What
Added a best practice about making sure all links are present on the mobile version to the crawl budget documentation.
Why
For large websites with separate HTML on mobile and desktop versions, the discovery of new pages can be slower if the mobile version does not include all the links that are present on the desktop version.
October 20247 entries
New documentation for Google Trends
What
Added a page explaining how to get started with Google Trends.
Why
Google Trends can help you better understand how people find information on Google Search, which can help you to develop your content strategy and refine how you talk to your audience.
Updating favicon size and aspect ratio requirements
What
Updated the favicon guidelines to state that favicons must have a 1:1 aspect ratio and be at least 8x8px in size, with a strong recommendation for using a higher resolution favicon of at least 48x48px.
Why
To reflect the actual requirements for favicons.
Clarifying URL parameter best practices
What
Added a URL parameters best practice to the URL structure documentation.
Why
To make it easier to find guidance about URL parameters, as it was previously only mentioned in the faceted navigation blog post.
Clarifying support for robots.txt fields
What
Clarified that fields that aren't listed in our robots.txt documentation aren't supported.
Why
We sometimes get questions about fields that aren't explicitly listed as supported, and we want to make it clear that they aren't.
Adding support for certifications
What
Added Certification markup support for merchant listings in the product structured data documentation.
Why
Starting in April 2025, we're replacing the EnergyConsumptionDetails type with the more robust Certification type, as the new type supports more countries and a broader scope of certifications.
Removing noarchive
What
Moved the noarchive rule to a historical reference section in the robots meta tag documentation.
Why
The cached link feature is no longer available in Google Search results. You don't need to remove the meta tag, as other search engines and services may be using it.
Clarifying dynamically-generated Product markup
What
Added two best practices for handling structured data when optimizing for shopping results in our documentation on product markup and generating structured data with JavaScript. We recommend putting Product markup in the initial HTML for best results, and making sure that your server can handle increased traffic if you're generating Product markup with JavaScript.
Why
To clarify that JavaScript-generated markup is supported for ecommerce sites, but there are some best practices to keep in mind.
September 202410 entries
Spam policy clarifications
What
Clarified some wording in our spam policies for Google web search to focus more on what web spam is and the tactics involved. Also integrated an explanation of close involvement from our blog post for easier reference, and clarified that trying to circumvent our policies can also result in ranking lower or not at all.
Why
We review and refresh our documentation periodically. This update is part of that process.
Removing the cache: search operator documentation
What
Removed the cache: search operator documentation.
Why
The cache: search operator no longer works in Google Search.
Adding support for sale pricing
What
Added the priceType property to the merchant listing documentation. Also added new sale pricing examples.
Why
To make it easier for merchants to specify sale pricing through structured data and bring parity with price features in Merchant Center.
Migrated the JavaScript guidance for infinite scroll
What
Migrated guidance from the blog post on infinite scroll to our documentation for infinite scroll. There is no change in the guidance.
Why
To make it easier to find our recommendations on infinite scroll and make sure it's still up to date.
Updating the HTTP user agent string of GoogleProducer
What
Updated the URL in the GoogleProducer HTTP user agent string in the documentation for Google's user-triggered fetchers to match the value used by the actual fetcher.
Why
The HTTP user agent string used by GoogleProducer was recently updated and future fetches will use the new value.
Adding content encoding information to the crawler documentation
What
Added information about the content encodings (compressions) supported by Google's crawlers and user-triggered fetchers. This is just documentation change, no change in behavior.
Why
We realized we never actually documented the content encodings Google's crawlers support, even though we blogged about it in the past.
Reorganizing the crawler documentation
What
Reorganized the documentation for Google's crawlers and user-triggered fetchers. We also added explicit notes about what product each crawler affects, and added a robots.txt snippet for each crawler to demonstrate how to use the user agent tokens. There were no meaningful changes to the content otherwise.
Why
The documentation grew very long which limited our ability to extend the content about our crawlers and user-triggered fetchers.
Clarifying Indexing API usage guidelines
What
Clarified that submissions to the Indexing API are subject to spam detection.
Why
Usage of the Indexing API is subject to spam detection, and attempts to exceed quotas may result in revoked access.
Video markup accepts ineligibleRegion
What
Added the ineligibleRegion property to the video structured data documentation.
Why
Google accepts the ineligibleRegion property as another way to restrict a video.
Clarifying quota and usage of the Indexing API
What
Clarified that the default quota is for setting up the Indexing API, and how to request approval and quota. Also corrected a documentation error for DefaultRequestsPerMinutePerProject quota (it's always been a 380 quota).
Why
To better explain that the default quota is for initial setup and testing, and it requires additional approval for usage and resource provisioning.
August 20249 entries
Adding support for AVIF
What
Added AVIF to the list of supported image formats.
Why
Google Search now supports AVIF.
Clarifying how organization markup is used
What
Updated the introduction for organization markup to clarify how the markup is used in Google Search.
Why
To better explain that some properties can influence which logo is shown, while others are used behind the scenes.
Adding og:title to the list of title link sources
What
Added og:title to the list of title link sources.
Why
Google Search can use content within og:title meta tags to automatically generate title links.
Improving the Video SEO documentation
What
Overhauled the video SEO best practices. Notably, we clarified the video indexing criteria and technical requirements, added a new watch page section, and expanded our examples.
Why
Based on feedback submissions, we revisited our video SEO guidance to clarify what's eligible for a video result and how site owners can make it easier for Google to find their videos.
Clarifying how profile page and discussion forum markup is used
What
Updated how profile page and discussion forum markup is used in Google Search.
Why
Perspectives was renamed to Forums in Google Search.
Introducing the Google-CloudVertexBot crawler
What
Added Google-CloudVertexBot to the list of Google crawlers, a new crawler that crawls sites on the site owners' request when building Vertex AI Agents.
Why
The new crawler was introduced to help site owners identify the new crawler traffic.
Improvements to the core updates documentation
What
Restructured the core updates documentation so it has clearer sections and includes information from other docs (such as traffic drops and the self-assessment guidance). Reduced duplication with the helpful content FAQ and redirected that page. Moved the helpful content system section to the archived section of the ranking systems guide.
Why
To better help site owners assess a traffic drop and make improvements to their site. Also, the helpful content system became part of core ranking systems (as we previously shared in March 2024).
Clarifying how AI Overviews are logged in Search Console
What
Clarified that AI Overviews are counted and logged in Search Console in the Performance report. This is a documentation clarification on methodology only, and not a change in Search Console reports.
Why
To confirm the methodology behind how clicks, impressions, and position are recorded for AI Overviews, just as we do for featured snippets, carousels, and other types of Search results.
Removing Notes documentation
What
Removed the documentation about Notes.
Why
The Notes experiment is no longer available. If you created a note, your notes content is available to download using Google Takeout through the end of August 2024.
July 20248 entries
Geo Data Upload string and URL update
What
Replaced the Geo Data Upload tool references in the Get on Google documentation with the Google Maps Content Partners resource.
Why
The Geo Data Upload name and support pages are deprecated.
Non-consensual fake imagery update
What
Clarified how Google handles sites with a high proportion of sexually explicit non-consensual, fake imagery in our spam policies and ranking systems guide.
Google Publisher Center user agent string update
What
Changed the Google Publisher Center user agent string from GoogleProducer; (+http://goo.gl/7y4SX) to GoogleProducer; (+https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/overview-google-crawlers#googleproducer). If you hardcoded the old value in your code, update the string to avoid potential bugs.
Why
goo.gl is going away.
A note about Notes
What
Added a note about the status of Notes to the Notes documentation.
Why
Notes is winding down at the end of July 2024.
Adding more detail about shipping and return policy precedence
What
Added Search Console shipping and return settings as an option and expanded on how precedence works in the organization and merchant listing documentation.
Why
Search Console now supports shipping and return settings, and we want to make it clearer how overriding works when combining various configurations.
Expanding translated results to more languages
What
Updated the translated results documentation to include the following languages: Arabic, Gujarati, Korean, Persian, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese.
Why
Translated results now support more languages.
Supporting a new IPTC digital source type
What
Added compositeWithTrainedAlgorithmicMedia to the IPTC photo metadata documentation.
Why
Google can now extract the compositeWithTrainedAlgorithmicMedia IPTC NewsCode.
Clarifying fragment URL guidance
What
Clarified our guidance about fragment URLs in the URL structure documentation.
Why
To make it easier to find the guideline about fragment URLs, as it was previously only mentioned in the JavaScript and mobile sites documentation.
June 20248 entries
Clarifying return policy precedence
What
Clarified in the organization-level return policy documentation that product-level return policy markup takes precedence over organization-level return policy markup. If you choose to use both markup (whether it's at the product- or organization-level, or both) and settings in Merchant Center, the Merchant Center return policy information takes precedence for any products submitted in your Merchant Center product feeds.
Why
To address user feedback about which return policy method takes precedence.
Marking up categories with many items for structured data carousels (beta)
What
Added guidance on how to mark up categories with many items to the structured data carousels (beta).
Why
We received a question through our feedback button about how to implement this markup for categories with many items, such as paginated content or infinite scroll.
Clarifying link tag attributes
What
Clarified in our hreflang documentation that link tags for denoting alternate versions of a page must not be combined in a single link tag.
Why
While debugging a report from a site owner we noticed we don't have this quirk documented.
Adding support for Organization-level return policies
What
Added documentation on how to specify a general return policy for an Organization as a whole.
Why
This makes it easier to define and maintain general return policies for an entire site.
Removing home activity documentation
What
Removed documentation on home activity structured data.
Why
The home activity feature no longer appears in Google Search results.
Publishing a new video SEO case study
What
Added a new case study about how Vidio brought more locally relevant video-on-demand (VOD) content for Indonesian users through Google Search.
Why
To show how adding video structured data and following best practices can improve video discoverability.
Updating Discussion Forum guidelines
What
Confirm that SocialMediaPosting markup is also supported and allow only image or video in comments without text.
Why
To more accurately reflect how the data ingestion for these features work and to remove noise in validation reports.
Resolving the issue with site names and internal pages
What
Removed the warning about the issue that was preventing new site names from propagating to internal pages.
Why
The issue has been resolved. Keep in mind that it takes time for Google to recrawl and process the new information, including recrawling your internal pages.
May 20244 entries
Adding epub to indexable file types
What
Added EPUB to the list of indexable file types.
Why
Google Search now supports epub.
Introducing the GoogleOther-Image and GoogleOther-Video crawlers
What
Added two new crawlers, GoogleOther-Image and GoogleOther-Video, which are versions of GoogleOther optimized for fetching image and video bytes respectively. While at it, we also updated the list of user agent strings of GoogleOther to better reflect the most active user agent versions.
Why
The new crawlers were launched to better support crawling of binary data that may be used for research and development.
Introduced AI Overviews in the documentation
What
Added a separate page for AI Overviews and your website, and updated the existing pages for robots meta tags and subscription and paywalled content accordingly.
Why
AI Overviews in Search are replacing Search Generative Experience.
Restructuring the Product structured data documentation
What
Reorganized the Product structured data documentation into three pages: intro to product markup, product snippet, and merchant listing. Added a new section about deciding which markup to use.
Why
The previous tabbed structure was difficult to navigate and find the property you were looking for.
April 20247 entries
Improvements to the debugging traffic drops documentation
What
Expanded on the effects of algorithmic updates and how to identify them. Simplified the section on policy and manual actions to be about spam issues.
Why
To better help site owners identify reasons for a traffic drop.
Exporting an additional range of Google fetcher IP addresses
What
Added an additional list of IP addresses for fetchers that are controlled by Google products, as opposed to, for example, a user controlled Apps Script. The new list, user-triggered-fetchers-google.json, contains IP ranges that have been in use for a long time.
Why
It became technically possible to export the ranges.
Removing the iOS variant of AdsBot Mobile Web
What
Removing the iOS variant of AdsBot Mobile Web from the list of Google crawlers.
Why
Simplify maintenance of AdsBot.
Adding definitions for favicon rel attribute values
What
Added definitions for each supported rel attribute value in the favicon documentation.
Why
We got a question about which value to use for a favicon and if there's a difference.
Removing video carousel (limited access) documentation
What
Removed video carousel guidance from the video structured data documentation.
Why
We initially tested video carousel markup with a group of site owners, and ultimately found that it wasn't useful for the ecosystem at scale. You can leave the markup on your site so that search engines and other systems can better understand your web page.
Clarifying image extraction source
What
Clarified that images are only extracted from the src attribute of img tags.
Why
While not a new change, we occasionally get questions about what HTML elements Google Search can extract images from.
Clarifying the beta carousels feature
What
Clarified that the beta carousel feature is for sites that have a summary page that links out to other detail pages on their website. The markup must be on the summary page, and you don't need to add markup to the detail pages in order to be eligible for this feature.
Why
Based on feedback and questions you submitted, we added more precise guidance on what use cases are supported and what page you need to add markup. This is a documentation update only; there's no material change in feature requirements or eligibility.
March 20246 entries
Clarified our changelog entry regarding availability of Web Stories
What
Clarified our February 8 changelog entry regarding the feature availability of Web Stories in Google Images.
Why
Web Stories continue to appear in Google Images, just as other web content may appear, but Web Stories no longer appear with the Web Stories icon in Google Images. Also, a bug that was blocking Search Console reporting for these URLs in Google Images is now resolved.
Added 3D models for products
What
We added new 3DModel markup support for merchant listings in the product structured data documentation.
Why
Sometimes 3D models appear on pages with multiple products and are not clearly connected with any of them. This markup lets site owners link a 3D model to a specific product.
Clarified references to page experience and Core Web Vitals
What
Clarified how we talk about page experience and Core Web Vitals in our documentation on page experience, signed exchanges and ecommerce pagination. Additionally updated to reflect that INP is now a Core Web Vital.
Why
INP replaces FID as a Core Web Vital.
Cleaning up recipe documentation
What
Removed guided recipes from the recipe structured data documentation.
Why
As this Google Assistant feature was removed, we're updating our recipe markup documentation to reflect that change. There's no change needed from site owners; all properties continue to be recommended for use in Google Search.
New spam policies
What
We added 3 new spam policies: expired domain abuse, scaled content abuse, and site reputation abuse. Also added a new FAQ on helpful content. Check out our blog post for more details on what changed and why.
Generic Chrome version for Google StoreBot
What
Updated the Google StoreBot user agent (in Overview of Google crawlers) to use a placeholder version of Chrome. If you hardcoded the old value in your code, update it to ignore the version.
Why
To make it easier for the Google Shopping team to maintain the StoreBot crawler.
February 202413 entries
Adding new carousel documentation (beta)
What
Added documentation for structured data carousels (beta).
Why
To make it easier for site owners to add carousel markup for new query types, such as for travel, local, and shopping queries.
Added opt out information for place entities in Page Insights
What
Added information about how site owners can opt out of display in the Place Entity feature in Page Insights.
Why
To make it easier for site owners to control how their content appears on Google.
Added support for product variants
What
Added new product variant structured data documentation. Also added a new isVariantOf property to the product structured data documentation and clarified that Google support product variants with distinct URLs.
Why
To better support product variant scenarios for ecommerce sites. Since product variants can be a complex and important concept for ecommerce websites (especially for categories like apparel and electronics), we're providing more examples and guidance on how to add product variant structured data.
Clarified return fees markup for products
What
Clarified when to use FreeReturn versus ReturnShippingFees as value for returnFees for product returns in the product structured data documentation.
Why
To better support more granular shipping and return fee scenarios.
Clarifying the extraction of rel="canonical" annotations
What
Clarified that rel="canonical" annotations with certain attributes are not used for canonicalization.
Why
The rel="canonical" annotations help Google determine which URL of a set of duplicates is the canonical. Adding certain attributes to the link element changes the meaning of the annotation to denote a different device or language version. This is a documentation change only; Google has always ignored these rel="canonical" annotations for canonicalization purposes.
Clarifying the use of spaces in product SKUs
What
Clarified what characters are allowed in product SKUs in the Product structured data documentation.
Why
To better explain why a sku value might be invalid in the Rich Results Test.
Image removals documentation refresh
What
Part of our ongoing efforts to keep our documentation accurate, we updated the documentation for image removals with more precise language, and addressed some documentation feedback.
Why
We review and, if necessary, refresh our documentation periodically. This update is part of that process.
Updated the availability of Web Stories
What
Updated the feature availability of Web Stories.
Why
To make sure our documentation aligns with how the feature appears in Google Search. Web Stories don't appear in Google Images with an icon anymore, and the grid view is now a carousel view in Search results.
Updated the description of the Google-Extended product token
What
With the name change of Bard to Gemini Apps, we clarified that Gemini Apps is affected by Google-Extended, and, based on publisher feedback, we specified that Google-Extended doesn't affect Google Search.
Updated Dynamic Search Ad targets crawl frequency
What
Updated the crawl frequency for Dynamic Search Ad targets in the managing crawl budget guide.
Why
To reduce stress on sites, Dynamic Search Ads crawls now occur less frequently, 21 days instead of 14 days.
Revisited JavaScript documentation
What
Reviewed our guidance on JavaScript SEO basics, fixing Search-related JavaScript problems, lazy-loading content to remove outdated or unnecessary information. We updated our documentation on dynamic rendering to clarify it's a deprecated workaround.
Why
Feedback from you showed us there are opportunities to improve and clarify a few aspects. A few things, like dynamic rendering, have evolved in the past few years and our documentation now reflects these developments.
A new case study
What
Added a new case study about how How Wix generated value for their users by integrating Google APIs.
Why
To explain how a CMS platform can integrate Google APIs directly into their UI, and what impact it had for their users.
Revamping the SEO Starter Guide
What
The SEO Starter Guide got a refresh: we removed outdated content, streamlined and simplified other parts, and added a few sections. Check out our blog post for more in-depth explanation on what we changed and why.
January 20245 entries
Refreshing the Googlebot documentation
What
Part of our ongoing efforts to keep our documentation accurate, we updated the documentation for Googlebot with more precise language. There was no actionable change to the documentation otherwise.
Why
We review and, if necessary, refresh our documentation periodically. This update is part of that process.
More accessible anchor texts
What
Part of our ongoing efforts to make our documentation more accessible, we updated various anchor texts so they're more descriptive of the target page.
Why
Depending on the settings of a screen reader, the user may be jumping from link to link on a page, thus each anchor text on a page should be descriptive, even without the surrounding context.
Adding support for suggestedAge to Product
What
Added support for the suggestedAge property as an alternative to suggestedMaxAge and suggestedMinAge. Clarified the list of possible values for age ranges in our Product structured data documentation.
Why
We want to make it easier and more flexible for people to specify age ranges for a product. Also, the previous wording was confusing and didn't map well to the Merchant Center documentation about product age ranges.
Clarifying primary source of snippets
What
Clarified in our documentation about snippets that the primary source of the snippet is the page content itself.
Why
The previous wording incorrectly implied that structured data and the meta description HTML element are the primary sources for snippets.
Source and method
This log is built from Google's documentation updates pageand its RSS feed, compared with each other on every refresh. No entry is reworded: the text is Google's as published, and we add only the link to our own coverage. Google lists 2023 and earlier as one-line bullets, so this log starts in January 2024.