Google’s Martin Splitt answered a query about how Googlebot responds to a pre-render meta tag that has the worth of 404 web page not discovered. It’s query as a result of that is the sort of meta tag, a non-standard meta component, isn’t usually encountered so it’s good to know what to do when one thing like this comes up.
The individual asking the query wished to learn about how Google would possibly reply to a meta tag within the head part that has the title “prerender-status-code” and a worth of “404” which signifies that the requested web page will not be discovered.
The query was requested by an individual named Martin and Martin Splitt of Google is the one who answered it.
That is the query :
“Martin is asking: What does Googlebot do when it finds <meta title=”prerender-status-code” content material=”404″> ?”
Martin Splitt answered:
“Effectively Martin, that’s straightforward to say, Googlebot presently ignores that standing code.
I assume that is coming from a single web page utility that’s client-side rendered and also you need to keep away from soft-404s, in that case contemplate including <meta title=”robots” content material=”noindex”> or redirect to a web page the place the server responds with the 404 standing code.
For extra data on that see our documentation at builders.google.com/search.”
What’s Prerender-Standing-Code?
The prerender-status-code meta component (generally known as meta tag) will not be an official meta tag and there’s no documentation on it on the Worldwide Net Consortium (W3C.org), the place the official HTML requirements are created.
That is extra of a proprietary or non-standard meta component. Non-standard meta parts are will not be a part of the official W3C HTML specs. Some non-standard meta parts are browser-specific or are created for particular functions. Consequently, they might not be supported by completely different browsers or by serps. and their habits might not be constant throughout completely different browsers
The prerender-status-code meta component is an instance of a non-standard meta component that additionally occurs to not be supported by Google.
One other non-standard meta component that isn’t supported by Google is the meta key phrases component. There isn’t a reference to it on the W3C.org and it was by no means part of the official HTML requirements. It was a meta component that was invented by serps within the Nineties.
The X-UA-Appropriate meta component is an instance of a browser-specific non-standard meta component that’s an outdated meta component that was particular to the outdated Web Explorer internet browser.
That is an instance of the X-UA-Appropriate meta component:
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Appropriate" content material="IE=edge">
The takeaway from Martin’s reply in regards to the prerender-status-code meta component is that many non-standard meta parts will not be supported by Google.
One other takeaway is that not each meta tag is part of the official HTML requirements which will be discovered on the World Broad Net Consortium web site (W3C.org). These non-official meta parts are known as non-standard meta parts.
Extra data will be discovered at Google’s help web page about supported meta tags, which was final up to date on December 1, 2023.
Meta tags and attributes that Google helps
Take heed to the Google Workplace hours video on the 3:46 minute mark:
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