What to Know:
– Google’s Martin Splitt recently answered a question about how Googlebot handles the Prerender-Status-Code meta tag.
– The Prerender-Status-Code meta tag is a non-standard meta tag that can be used to indicate the HTTP status code that should be returned when a page is prerendered.
– Splitt explained that Googlebot does not currently support the Prerender-Status-Code meta tag and will always return a 200 OK status code when prerendering a page.
– However, Splitt also noted that Google is open to feedback and suggestions from webmasters and developers, so it’s possible that support for the Prerender-Status-Code meta tag could be added in the future.
The Full Story:
Google’s Martin Splitt recently answered a question on Twitter about how Googlebot handles the Prerender-Status-Code meta tag. The Prerender-Status-Code meta tag is a non-standard meta tag that can be used to indicate the HTTP status code that should be returned when a page is prerendered.
In response to the question, Splitt explained that Googlebot does not currently support the Prerender-Status-Code meta tag. He stated that Googlebot will always return a 200 OK status code when prerendering a page, regardless of the value specified in the meta tag.
Splitt’s response may come as a disappointment to webmasters and developers who were hoping to use the Prerender-Status-Code meta tag to control the HTTP status code returned during prerendering. However, Splitt also noted that Google is open to feedback and suggestions from the community. This suggests that support for the Prerender-Status-Code meta tag could potentially be added in the future if there is enough demand for it.
The Prerender-Status-Code meta tag is not a widely used or well-known meta tag. It is a non-standard meta tag that was introduced by the Prerender.io service. The Prerender.io service allows websites to prerender their pages, which can improve the performance and user experience of the site. The Prerender-Status-Code meta tag was designed to give website owners more control over the HTTP status code returned during prerendering.
While Googlebot does not currently support the Prerender-Status-Code meta tag, it’s worth noting that Google does support other methods of indicating the HTTP status code for a page. For example, webmasters can use the HTTP header status code or the HTTP status code specified in the HTML response to indicate the status code for a page.
In addition to the Prerender-Status-Code meta tag, Splitt also addressed another non-standard meta tag called the Prerender-Allowed meta tag. The Prerender-Allowed meta tag is used to indicate whether a page should be prerendered or not. Splitt explained that Googlebot does not support the Prerender-Allowed meta tag either. Instead, Googlebot uses its own prerendering logic to determine which pages to prerender.
Overall, Splitt’s response provides clarity on how Googlebot handles the Prerender-Status-Code meta tag. While Googlebot does not currently support this meta tag, it’s possible that support could be added in the future based on feedback and demand from the webmaster and developer community. In the meantime, webmasters and developers can continue to use other methods, such as the HTTP header status code or the HTML response status code, to indicate the HTTP status code for their pages.
Original article: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-googlebot-handles-prerender-status-code-meta-tag/504731/