Google’s Martin Splitt answered a query about how Googlebot responds to a pre-render meta tag that has the value of 404 web page not discovered. It’s a great query as a result of that is the type of meta tag, a non-standard meta factor, isn’t usually encountered so it’s good to know what to do when one thing like this comes up.

The particular person asking the query wished to find out about how Google would possibly reply to a meta tag within the head part that has the title “prerender-status-code” and a value of “404” which signifies that the requested web page is just not 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 ?”

Martin Splitt answered:

“Properly Martin, that’s straightforward to say, Googlebot at the moment ignores that standing code.

I assume that is coming from a single web page utility that’s client-side rendered and also you wish to keep away from soft-404s, in that case think about including 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 factor (typically known as meta tag) is just not 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 factor. Non-standard meta parts are usually are not a part of the official W3C HTML specs. Some non-standard meta parts are browser-specific or are created for particular functions. Consequently, they will not be supported by totally different browsers or by search engines like google. and their habits will not be constant throughout totally different browsers

The prerender-status-code meta factor is an instance of a non-standard meta factor that additionally occurs to not be supported by Google.

One other non-standard meta factor that’s not supported by Google is the meta key phrases factor. 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 factor that was invented by search engines like google within the Nineties.

The X-UA-Suitable meta factor is an instance of a browser-specific non-standard meta factor that’s an outdated meta factor that was particular to the outdated Web Explorer net browser.

That is an instance of the X-UA-Suitable meta factor:

The takeaway from Martin’s reply concerning the prerender-status-code meta factor is that many non-standard meta parts usually are not supported by Google.

One other takeaway is that not each meta tag is part of the official HTML requirements which may be discovered on the World Large Net Consortium website (W3C.org). These non-official meta parts are known as non-standard meta parts.

Extra data may 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

Hearken to the Google Workplace hours video on the 3:46 minute mark:

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