Google removes requirement to block internal search result pages

Google announced that it no longer requires publishers to block internal site search result pages from its crawler, ending a rule that dated back to 2007. The change was explained by John Mueller on episode 113 of the Search Off the Record podcast, where he clarified that the documentation requirement has been removed while the technical recommendation to block such pages remains for efficiency reasons.

Mueller said indexing internal search pages is now merely an inefficiency and can lead to increased server load or quality issues if the pages are abused, such as by hackers creating irrelevant or spammy URLs. The update is reflected in the current Google Search Essentials guidelines, replacing the older webmaster guidelines that listed the blocking requirement.