Search Engine Land
  • SEO
    • > All SEO
    • > What Is SEO?
    • > SEO Periodic Table
    • > Google: SEO
    • > Bing SEO
    • > Google Algorithm Updates
  • PPC
    • > All PPC
    • > What is PPC?
    • > Google Ads
    • > Microsoft Ads
    • > The Periodic Tables of PPC
  • Focuses
    • > Local
    • > Commerce
    • > Shopify SEO Guide
    • > Content
    • > Email Marketing Periodic Table
    • > Social Media Marketing
    • > Analytics
    • > Search Engine Land Awards
    • > All Focuses
  • SMX
  • Webinars
  • Intelligence Reports
  • White Papers
  • About
    • > About Search Engine Land
    • > Newsletter
    • > Third Door Media
    • > Advertise

Processing...Please wait.

Search Engine Land » Google » Google Search Console » Is Google caching getting even more confusing?

Is Google caching getting even more confusing?

Even if "it doesn't mean much," seeing organic rating data not matching the latest crawl data is concerning.

Eli Zheleva on May 10, 2019 at 10:15 am

Last October Maria Cieslak wrote about Google caching dates being outdated. The response we’ve got from John Mueller on that was that “the date on the cached page doesn’t really mean much.”

This begs a few questions for me. Firstly, if it doesn’t mean much – why is it there? It must be used for something, otherwise, it won’t be visible to users, right? Also, what does it actually represent? We know that Google doesn’t always create a snapshot every time it re-indexes a page, but there are a few things that made me raise a brow.

What is the caching date issue?

In the last week, I’ve been looking at this in more detail and found that most sites have a cache date of April 9 or 10. Those are sites from different verticals, so it doesn’t seem that it’s industry specific. I have also asked around in the SEO community and everyone sees the same thing.

Funnily enough, that coincides with the time when Google fixed the indexing issue bug. Is it possible that something else was knocked off in the process?

Cache and last crawl date affect SERPs differently

The thing that concerns me the most is seeing some organic ratings data not matching the latest crawl data. One page I was checking had 3.4/5 out of 209 reviews showing in search.

The meta has been picked up from what Google deems relevant on the page. Within the information captured in that it shows “displaying all 551 ratings,” which is the latest number. The schema, however, is still reflecting the numbers from a month ago.

Leaving aside the number of reviews, in this specific case, the thing that will have a more significant impact is the aggregate rating. A month ago, that was 3.4/5 and the client has put in a lot of effort to get this to 4/5. With rating under four showing in search, the business might be missing out on potential traffic, instead of gaining more of it because of the improved score.

For this page, like with the many others I’ve tried, the cache date is also April 9. When checking in Google Search Console, I see that the last crawl date is May 9.

I checked the latest reviews content on the page to make sure it has been indexed in search, and it has. That is good news at least. It still leaves the question of why the schema information has not been updated to reflect the content.

I haven’t noticed (yet) the same thing with different types of schema, but it will be interesting to see if there are mismatches in product schema attributes showing up, mainly price and availability.

What to do about it?

It might be worth checking some of your sites and seeing if the rich snippets pulled in Google are based on the latest schema on the page or is it a legacy issue. The same goes for newly added content.

The biggest task is for Google’s team to do. We need more clarity on how to make sense of the cache dates showing. Before the March 12 Core algorithm update and the following indexing glitches, the cache date was a good indication of how often Google checks a page and what it sees when it checks it.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


New on Search Engine Land

    Everything you should know about evaluating your competitor’s backlink profile

    Should you still optimize for ‘near me’ phrases?

    Webinar: Transform your content operations with DAM

    Lucid visibility: How a publisher broke into Google Discover in less than 30 days from launch

    We’ve crawled the web for 32 years: What’s changed?

About The Author

Eli Zheleva
Eli Zheleva is a marketing consultant who has spent the last 11 years specializing in SEO, CRO and UX. She has worked with businesses across the world to grow their organic presence and revenue. Eli has written a book called "Marketing Matters in Life and in Business" where she introduces a new framework with marketing elements that can be applied to any area of life.

Related Topics

Google Search ConsoleSEO

Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

Learn actionable search marketing tactics that can help you drive more traffic, leads, and revenue.

March 8-9, 2022: Master Classes (virtual)

June 14-15, 2022: SMX Advanced (virtual)

November 15-16, 2022: SMX Next (virtual)

Learn More About Our SMX Events

Discover time-saving technologies and actionable tactics that can help you overcome crucial marketing challenges.

Start Discovering Now: Spring (virtual)

September 28-29, 2022: Fall (virtual)

Learn More About Our MarTech Events

Webinars

Data-Driven Answers to Achieve Omnichannel Success

Is Your Marketing Stack Ready for Omnichannel CX?

Outrank in Organic Search with These 5 Core Tactics

See More Webinars

Intelligence Reports

Enterprise SEO Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Identity Resolution Platforms

Email Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Sales Enablement Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Digital Experience Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Call Analytics Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

See More Intelligence Reports

White Papers

Reputation Management For Healthcare Organizations

Unlock the App Marketing Potential of QR Codes

Realising the power of virtual events for demand generation

The Progressive Marketer’s Ultimate Events Strategy 2022 Worksheet

CMO Guide: How to Plan Smart and Pivot Fast

See More Whitepapers

Receive daily search news and analysis.

Processing...Please wait.

Topics

  • SEO
  • PPC

Our Events

  • Search Marketing Expo - SMX
  • MarTech

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS
  • Youtube

© 2022 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.