Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Does Google crawl the pages which are generated via the site's search box queries?
- 
					
					
					
					
 For example, if I search for an 'x' item in a site's search box and if the site displays a list of results based on the query, would that page be crawled? I am asking this question because this would be a URL that is non existent on the site and hence am confused as to whether Google bots would be able to find it. 
- 
					
					
					
					
 Google crawls the pages. Google sometimes even tries the search box by typing in a random word to see what happens. Have a look at this url: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Agoogle.com%20inurl%3A%22search%3Fq%22 You'll see that search queries have been indexed. It happens if people link to it. It doesn't matter that the url is "non existent". It actually is, because it doesn't display a 404 error or any other error. It gives a 200 OK code, so search engines see it as a normal page. Google will probably not index a page it "makes" by filling in a random search term, but will index such a page when it is linked to. 
- 
					
					
					
					
 Google could crawl the dynamic URLs created by your searchbox - but it usually doesn't unless there is a link to such a dynamic url somewhere. Internal searches don't create much problems anymore, but if you want to be sure, you could always block your dynamic search results pages via robots.txt or Google Webmaster Tools (>Site configuration >URL parameters). So if the URL generated by internal searches is http://www.site.com/search/?searchword=search+query+here, you could add this to robots.txt: User-agent: * Disallow: /search/ 
- 
					
					
					
					
 No I am not talking about the google search box incorporated in sites but the site's own search box. Answering your 2nd question, I meant that the URL won't be found via site navigation as it is a dynamic URL that is generated. Awaiting your response on the same. 
- 
					
					
					
					
 "if I search for an 'x' item in a site's search box and if the site displays a list of results based on the query, would that page be crawled?" 
 Is it google search-box for sites your talking about?" I am asking this question because this would be a URL that is non existent on the site" 
 **If it does'nt exist you wouldent find it? or do you mean that the page is not to find in the menu-navigation? **
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
- 
		
		Moz ToolsChat with the community about the Moz tools. 
- 
		
		SEO TacticsDiscuss the SEO process with fellow marketers 
- 
		
		CommunityDiscuss industry events, jobs, and news! 
- 
		
		Digital MarketingChat about tactics outside of SEO 
- 
		
		Research & TrendsDive into research and trends in the search industry. 
- 
		
		SupportConnect on product support and feature requests. 
Related Questions
- 
		
		
		
		
		
		My last site crawl shows over 700 404 errors all with void(0 added to the ends of my posts/pages.
 Hello, My last site crawl shows over 700 404 errors all with void(0 added to the ends of my posts/pages. I have contacted my theme company but not sure what could have done this. Any ideas? The original posts/pages are still correct and working it just looks like it did duplicates and added void(0 to the end of each post/page. Questions: There is no way to undo this correct? Do I have to do a redirect on each of these? Will this hurt my rankings and domain authority? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Wade Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | neverenoughmusic.com0
- 
		
		
		
		
		
		Does Google ignore content styled with 'display:none'?
 Do you know if an H1 within a div that has a 'display: none' style applied will still be crawled and evaluated by Google? We have that situation on this page on line 136: view-source:https://www.junk-king.com/services/items-we-take/foreclosure-cleanouts Of course we also have an H1 up at the top of the page and are concerned that the second one will cause interference with our SEO efforts. I've seen conflicting and inconclusive information on line - not sure. Thanks for any help. Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | rastellop0
- 
		
		
		
		
		
		Ranking 1st for a keyword - but when 's' is added to the end we are ranking on the second page
 Hi everyone - hope you are well. I can't get my head around why we are ranking 1st for a specific keyword, but then when 's' is added to the end of the keyword - we are ranking on the second page. What could be the cause of this? I thought that Google would class both of the keywords the same, in this case, let's say the keyword was 'button'. We would be ranking 1st for 'button', but 'buttons' we are ranking on the second page. Any ideas? - I appreciate every comment. Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Brett-S0
- 
		
		
		
		
		
		Magento: Should we disable old URL's or delete the page altogether
 Our developer tells us that we have a lot of 404 pages that are being included in our sitemap and the reason for this is because we have put 301 redirects on the old pages to new pages. We're using Magento and our current process is to simply disable, which then makes it a a 404. We then redirect this page using a 301 redirect to a new relevant page. The reason for redirecting these pages is because the old pages are still being indexed in Google. I understand 404 pages will eventually drop out of Google's index, but was wondering if we were somehow preventing them dropping out of the index by redirecting the URL's, causing the 404 pages to be added to the sitemap. My questions are: 1. Could we simply delete the entire unwanted page, so that it returns a 404 and drops out of Google's index altogether? 2. Because the 404 pages are in the sitemap, does this mean they will continue to be indexed by Google? Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | andyheath0
- 
		
		
		
		
		
		Google cache is showing my UK homepage site instead of the US homepage and ranking the UK site in US
 Hi There, When I check the cache of the US website (www.us.allsaints.com) Google returns the UK website. This is also reflected in the US Google Search Results when the UK site ranks for our brand name instead of the US site. The homepage has hreflang tags only on the homepage and the domains have been pointed correctly to the right territories via Google Webmaster Console.This has happened before in 26th July 2015 and was wondering if any had any idea why this is happening or if any one has experienced the same issueFDGjldR Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | adzhass0
- 
		
		
		
		
		
		Should I noindex the site search page? It is generating 4% of my organic traffic.
 I read about some recommendations to noindex the URL of the site search. Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | lcourse
 Checked in analytics that site search URL generated about 4% of my total organic search traffic (<2% of sales). My reasoning is that site search may generate duplicated content issues and may prevent the more relevant product or category pages from showing up instead. Would you noindex this page or not? Any thoughts?0
- 
		
		
		
		
		
		Is 404'ing a page enough to remove it from Google's index?
 We set some pages to 404 status about 7 months ago, but they are still showing in Google's index (as 404's). Is there anything else I need to do to remove these? Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nicole.healthline0
- 
		
		
		
		
		
		Tool to calculate the number of pages in Google's index?
 When working with a very large site, are there any tools that will help you calculate the number of links in the Google index? I know you can use site:www.domain.com to see all the links indexed for a particular url. But what if you want to see the number of pages indexed for 100 different subdirectories (i.e. www.domain.com/a, www.domain.com/b)? is there a tool to help automate the process of finding the number of pages from each subdirectory in Google's index? Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nicole.healthline0
 
			
		 
			
		 
			
		 
			
		 
					
				 
					
				 
					
				 
					
				 
					
				