A cached page is a copy of a website page that is saved by a server, browser or search engine in a temporary storage area called a cache.
The purpose of caching a page is to store and display content to users quickly without having to retrieve the entire page every time.
This can:
What Will I Learn?
Caching works by storing copies of files in a temporary storage location called a cache.
When a user visits a webpage, the files that make up that page (like HTML, images, videos and scripts) are downloaded and stored on their device or proxy server.
There are two primary types of caching:
Server caching stores webpage content on a server to reduce processing load and improve response times for subsequent requests.
The most common server caching for webpages is done through Content Delivery Networks (CDNs).
The CDN will store key web page content and data on different servers around the world.
When a user accesses your site, the CDN delivers the website files from the closest CDN server.
Browser caching works the same way but saves copies of webpages locally on a user’s device.
The next time the user visits the same page, the browser can quickly retrieve the stored files from the cache instead of downloading them all over again.
This allows quicker access to the content next time the user visits the website.
It’s worth noting that search engines like Google also cache webpages.
As Google’s spiders crawl the internet:
These backups are then stored in a cache.
Cached pages are important because they:
Web browsers use cached pages to reduce load times and bandwidth usage when users revisit the same website. This enhances the overall user experience because the site loads faster for the user.
Servers and CDNs decrease latency and improve website performance globally.
Instead of waiting for website files from the site’s central server – A CDN delivers them from a server nearest to the user.
This speeds up the process significantly.
Caching is also important for search engines.
The cached pages ensure that Google always has a copy of the content to display to users. Even if the original page is temporarily unavailable or has been removed, Google can show the cached webpage to the user.
It also helps Google process and rank pages more efficiently.
There are three main reasons you might want to access a cached page:
Cached pages are beneficial for both website owners and users.
It means that you will always have access to any page on your site – Even if the site goes down or is removed.
The easiest way to find and load a cached page is to use Google.
Do a Google search for the webpage that you are looking for and click on the three dots.
Click on the arrow in the popup and select “Cached” to view the saved version of the page.
Want to look at historical copies of a website?
Use Wayback Machine from archive.org.
Simply enter the website domain or page URL to access the historical version of the site.
Wayback Machine will show you all of the cached indexes they have so you can see what any website or page used to look like.
Depending on what you are looking for, both methods for using cached pages work well.
To prevent Google from displaying cached versions of your webpages in the SERPs, you need to add the “noarchive meta tag” in your page’s HTML head section:
Add the following Noarchive Tag code snippet to the page you don’t want to be archived:
<Meta name=“Robots” Content= “Noarchive”>
Want to stop Google crawlers specifically from caching your site’s pages?
Use this tag instead:
<Meta Name= “GoogleBot” Content= “Noarchive”>
The difference is that the second tag will ONLY stop Google from caching your site pages but still allow other crawlers and search engines like Bing to do it.
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