# Why Google Cache Is Important to Your SEO

- Link: https://www.boostability.com/seo-content/why-google-cache-is-important-to-your-seo/
- Published: 2023-12-18T00:00:56-07:00
- Author: boodev2026

**_This article was first published on March 14, 2015, it was last updated in _****
_December_****_ 202_****_3_****_._**

Of course the goal of any website is to be found by your target audience. Whether
you’re providing information or want to sell to your customers, you want to make
sure people find your website. You do that with good images, relevant content that
include good keywords, authoritative blog posts, and useful information. 

All these SEO elements help Google when it crawls your website. You want to make
sure all your pages are indexed so that your website can rank. But when Google crawls
your website, using its page discovering program called Googlebot, you want to make
sure that it understands what it finds on your website. What Googlebot reads determines
your page’s relevance and rank. 

Then it stores that information. And to really understand what Googlebot sees, you
need to look at the Google Cache of your website. This can give you strategic ideas
on how to improve your site and where there’s room for improvement. Learn more with
our guide and what you need to know about the Google Cache. 

## What is Google Cache?

Google Cache Viewer is an HTML snapshot of your website. Googlebot takes this snapshot
each time the bots crawl your website and stores it as a backup if the current page
isn’t available for various reasons. Essentially, looking at the cache search shows
what a website looks like the last time Google visited it. Google indexes the site
each time it crawls it as well so it can compare with what has changed. 

If you’re wondering why your site doesn’t have as much traffic or even[ how often Google crawls your site](https://www.boostability.com/content/how-often-is-google-crawling-my-site),
you can find that in the Google Cache site. 

The Google Cache is important because the internet constantly changes. Marketing
teams and web developers constantly update websites to better improve performance
and the user experience.

However, sometimes if a page is deleted or hacked, a user or webmaster might need
to access the information that used to be there. That’s when they can go to the 
cache. The cache can also provide a convenient backup aside from the backups you
individually perform.

## How to View Cached Pages

There’s a few different ways to view Google cached pages and they’re all pretty 
easy. 

### Google Search

#### Type in “cache”

First is just to add the word “cache” in front of any URL. For example, “cache:[https://www.boostability.com](https://www.boostability.com/)”
while using the [Google Chrome ](https://www.boostability.com/content/different-types-of-search-engines-web-browsers)
Browser. Then it pulls up the most recent cached version of the website that looks
like this. The box at the top shows some basic information about the cache and how
you can access more information.

![boostability home page cache example](https://www.boostability.com/wp-content/
uploads/2021/11/boostability-home-page-cache-example-1.png)

####  Go into Google’s search bar

The second way to view a cached version of a website is to type in any term or website
name into the Google search bar. In this example we’ll use something very simple
like penguins. Once you’re given the Google search results, you’ll see a series 
of titles and meta descriptions that look something like this:

![google cache on serps](https://www.boostability.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/
google-cache-on-serps.png)

Since I like the third result and want to learn about animal penguins, I’ll go to
that website. However, if I want to learn about it’s cache, I’ll click on the three
vertical dots to the right of the URL. 

That gives you Google’s most recent “About this Result” box that helps results to
be more transparent. But at the bottom of that box is the word Cached. That will
also take you to the most recently cached version of the website.

![about this result google serp example](https://www.boostability.com/wp-content/
uploads/2021/11/about-this-result-google-serp-example.png)

Previously with the “About this result” feature, you would see the URL results with
a little green arrow to the right of it. When you click on that arrow, it will take
you to the most recent snapshot of the page that Googlebot took. 

It could look something like the following:

![buzzfeed serp example](https://www.boostability.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/
buzzfeed-serp-example.png)

### Google Cache Checker

Google Cache Checker is a tool through Small SEO Tools that lets you enter up to
five domains and provide you with a cache URL and a link to let you access the cached
version of the page. The biggest benefit of using this tool is that it allows you
to do five URLs at once rather than one at a time.

![google cache checker](https://www.boostability.com/content/wp-content/uploads/
sites/2/2021/08/Google-Cache-Tool.jpg)

### WayBack Machine

Archive.org provides an in-depth visual of a website’s history and also offers a
Chrome extension of its Wayback Machine. Using the Google search method or Google
Cache Checker only lets you check the most recent versions of web pages.

![wayback machine](https://www.boostability.com/content/wp-content/uploads/sites/
2/2021/08/WayBack-Machine.jpg)

The benefit of using WayBack Machine provides more information as to how many times
a website was cached. They break it down day by day and you can click on any date
to see what updates had been made.

## Why Use Google Cache for Your Website?

Now that we know the HOW of Google Cache viewer, let’s give into the WHY. There’s
a few reasons. It can help you out if your page is slow or unresponsive. Then you
can check to see where the issues are. 

You can see the last time Google crawled your site. And you can see just how Google
indexes your website online.

### Image & Visual Optimization

When you visit the cached version of your website, you’ll notice a button that says“
Text-only version” When you click on that link, you’ll see essentially what the 
Googlebot sees. The algorithm can’t read pictures—it can only read text.

So when you code your page, you have to make sure you include text elements for 
Googlebot to read. That’s things like [alt text](https://www.boostability.com/content/how-to-best-incorporate-meta-alt-tags-into-your-website)
on all your images that use keywords and descriptions to say exactly what the picture
shows. Every visual element needs these tags and information-rich content and headings
so that Google can understand what’s relevant. 

Just make sure that you don’t overload your page with keywords. Googlebot can see
them, and if it thinks you’ve stuffed too many keywords onto your page, it will 
flag your website for unhealthy and unfair SEO practices, which can critically damage
your rankings.

### How Google Cache Can Show Your Page’s Relevancy

When Googlebot perceives that your website has more relevance and authority, it 
will index your site more frequently. You can check this frequency using your Google
Cache. You’ll find the information in the blue box that appears after you click 
on the cache link.

If the last cache date occurred today and it updated tomorrow, you would know that
your page had high relevance. Google considers your page important enough to update
it daily because it can tell your content benefits web readers. It wants to keep
that content available even if your website or servers go down, so it saves a copy.

### Improve and Enhance Your Content

Google will also crawl and re-cache your page more often if you regularly update
your pages with new content. As long as you keep your content’s quality high, the
frequency at which you post new content could boost your website’s page rank. But
this only works if you have QUALITY content and not just a high QUANTITY of it.

On the other hand, if you find that Google isn’t indexing your website as frequently
as you’d like, now you know there’s room for improvement. Start with your content.
If you see jumps to your rankings after a new page went live or you wrote a new 
blog post, start doing that more frequently.

[Content is always a good place to start](https://www.boostability.com/content/the-1-factor-to-rank-on-google)
when you want to improve your rankings. And more good content means Google will 
crawl your website more frequently. 

If you’re already posting regularly and Google still doesn’t crawl your website 
very often, then you need to work on improving your content quality, not quantity.
Use more strategic keywords, and[ improve the E-A-T of your website](https://www.boostability.com/seo/eat-seo-guide/).

## How to Improve Your Website’s Google Cache

Google Cache can teach you many different things about your website. If you looked
at the cache date and didn’t feel satisfied with the frequency you saw, take another
look at your webpage’s text-only cache and see what you can change about your content.
For example, you can:

 * Make sure all the text appears in context. If you use a lot of programmed illustrations
   to convey your meaning, any text you add might not appear in context when Googlebot
   reads the text-only cache. If every piece of information has textual context,
   Googlebot can read all your content and determine its quality in addition to 
   its relevance.
 * As mentioned, content plays a big role here. You should assess it in a stylistic
   and technical sense. It should have correct spelling and grammar, but it should
   also say something useful. It shouldn’t include obvious statements, nor should
   it rehash information that you can find on any website. Make it sound unique,
   informative, and professional.
 * Adjust the page’s keyword density. Integrate your keywords so they sound natural
   in your content. Don’t use too many keywords or too few. For example, if your
   content includes 300 words overall, it shouldn’t include 10 keywords. Nor should
   it include only one. Find a balance so Google doesn’t penalize you either way.

## Does Google Cache Have Limitations?

While Google Cache is a wonderful tool that can help you in your SEO strategy, it
does have some [limitations](https://searchengineland.com/why-google-cache-lies-to-you-and-what-to-do-306343).
It gives you a snapshot of what Google sees as it crawls your website. But Google
will never reveal exactly how its algorithm works. So the cache can give you many
ideas, but it’s not perfect. 

The cache also might not get updated every time it crawls your website. It can tell
you when it crawled the site, but the snapshot or the text only older version might
not update every single time, especially if it crawls your website more frequently.

Google also doesn’t Cache every single website page. It will index every page, but
not all are stored in the cache. So you can’t rely on it for a backup. 

Sometimes if your website is powered by JavaScript too, the cache will appear empty.
Unless the source code specifically rends the content in a way that Google can read
it, you will see an empty cache. 

Again, that doesn’t mean it’s not indexed. So don’t stress if your website has JavaScript.
It’s one of the most popular languages in the world for a reason.

If you need some help optimizing your website with [white label SEO services](https://www.boostability.com/partners/white-label-seo-services-guide/),
contact us here at [Boostability](https://www.boostability.com/partners/partner-seo/)
and we can help you get started. Get in contact today to learn more!