Thursday, March 26, 2020<\/p>\n
\n As the effects of the coronavirus grow, we’ve seen businesses around the world looking for ways \n If your situation is temporary and you plan to reopen your online business, we recommend keeping \n It’s also a good practice to:\n <\/p>\n \n For more information, check our \n As a last resort, you may decide to disable the whole website. This is an extreme measure that \n If you decide that you need to do this (again, which we don’t recommend), here are some options:\n <\/p>\n \n For more information, check our \n Proceed with caution<\/b>: To elaborate why we don’t recommend disabling the whole \n Beyond the operation of your web site, there are other actions you might want to take to pause \n Also be sure to keep up with the latest by following updates on Twitter at \n What if I only close the site for a few weeks? \n Completely closing a site even for just a few weeks can have negative \n What if I want to exclude all non-essential products?<\/b>\n <\/p>\n \n That’s fine. Make sure that people can’t buy the non-essential products \n Can I ask Google to crawl less during this time?<\/b>\n <\/p>\n \n You can \n How do I get a page indexed or updated quickly?<\/b>\n <\/p>\n \n To ask Google to recrawl a limited number of pages (for example, the \n What if I block a specific region from accessing my site?<\/b>\n <\/p>\n \n Google generally crawls from the US, so if you block the US, Google \n Should I use the Removals Tool to remove out-of-stock products?<\/b>\n <\/p>\n \n No. People won’t be able to find first-hand information about your \n We realize that any business closure is a big and stressful step, and not everyone will know \n
\n to pause their activities online. With the outlook of coming back and being present for your
\n customers, here’s an overview of our recommendations of how to pause your business online and
\n minimize impacts with Google Search. These recommendations are applicable to any business with
\n an online presence, but particularly for those who have paused the selling of their products
\n or services online. For more detailed information, also check our
\n developer documentation<\/a>.\n <\/p>\nRecommended: limit site functionality
\n <\/h2>\n
\n your site online and limiting the functionality. For example, you might mark items as out of
\n stock, or restrict the cart and checkout process. This is the recommended approach since it
\n minimizes any negative effects on your site’s presence in Search. People can still find your
\n products, read reviews, or add wishlists so they can purchase at a later time.\n <\/p>\n\n
\n Disabling the cart functionality is the simplest approach, and doesn’t change anything for your
\n site’s visibility in Search.\n <\/li>\n
\n appropriate information for your users, so that they’re aware of the business’s status. Mention
\n any known and unusual delays, shipping times, pick-up or delivery options, etc. upfront, so
\n that users continue with the right expectations. Make sure to follow our
\n guidelines on popups and banners<\/a>.\n <\/li>\n
\n Products<\/a>,
\n Books<\/a>,
\n Events<\/a>), make sure to adjust it appropriately
\n (reflecting the current product availability, or changing events to cancelled). If your
\n business has a physical storefront, update
\n Local Business structured data<\/a>
\n to reflect current opening hours.\n <\/li>\n
\n best practices for the availability attribute<\/a>.\n <\/li>\n
\n pages (for example, the home page), use
\n Search Console<\/a>. For a larger
\n number of pages (for example, all of your product pages), use
\n sitemaps<\/a>.\n <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n developers documentation<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n\n Not recommended: disabling the whole website
\n <\/h2>\n
\n should only be taken for a very short period of time (a few days at most), as it will otherwise
\n have significant effects on the website in Search, even when implemented properly. That’s why
\n it’s highly recommended to only limit your site’s functionality<\/a>
\n instead. Keep in mind that your customers may also want to find information about your products,
\n your services, and your company, even if you’re not selling anything right now.\n <\/p>\n\n
\n 503 HTTP result code<\/a>
\n instead of all content. Make sure to follow the
\n best practices
\n for disabling a site<\/a>.\n <\/li>\n
\n placeholder for users to find in Search by using the 200 HTTP status code.\n <\/li>\n
\n temporarily remove<\/a>
\n it from Search.\n <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n developers documentation<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n
\n website, here are some of the side effects:\n <\/p>\n\n
\n business online at all.\n <\/li>\n
\n and services. For example, reviews, specs, past orders, repair guides, or manuals won’t be
\n findable. Third-party information may not be as correct or comprehensive as what you can
\n provide. This often also affects future purchase decisions.\n <\/li>\n
\n business in Search. Aggregate reports in Search Console will lose data as pages are dropped from the index.\n <\/li>\n
\n needs to be reindexed first. Additionally, it’s uncertain how long this would take, and whether
\n the site would appear similarly in Search afterwards.\n <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n Other things to consider
\n <\/h2>\n
\n your online business in Google Search:\n <\/p>\n\n
\n new properties for
\n marking them virtual, postponed or canceled<\/a>.\n <\/li>\n
\n change your business hours
\n or indicate temporary closures<\/a>.\n <\/li>\n
\n from
\n Google for Small Business<\/a> on how to communicate with customers and employees, for working
\n remotely and modifying advertising campaigns.\n <\/li>\n
\n recommend changes to your
\n Google knowledge panel<\/a> (or
\n how to claim it<\/a>, if you
\n haven’t already).\n <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n @GoogleSearchC<\/a>
\n and @GoogleMyBiz<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n\n FAQs
\n <\/h2>\n
\n <\/b>\n <\/p>\n
\n consequences on Google’s indexing of your site. We recommend
\n limiting the site functionality<\/a> instead. Keep in mind that users may
\n also want to find information about your products, your services, and your company, even if
\n you’re currently not selling anything.
\n <\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n by limiting the site functionality<\/a>.
\n <\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n reduce the crawl rate<\/a>,
\n though it’s
\n not recommended for most cases. This may have some impact on the freshness of your results
\n in Search. For example, it may take longer for Search to reflect that all of your products
\n are currently not available. On the other hand, if Googlebot’s crawling causes critical
\n server resource issues, this is a valid approach. We recommend setting a reminder for
\n yourself to reset the crawl rate once you start planning to go back in business.<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n home page), use Search Console<\/a>.
\n For a larger number of pages (for example, all of your product pages), use
\n sitemaps<\/a>.
\n <\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n Search generally won’t be able to access your site at all. We don’t recommend that you
\n block an entire region from temporarily accessing your site; instead, we recommend
\n limiting your site’s functionality<\/a> for that region.<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n products on Search, and there might still be third-party information for the product that
\n may be incorrect or incomplete. It’s better to still allow that page, and mark it out of
\n stock. That way people can still understand what’s going on, even if they can’t purchase
\n the item. If you remove the product from Search, people don’t know why it’s not there.
\n <\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
\n what to do. If you notice afterwards that you could have done something differently,
\n everything’s not lost: we try to make our systems robust so that your site will be back in
\n Search as quickly as possible. Like you, we’re hoping that this crisis finds an end as soon as
\n possible. We hope that with this information, you’re able to have your online business up and
\n running quickly when that time comes. Should you run into any problems or questions along the
\n way, please don’t hesitate to use our public channels<\/a>
\n to get help.\n <\/p>\n