Google: Sites With Good Category Pages Don't Need Internal Search Results Indexed

Nov 10, 2022 - 7:31 am 0 by

Google Computer

Generally, Google says you should never let Google index your internal search result pages. But John Mueller of Google said you shouldn't even be considering going against Google's advice here, if you have good category pages, you won't even need to test this out.

John said on Twitter "If you have good category pages, there's usually no need to also have search pages indexed." That means, (1) people won't have to search your site to find what they are looking for, they can just use your navigation and (2) Google will index your category pages and rank them, if you want Google to rank a search results page, then maybe that should be a category page...

John also added that having your internal search results pages can lead to spam or other issues. John said "Also, it's possible to accidentally end up with "buy cheap pharmaceuticals at 1-800-PILLS4YOU" search pages indexed, if you don't take care of them ahead of time."

Here are those tweets:

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Google Search Volatility

More Details

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 17, 2026

Jul 17, 2026 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google 7/11 Update, Bing Penalties, Google Images, AI Overviews AI Images, Google Ads Updates, ChatGPT Ads Features & Apple Maps

Jul 17, 2026 - 8:01 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Making Broader Smart Bidding Updates? Google Says No.

Jul 17, 2026 - 7:51 am
Google Maps

Did Google Maps Turn Off OpenTable Reservations?

Jul 17, 2026 - 7:41 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Renamed NotebookLM Useragent To Google-GeminiNotebook

Jul 17, 2026 - 7:31 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google StoreBot Accessibility Issues Help Document Updated

Jul 17, 2026 - 7:21 am
 
Previous Story: Bug: Google Ads Disapproves Ads For Using The Word "Get"