Google's John Mueller posted some SEO advice on how to handle version history pages, for product releases, specifications, APIs and other version history. This advice is pretty similar to how to handle recurring event pages, like conferences and events. In short, the main page should keep the same URL and then archive the older version history details on an archive page URL.
John wrote on LinkedIn, "If you work on a website with versions (APIs? Specs?) or yearly editions, here's the top SEO improvement you can do: Use a stable URL for the current version."
I mean, if you like at Google Ads API, they use developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/release-notes and show the current version details there and then archive the older API versions on different URLs, like version 17 for example.
John wrote:
Add versioned directories if you like. This makes the current version much more visible in search, reducing guesswork by readers, and making it easier to link to. EASIER TO LINK TO.Even better? keep the versioned URL for the current version, and use link-rel-canonical to refer to the stable URL. This lets people go directly to the versioned URL if they know it, while focusing search on the stable URL.
John added to explain, for API docs, technical specs, yearly events, etc, go with this format:
- .../spec/live/page < do this for SEO
- .../spec/2.1/page - rel=canonical to /spec/live/page
- .../spec/2.0/page - keep these
Forum discussion at LinkedIn.
