Google No Longer Requires Blocking Internal Search Results, But John Mueller Says You Still Should

SERoundtable reports on John Mueller's latest comments in the Search Off the Record podcast revealing that Google no longer lists internal search result pages as something sites must block in its Search Essentials documentation. However, Mueller explained that websites should still do so for technical reasons—primarily to prevent server strain and to protect against quality issues if search results pages are compromised by hackers and begin displaying irrelevant or adult content that could trigger a hacked-site flag. The recommendation, which dates back to 2007 when Google first added it to its webmaster guidelines, remains sound practice despite no longer being mandatory policy.