What is a Cached Page?
A cached page is a copy of a web page stored in temporary informational storage called “cache.” The purpose of caching is to store files to improve data retrieval performance. In short, caching ensures that future requests for the same data will be served faster.
Types of Cache
There are several types of caching, with the two main types being:
- Server Caching: Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) cache web content (images, videos, and web pages) in “proxy servers” located closer to the end user than the website servers.
- Browser Caching: The browser caches a page to ensure that it can display a web page faster without reloading the content from a server whenever the user revisits the particular web page or resource.
Browser Caching
When a user loads a particular web page, their browser has to download quite a bit of data to display the page properly. With caching enabled, the server will store HTML files, JavaScript, and images—a copy of that web page’s content—on the user’s hard drive.
This way, when the user loads the same page, there’s no need for the server to re-download the web documentation; the HTML file is already prepared and ready to be sent to the browser. This process shortens load time, reduces bandwidth usage, and lessens server load, allowing the browser to display pages faster.
CDN Caching
A CDN (Content Delivery Network), such as Cloudflare, stores copies of web pages on multiple servers (proxy servers) located worldwide. The CDN can deliver the requested content to the user from the nearest proxy server, significantly speeding up the process.
Example: Suppose you’re in France and visiting a site whose server is in Australia. Loading a page from a server in France would be quicker than sending the request to a server in Australia. If the CDN has a cached copy of the page on a proxy server in France, it will process the user’s request and load the page from there.
Search Engine Caching
Search engines like Google also cache pages. Google’s web crawlers regularly scour the web and index new sites. During this process, the search engine creates backups of web pages so that it can still show them to the user upon request—even if the live page is currently unavailable.
Why are Cached Pages Important?
In Web Browsers
- Speed: Caching allows the browser to display pages faster by storing copies of web pages on the user’s hard drive.
- Efficiency: Reduces bandwidth usage and server load by avoiding re-downloads of web documentation.
In CDNs
- Faster Load Times: Delivers requested content from the nearest proxy server, improving the speed of page loading.
- Global Reach: Provides quick access to web content from servers distributed worldwide.
In Search Engines
- Backup Access: Allows users to access cached pages if the live page is temporarily unavailable or slow.
- SERP Display: Cached versions of pages can be viewed directly from SERPs by clicking the “Cached” button in the “About this result” pop-up window.
Controlling Cached Pages in Search Engines
If you don’t want Google to display cached versions of your web pages in SERPs, you can use Robots meta tags—specifically the Noarchive Tag—to prevent the search engine from caching your content.
Code Snippet for Noarchive Tag:
<meta name="robots" content="noarchive">
For targeting Google’s crawlers in particular, use:
<meta name="googlebot" content="noarchive">
By implementing these tags, you can control whether your web pages are cached and displayed in search results.
For more insights on web performance optimization, visit the Ranktracker Blog and explore our comprehensive SEO Guide. Additionally, check out our SEO Glossary to familiarize yourself with key SEO terms and concepts.
