Sean Walsh
Sean is a Director at Intelligency heading up our digital marketing and client services operations. Sean has 15+ years experiencing working both in-house and agency with brands including Lloyds, Alstom, Hitachi, Lufthansa, Viaplay, DFDS Seaways and Mercedes-Benz.
Nine months ago, Google decided to remove the “cache” feature from its search results. Recently, they’ve officially turned it off completely.
What Is the Cache Feature?
The cache feature let you view a saved version of a webpage, even if the original page wasn’t working or was down. Google used to save snapshots of web pages, and you could access them by clicking a “cache” link in the search results. However, Google removed this link back in January 2024. Now, Google has completely disabled the “cache” feature altogether.
Why Did Google Do This?
Google says that the internet has improved a lot over the years, and most pages load quickly and reliably now. So, they decided this feature was no longer needed.
They mentioned that they may offer an alternative by linking to the Wayback Machine—a tool that lets you see how web pages looked at different points in time. This feature is now available in search results.
What’s the Wayback Machine?
The Wayback Machine is a service that lets you view older versions of websites. It’s a useful tool to see how a page has changed over time. Google recently added links to the Wayback Machine in its search results to replace the old cache feature.
What’s the Impact?
For regular users, it means that instead of using Google’s cache feature, they can now rely on the Wayback Machine to access saved versions of web pages. If you’re a website owner, you can still see how Google views your site by using tools like Google Search Console’s “URL Inspection” tool.
Why Does This Matter?
For people who work in SEO (search engine optimisation), this means more work. They can no longer use Google’s cache to check how Google sees their site, but they can still use other tools like Search Console. The Wayback Machine may also be helpful for research and looking at past versions of websites.
