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Google Explains 503s, Robots.txt Limits & Bracket URLs – SEO Pulse via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

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Google Explains 503s, Robots.txt Limits & Bracket URLs – SEO Pulse via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google reminds sites to use 503s during PHP patch downtime. Other updates cover robots.txt controls, bracket URLs, and JPEG XL in Google Images and Discover.

Welcome to the Pulse: This week, we’re looking at how to use a 503 during brief PHP patch downtime, what robots.txt controls for AI crawlers and agents, and how Google handles bracket URLs and JPEG XL images.

In a LinkedIn post on Oct. 21, Google Search Central reminded anyone taking servers offline for PHP patches to return a 503 status code. The post went up the day PHP released emergency fixes for two critical flaws.

The post stated the 503 “ensures already indexed URLs are preserved in Search while you work” and noted to avoid general 404 or 200 error pages, and John Mueller of Google also shared a reminder on Bluesky saying that the 503 does not have to be served through PHP. In their crawl-rate documentation, Google advises users to limit serving 503 status codes to no longer than 1-2 days, as they may drop a URL from their index if it is returning a 503 for multiple days.

, a CDN routing rule or a temporary server your DNS points to. txt requests, all crawling is blocked.



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