Google’s URL Parameters Tool Is Being Phased Out

In one month, Google will deprecate the URL Parameters feature in Search Console.

Current tool users are not needed to take any action.

This is Google’s standard spring cleaning, and the first tool to suffer is the URL parameter management mechanism in Search Console. It should note that it is far from simple to use. In any event, will become more or less obsolete with time.

What exactly is the URL parameter tool?

The URL Parameters tool was introduced in Search Console’s predecessor, Webmaster Tools. In 2009, when the internet was a much wilder place than it is today.

SessionID parameters were widespread, CMSes struggled to organize parameters, and browsers frequently broken links.

Site owners had granular control over how Google crawled their site with the URL Parameters tool by designating. How do specific parameters affect the content on their site?

Google has gotten far better at predicting which attributes are important on a site and which are – to put it bluntly – garbage.

Why is it being phased out?

According to Google, it has gotten “far better at guessing which parameters are valuable on a site and which are – simply put – useless.” “Only roughly 1% of the parameter configurations currently described in the URL Parameters tool are useful for indexing,”

Google further added. “We’re deprecating the URL Parameters tool in 1 month due to its low value for both Google and Search Console users,”.

What is the Way Going Forward?

According to Google, there is nothing specific to do. According to Google, “in the future, you won’t need to do anything to declare the role of URL parameters on your site. Google’s crawlers will learn how to deal with URL parameters automatically.”

You can always utilize robots.txt restrictions. According to Google, “or use hreflang to define language variations of content.” Furthermore, Google stated that your CMS and platforms now handle the creation of high-quality URLs.

Why is this Important?

If you are currently utilizing the URL parameter tool. You should review your rules and keep an eye on how crawling, indexing, and ranking change after April 26th. You should also annotate your reports to reflect the April 26th date. If things do not go smoothly after this tool is gone. You can always make adjustments to your CMS and/or robots.txt to try to better restrict the crawling and indexing of specific URL parameters on your site.