What is: "Googles robots NoCache tag" please?

[beyondenchanted]

Ok I'm showing my ignorance here. Now I'm worried that my "robots.txt" file may need tweaking. Please tell me what is:

Googles robots NoCache tag

What should I know?

Thanks!

[edited by: lorax at 1:42 pm (utc) on Mar. 31, 2005]
[edit reason] removed call to action [/edit]

[MattM]

There is no robot.txt entry to disable caching. You have to use a meta tag in each page's header.

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOARCHIVE">

This should take care of caching for both Google and Yahoo.

- Matt

[beyondenchanted]

Ok - does that infer that once these tags are placed, that google
and yahoo have to return to those pages live with each search
to retrieve the most current content? What is the purpose of
placing the no cache code string?

Beyonde

[MattM]

I don't think it affects how often the spider visits the page, it just prevents the search engine from keeping a local copy.

This is mainly used by subscription sites that do not want people getting around the subscription by reading the cached versions of their pages on Google.

- Matt