Google Search Central Docs, Late October: Spam, URLs, Controls

Google’s updates log has three late-October Search Central documentation changes, dated October 21, 23 and 26, plus earlier October entries. The spam guide is the one that speaks to sites where users publish pages.

All three are documentation edits, per the updates log.

Link-shared pages should stay out of the index

The updates log dates an update to Google’s guide to preventing user-generated spam to October 26. It now covers tools where users publish shared pages, generated content or web apps.

The new section is called “Only index content meant for Search”, and it tells platforms to sort pages into two piles: public ones, and pages meant for people holding the link.

For the second pile, Google suggests noindex by default, set in a robots meta tag or an X-Robots-Tag header. A robots.txt block is the alternative, as Search Engine Roundtable summarised it.

Two more habits are in the guide:

• Put noindex on posts from brand-new users until they’ve built some reputation.
• Add nofollow or ugc to links inside untrusted content.

Then comes monitoring, and it’s the part you’ll want to set up first. Verify your site in Search Console so alerts reach you.

After that, watch the Page Indexing report for sudden jumps in indexed pages, and odd impressions on queries that have nothing to do with your platform are another warning sign.

Hyphens, again

The URL structure guidance got a clarification. Which day? The updates log dates that clarification to October 23.

But Search Engine Roundtable covered it on October 21, two days before the log’s date.

Still, the advice itself hasn’t moved. /summer-clothing/ still beats /summer_clothing/.

The reason was already there: the _ character is used to keep concepts together. The new part is the contrast, that hyphens “clearly signal a word boundary”, and Roundtable says the meaning’s unchanged.

A tidier controls page

On October 21, Google refreshed Control what you share with Google Search, and it now lists the existing options: the robots meta tag, data-nosnippet and X-Robots-Tag.

It also lists the Search generative AI control, a site-wide Search Console setting for AI Overviews and AI Mode. So nothing here is new.

The page gathers options you already had.

Why it matters

Does your site make shareable previews, drafts or exports with public URLs? Check three things before you move on:

• Open one in a private window and view the source for noindex in a robots meta tag.
• Look at what new accounts can publish.
• Search site:yourdomain.com for pages you never meant to show.

Running a forum or open sign-ups? Then the rule on posts from brand-new users is worth a look.

Google’s guide says spammers often use open comment forms and other user-generated inputs.

Should you rename old URLs that use _? I wouldn’t.

Google’s pages don’t cover renaming existing URLs, so that’s my call, not theirs. Use hyphens for new pages and leave the old ones alone.

Still, I like the controls page. When a client asks how to stop snippets or keep AI features away from a site, you can send one link, and I’ve sent far worse ones than that in my time.

Meanwhile, the docs don’t say whether a missing noindex counts against you.

I wouldn’t assume it’s safe to skip it.

One more entry

Search Engine Roundtable reports a favicon change too: Googlebot must be able to follow redirects from the homepage to the favicon page. The updates log also lists an earlier favicon update, dated August 28, that spells out the supported file formats. The official page wasn’t checked for this article.

Common Questions

Does Google recommend hyphens or underscores in URLs?

Hyphens. Google’s URL structure page says /summer-clothing/ still beats /summer_clothing/, and the October 2026 edit only explains the reason more clearly.

How do I keep link-shared pages out of Google’s index?

Set noindex by default, in a robots meta tag or an X-Robots-Tag header, on pages meant for people holding the link. Google’s alternative is a robots.txt block.

Where can I see the main recent Search Central documentation changes?

Google keeps a dated log at developers.google.com/search/updates. It lists only the most important recent changes, not every one, so check the page itself before you trust old advice.