Don’t be misled by Google’s clever April Fools’ joke, which was disguised as a new Search Console feature.
Over the weekend, Google announced on Twitter that a new “Recrawl” button had been added to Search Console.
Technically, that was true. However, if you were to actually test the button, you’d quickly find out Google just played a prank on the SEO community.
In its tweet, Google left a hint saying “we’re never gonna let you down,” a line from Rick Astley’s song “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
That’s exactly where you’d end up if you clicked the “Recrawl” button—watching the YouTube video of Astley’s popular song. In other words, Google managed to Rick Roll everyone.
Reading some of the replies to Google’s tweet, it’s evident that many SEOs were fooled by the Recrawl button. Some publications even reported this as an actual feature, not realizing it was just a joke.
The lesson here is—if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. A button that would recrawl a site on demand? Not even Google can make that happen. To understand why, see our recent article on how often Google reindexes a site.
