Appendix B — The deprecation graveyard, 2022–2026
The Technical SEO Reference · every entry dated; details in the noted chapter
The single most common audit error in 2026 is recommending a dead feature. This is the merged kill-list — rich results, tools, reports, crawlers, and docs — from every chapter. If a deliverable, plugin, or template references anything below without acknowledging its status, it is stale.
B.1 Rich results & structured data features
| Feature |
Died |
Notes |
Ch |
| FAQ rich results (general web) |
Aug 2023 (gov/health-only) → effective May 7, 2026 (full) |
Docs removed Jun 15, 2026; GSC API deprecation Aug 2026; markup harmless but earns nothing |
12 §12.5 |
| HowTo rich results |
Sept 2023 |
Desktop and mobile |
12 §12.5 |
| Sitelinks search box |
Nov 21, 2024 |
nositelinkssearchbox archived; WebSite markup stays (site names) |
12 §12.5, 13 §13.4 |
| Video carousel (limited access) guidance |
Apr 17, 2024 |
Test concluded |
14 |
| Home activity |
Jun 11, 2024 |
COVID-era |
12 §12.5 |
| Special announcement |
Jul 31, 2025 |
COVID-era |
12 §12.5 |
| Course info, estimated salary, learning video, vehicle listing |
Sept 9, 2025 |
The mass removal (banners Jun 12, 2025) |
12 §12.5 |
| Practice problems |
Jan 6, 2026 |
|
12 §12.5 |
| Fact check (ClaimReview) |
phasing out (no date) |
Still feeds Fact Check Explorer |
12 §12.5 |
| Book actions |
ambiguous |
Banner Jun 2025; current doc shows none — V2 item |
12 §12.5 |
| Dataset (as a Search feature) |
clarified Nov 5, 2025 |
Dataset Search only — never was a Search feature |
12 §12.4 |
| Breadcrumb display on mobile |
Jan 23, 2025 |
Desktop-only now; markup + report continue |
10 §10.5 |
| Web Stories in Google Images + Discover carousel |
Feb 2024 |
Feature alive, surfaces collapsed |
14 §14.18 |
| Tool/report |
Died |
Replacement |
Ch |
| URL Parameters tool |
Apr 2022 |
Automatic handling + robots.txt patterns |
10 §10.2 |
| International Targeting report (+ country targeting + hreflang errors) |
Aug–Sep 2022 |
Nothing — third-party crawlers + country-filtered Performance |
11 §11.9/§11.13 |
| Mobile-Friendly Test + API + Mobile Usability report |
Dec 1, 2023 |
Lighthouse; URL Inspection rendered checks |
15 §15.7 |
| GSC Page Experience report (metric form) + "Good page experience" filter |
Apr–Nov 2023 |
Dashboard of links to CWV/HTTPS reports |
15 §15.6 |
| GSC Crawl Rate Limiter |
Jan 8, 2024 |
Server responses (5xx/429) are the only throttle |
16 §16.9 |
| Sitemap ping endpoint |
Jun 2023 (off Jan 2024) |
GSC/robots.txt submission only |
9 |
| CrUX Dashboard (Looker Studio) |
end Nov 2025 |
CrUX Vis, API/History API, BigQuery |
15 §15.3 |
| ECT dimension in CrUX |
Feb 2025 |
RTT metric |
15 §15.3 |
| FID (as a metric, everywhere) |
CWV: Mar 12, 2024; support ended Sep 9, 2024 |
INP |
15 §15.2 |
| Fetch as Google |
2019 (still cited by web.dev hacked docs) |
URL Inspection live test |
17 §17.8 |
| Structured Data Testing Tool |
2021 |
Rich Results Test + Schema Markup Validator |
12 §12.9 |
| GBP Q&A (+ API) |
Nov 3, 2025 |
AI-generated answers; FAQ on-site |
playbook line 167 |
B.3 Crawlers & protocol-era leftovers
| Item |
Died |
Notes |
Ch |
| Duplex on the web, Google Favicon UA, Web Light, Mobile Apps Android, AdsBot iPhone variant |
various |
Removed from crawler inventory |
5 |
Google-NotebookLM token |
renamed Jul 2026 |
Now Google-GeminiNotebook |
5 |
AJAX crawling scheme / _escaped_fragment_ |
Oct 2015 (formal) |
#! URLs crawled as-is; fragments never index |
6 §6.6 |
rel=next/prev (at Google) |
2019 |
"Google no longer uses these tags"; other engines may |
10 §10.6 |
| Dynamic rendering (as a recommendation) |
demoted ~2022+ |
"a workaround and not a long-term solution" |
6 §6.10 |
| Image sitemap tags: caption, geo_location, title, license |
deprecated |
License → licensable-images markup |
14 §14.5 |
| Desktop-Googlebot primary crawling |
Jul 5, 2024 |
Smartphone-only (product listings/Jobs exceptions) |
15 §15.7 |
| Pre-Oct-2024 favicon "multiple of 48px" rule |
Oct 24, 2024 |
Now 1:1 ratio, ≥8×8px |
14 §14.15 |
B.4 Docs that moved or vanished (cite the new home)
| Old location |
Status |
Current home |
Ch |
/search/docs/crawling-indexing/ crawler docs (robots spec, crawler lists, crawl budget, verifying-googlebot, http-network-errors) |
301 since Nov 2025–Feb 2026 |
developers.google.com/crawling/… |
2, 3, 5 |
/search/docs/crawling-indexing/crawling-managing-faceted-navigation |
301 |
/crawling/docs/faceted-navigation |
10 §10.8 |
IP-range JSONs under /search/apis/ipranges/ |
moved Feb 11, 2026 |
/static/crawling/ipranges/ |
5 §5.4 |
/search/docs/crawling-indexing/https (dedicated HTTPS doc) |
hard 404, never redirected |
HTTPS preference → canonicalization doc; implementation → web.dev/enable-https |
17 §17.1 |
/search/docs/appearance/prevent-images-on-your-page |
404 |
/search/docs/crawling-indexing/prevent-images-on-your-page |
14 §14.9 |
| Mobile Usability help |
301 |
Lighthouse docs on developer.chrome.com |
15 §15.7 |
| Discover Follow-feature doc |
404, no removal note |
— (RSS guidance gone from Discover doc) |
14 §14.16 |
web.dev/articles/viewport |
404 |
Lighthouse viewport audit doc |
15 §15.7 |
⚠️ Standing rule (→ Ch 20 §20.4): redirect windows on moved Google docs are themselves time-limited (Google's own Mar 2026 note). Sweep citations quarterly against this table; re-verify the table itself at every V2-style audit.