SEO experts have long discussed the concept of “crawl budget,” which refers to the limited number of pages a search engine can crawl in a day.
The assumption is that your site must fit within this allocated budget in order for your pages to be indexed. In a recent podcast, Google search engineers debunked some myths about crawl budgets and revealed how Google prioritizes crawls.
How Googlebot prioritizes crawls
“I think there are a lot of myths about what a crawl is and what a crawl is. Also, things like crawl budgets and phrases that get thrown around a lot can be very confusing to people.” SEO consultant and Google product expert Dave Smart spoke on the podcast.
So how does Google decide what to crawl?
“You have to look at what's known and find a starting point, where to start. From there you can get links and things like what's important to go get now and what's probably best to wait until later. , and try to judge things that don't matter at all,” Smart explained.
Gary Illyes from Google's Search Relations team agreed with this framework.
“As search demand decreases, so does your crawl limit. So if you want to increase crawl volume, you have to somehow convince search that your content is worth getting.” he said.
So the key is to create content that Google recognizes as valuable based on user interaction.
Focus on quality and user experience
“Scheduling is very dynamic. If the search index returns signals that the quality of content has improved across this many URLs, you'll immediately start seeing demand increase,” Illyes said.
This means there is no fixed “budget” that the site must adhere to. You can overcome potential limitations by improving the quality of your pages and proving their usefulness to searchers.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach
“There's not an answer for every site,” Illyes acknowledged about prioritizing crawls. “Improving that section would probably go a long way.”
According to Google, the key is to focus on creating high-quality content instead of trying to reverse engineer crawl quotas that don't exist. Acquire links naturally, serve your users better, and the rest will take care of itself.
Listen to the full discussion in the podcast episode linked below.
FAQ
How does the concept of crawl budget affect my SEO strategy?
SEO experts have long discussed the concept of a crawl budget, believing it is important to keep the number of pages crawled each day within a certain limit. However, Google's search engineers have revealed that there is no set crawl budget that websites must adhere to.
Instead, Google prioritizes crawls based on content quality and user interaction signals. Therefore, your SEO strategy should shift its focus from managing crawl budgets to optimizing high-quality, user-centric content to increase its chances of being crawled and indexed effectively.
What factors influence Googlebot's crawl priority for web pages?
A dynamic set of factors influences Googlebot's crawling priorities for web pages, primarily content quality and user engagement. According to Google's search engineers, the more valuable your content is based on user interactions, the more likely your site will be crawled more often.
Factors like organic link acquisition and a better user experience provide stronger signals about content quality, so you'll find that improving overall page quality can improve your site's crawl rate.
How can marketers increase the crawlability of their website's content?
Marketers looking to improve their website's crawlability should focus on the following:
- Produce high-quality content that is informative, relevant, and engaging to your target audience.
- Ensure your website provides a great user experience, including fast loading times, mobile friendliness, and ease of navigation.
- Gain natural backlinks from trusted sources to increase your credibility and visibility to search engines.
- We update our content regularly to reflect the latest information, trends, and user needs.
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