What is Crawling? A Simple Guide to Understanding How Search Engines Discover Websites

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If you’ve ever wondered how Google finds your website and gets it listed in search results, it all starts with crawling. Search engines use special programs called crawlers or spiders to explore the web and discover new content. In this blog, we’ll break down how search engines work with crawling, how search engine indexing algorithms depend on it, and why crawling is the first essential step to making your website visible on search engines like Google.

What is Crawling?

Crawling is the process where search engines send out bots (commonly referred to as Googlebot in Google’s case) to browse the web and find new or updated content. These bots systematically follow links from one page to another, scanning the content and structure of each webpage.

Imagine crawling like walking through a huge city with a map. Googlebot is like a person exploring each street (webpage), taking notes (analyzing content), and following signposts (links) to move on to other streets (pages). The goal is to find all the relevant information to help people find what they’re searching for.

How Search Engines Work: Crawling in Action

Here’s how search engines work when it comes to crawling:

  1. Starting with known websites: Search engines begin by crawling websites they already know about, often starting with popular, high-authority sites. Googlebot, for example, visits pages that are already indexed and checks for any updates.
  2. Following links: Once on a webpage, the crawler starts scanning the links on that page. These links lead the crawler to new pages, which may not have been discovered before. Crawlers prioritize important and high-quality pages, but eventually, they try to cover as much ground as possible.
  3. Scanning content: As Googlebot crawls each page, it reads through the text, images, and videos. It analyzes the structure, keywords, and other on-page elements to understand what the page is about.
  4. Discovering new URLs: Crawlers love new content. When they come across a page that wasn’t indexed before, they add it to the list of pages that need to be indexed. This is why internal linking (links between your pages) and external linking (links from other websites) are so crucial. They help search engines discover your content faster.
  5. Scheduling re-crawls: If a page changes or updates frequently, like a news site, Googlebot will visit more often to capture the latest information. On the other hand, pages that rarely change are crawled less often.

What Do Crawlers Look For?

When search engines crawl your site, they’re on the lookout for certain elements. Here’s a breakdown of what’s important during the crawling process:

  1. Internal links: Crawlers use internal links to discover other pages on your site. A clear internal linking structure makes it easier for search engines to find all your important content. Pages with few or no internal links might get missed or take longer to be discovered.
  2. Sitemaps: A sitemap is a file you can create that lists all the pages on your site. Submitting a sitemap to Google gives search engines a shortcut to finding your content. This is especially helpful if your site has lots of pages or if some pages are hard to reach through normal internal links.
  3. Robots.txt: This is a special file on your site that tells crawlers which pages they are allowed to visit and which they should ignore. If you accidentally block important pages with robots.txt, they won’t get crawled, meaning they won’t show up in search results.
  4. Meta robots tag: This is a bit of code you can add to individual pages to control crawling and indexing. For example, adding <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex”> tells search engines to crawl the page but not to index it, while nofollow tells them not to follow the links on that page.

Crawling vs. Indexing

It’s important to note that crawling and indexing are two different steps in how search engines work. Crawling is just the discovery phase—Googlebot finds your page, scans the content, and logs it for further analysis. Indexing, which comes after crawling, is where Google decides whether to store your page in its search engine database (the index) and make it searchable.

Think of it like this: Crawling is Google walking into your store, looking around, and seeing what you have. Indexing is when Google decides to take a note about your store, jot down details about your inventory, and file it away so people can find it later when they search for something specific.

Why Isn’t Google Crawling My Site?

If you’ve noticed that your site isn’t showing up in search results or isn’t getting crawled as often as you’d like, there could be a few reasons why:

  1. Blocked by robots.txt: Check your robots.txt file to make sure you’re not accidentally blocking important parts of your website. Sometimes, webmasters block pages on purpose, like admin pages, but unintentionally block valuable content as well.
  2. Poor internal linking: If your site has pages that aren’t well-linked to other parts of your site, crawlers may have a hard time finding them. Every page on your site should be linked from another page, preferably your homepage or other important pages.
  3. Crawl budget issues: Every site has a crawl budget, which is the number of pages Googlebot is willing to crawl during a visit. For large sites, Google may prioritize crawling only the most important pages. Make sure your important pages are optimized and easy to crawl, so they don’t get overlooked.
  4. Slow load times: If your site is slow, crawlers may give up before they’ve crawled all your pages. A fast, well-optimized website is more likely to be fully crawled and indexed.
  5. New site or pages: If your site is brand new or you’ve just added new pages, it might take some time for Googlebot to get around to crawling them. You can speed this up by submitting your sitemap to Google Search Console.

How to Ensure Google Crawls Your Website

Here are a few best practices to make sure crawlers can easily find and navigate your website:

  1. Submit your sitemap: If you haven’t already, create a sitemap and submit it to Google via Google Search Console. This is the easiest way to tell Google about the pages on your site.
  2. Optimize your site’s structure: Make sure your site is well-organized, with a logical hierarchy and clear internal links between pages. Important pages should be no more than a few clicks away from your homepage.
  3. Fix errors in Search Console: Google Search Console can alert you to any crawl errors or issues on your site. Regularly check for errors and fix any issues that may be preventing crawlers from accessing your pages.
  4. Avoid duplicate content: Google doesn’t like to waste its crawl budget on multiple pages with the same content. Make sure each page on your site offers something unique and valuable. Use canonical tags if you need to indicate which version of a page is the original.
  5. Monitor your crawl rate: In Search Console, you can see how often Google is crawling your site. If you notice a drop in crawl frequency, there might be an issue worth investigating.

Final Thoughts: Crawling is Step One

Crawling is the first step in how search engines works. Without crawling, search engines wouldn’t be able to find your site, let alone index it and show it in search results. By understanding how crawling works and taking steps to make your site easy for Googlebot to explore, you can help ensure that your pages are discovered, indexed, and ranked in search results.

Remember, crawling alone won’t guarantee that your site will show up in search results, but it’s a vital first step. Keep your website well-structured, regularly updated, and optimized for both users and crawlers to boost your chances of ranking well in Google.

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