In this post, we’ll explain what crawl budget is, how it works, and why it’s so important in SEO. Stay tuned for some tips on how to better manage your site’s crawl budget!

In SEO, the crawl budget is a term used to describe how much time and resources a search engine dedicates to crawling and indexing a website. If you want to make sure your website is being crawled and indexed as efficiently as possible, you need to understand what affects the crawl budget and how to optimize it. In this blog post, we’ll explain what the crawl budget is, what factors affect it, and how you can improve your website’s crawl budget. Stay tuned!

Let’s Start With Some Basics: Indexing & Crawling

In order to show up in search results, your pages need to be indexed by Google. The process of indexing is when Googlebot (Google’s web crawler) or any other bot discovers new or updated pages on the internet and adds them to Google’s ever-growing index of web content.

Crawling is what Googlebot does to discover new and updated pages on the internet. When Googlebot crawls a page, it adds the page to its index if it’s deemed high-quality and relevant. The process of crawling and indexing is how Google builds its ever-growing index of web content, which is then used to show relevant results in response to users’ search queries.

Everything About Crawlers: How They Work & What They Do

A web crawler is a bot that automatically visits websites and collects data about their structure and content. Web crawlers are used by search engines to discover and index new and updated pages on the internet. Googlebot, Bingbot, and other search engine bots are all web crawlers. 

Web crawlers visit websites and collect data about their structure and content. The data collected by web crawlers is then used to index websites and show relevant results in response to users’ search queries. 

How Does Crawling Work?

Web crawling is the process of automatically visiting websites and collecting data about their structure and content. Web crawlers are used by search engines to discover and index new and updated pages on the internet. 

To crawl a website, a web crawler starts with a list of URLs to visit, which is typically the home page or sitemap of a website. The web crawler then visits each URL in the list and collects data about the structure and content of the page. The data collected by the web crawler is then used to index the website and show relevant results in response to users’ search queries.

Crawlers can also be called bots, spiders, and webworms.

What Is a Crawl Budget?

A crawl budget is the number of pages a search engine crawls and indexes from a website over a given period of time. The crawl budget is determined by a number of factors, including the size of the website, the number of incoming links to the website, the speed of the website, and the frequency with which the content on the website is updated. 

The crawl budget is important because it affects how often a website is crawled and indexed by a search engine. If a website has a large crawl budget, it will be crawled and indexed more frequently. This is important because it means that the website’s content will be more likely to show up in response to users’ search queries.

Fresh Crawl vs. Deep Crawl

A fresh crawl is when a web crawler starts from the home page or sitemap of a website and crawls the entire website. A deep crawl is when a web crawler starts from a list of URLs that have been specifically provided by the website’s owner. 

A fresh crawl is typically used to discover new and updated pages on a website. A deep crawl is typically used to collect data about the structure and content of a website. 

We don’t exactly know how often Google crawls websites. However, we do know that the frequency of crawling is determined by a number of factors, including the size of the website, the number of incoming links to the website, the speed of the website, and the frequency with which the content on the website is updated. 

Why Is Crawling and Indexing Important to You?

Crawling and indexing is important to you because it affects how often your website’s content is discovered and indexed by a search engine. If your website’s content is frequently crawled and indexed, it will be more likely to show up in response to users’ search queries. 

To understand the process of crawling and indexing, it’s helpful to understand how search engines work. When you type a query into a search engine, the search engine uses an algorithm to find websites that are relevant to your query. The algorithm looks at a number of factors, including the content of the websites, the incoming links to the websites, the speed of the website, and the frequency with which the content on the website is updated. 

Based on these factors, the algorithm determines which websites are most relevant to your query and displays those websites in the search results. 

If you want your website’s content to be included in the search results, it’s important to make sure that your website is frequently crawled and indexed by a search engine. 

How to Improve Your Crawl Budget: An Ultimate Guide

There are a number of things you can do to improve your crawl budget. Here is a list of some of the most effective things you can do.

Increase the Speed of Your Website

One of the most important factors that determines your crawl budget is the speed of your website. If your website is slow, it will take longer for a web crawler to crawl and index your content. As a result, your website will be crawled less often. 

To improve the speed of your website, you can do things like optimize your images, minify your HTML and CSS, and use a content delivery network. 

Make Your Website Easier to Crawl

Another important factor that determines your crawl budget is how easy it is for a web crawler to crawl your website. If your website is difficult to crawl, a web crawler will spend more time crawling your website and less time crawling other websites. 

To make your website easier to crawl, you can do things like use a sitemap, use canonical tags, and avoid using excessive keywords. 

Add a Sitemap

A sitemap is a file that contains a list of all the pages on your website. Adding a sitemap to your website makes it easier for a web crawler to find and crawl all the pages on your website. 

To add a sitemap to your website, you can use a tool like XML-Sitemaps.com. 

Use Canonical Tags

Canonical tags are tags that tell a web crawler which version of a page to index. If you have multiple versions of a page, you can use canonical tags to tell the web crawler which version you want to be indexed. 

For example, if you have both www.example.com and example.com, you can use a canonical tag to tell the web crawler to index only one of those pages. 

To add a canonical tag to your website, you can edit your HTML code. 

Avoid Using Excessive Keywords

One of the factors that determines your crawl budget is the number of keywords on your website. If you stuff too many keywords on your website, your website will seem spammy and low-quality. As a result, it will be crawled less often. 

To avoid using excessive keywords on your website, you can do things like: 

Update Your Website Regularly

Another important factor that determines your crawl budget is how often your website is updated. If your website is updated frequently, it will be crawled more often. 

To update your website regularly, you can add new content, blog posts, and products. You can also remove old content that is no longer relevant. 

Add Different Types of Content

One way to make your website more interesting and improve your crawl budget is to add different types of content. In addition to text, you can add images, videos, and infographics. 

Link to Your Website

One of the factors that determines your crawl budget is the number of incoming links to your website. If you have a lot of incoming links, it will be crawled more often. 

To get incoming links to your website, you can submit your website to directories, post on forums and message boards, and guest blog on other websites. 

Use Internal Links

Internal links are links that point to other pages on your website. Using internal links can help improve your crawl budget by helping a web crawler find and crawl all the pages on your website. If you don’t have internal links, a web crawler may miss some of your pages or get stuck on a single page.

Reduce the Number of Redirects

Redirects are URLs that point to other URLs. If you have too many redirects on your website, it will be difficult for a web crawler to crawl and index your content. As a result, your website will be crawled less often.

To reduce the number of redirects on your website, you can use a tool like Redirect Detective. 

Use Robots.txt

Robots.txt is a file that tells a web crawler which pages on your website it should crawl and which pages it should not crawl. Using robots.txt can help improve your crawl budget by telling a web crawler which pages it should avoid. 

Use Alt Tags

Alt tags are tags that describe an image. Using alt tags can help improve your crawl budget by helping a web crawler understand what an image is about. Crawlers cannot see images, so they rely on alt tags to understand what an image is about. 

Fix Broken Links and Use No Follow Links When Necessary

Broken links are links that point to pages that no longer exist. If you have too many broken links on your website, it will be difficult for a web crawler to crawl and index your content. As a result, your website will be crawled less often. 

No follow links are links that tell a web crawler not to crawl the linked page. Using no follow links can help improve your crawl budget by telling a web crawler which pages it should avoid. 

Remove Duplicate Content

Duplicate content is content that is identical or very similar to other content on the internet. If you have duplicate content on your website, it will be difficult for a web crawler to determine which version of the content is the original.

To remove duplicate content from your website, you can use a tool like Copyscape. 

How to Check Your Crawl Budget

You can check your crawl budget in Google Search Console. To do this, go to Google Search Console and click on the “Crawl” tab. Then, click on “Crawl Stats.” 

Your crawl budget is displayed as a number of pages crawled per day. The higher the number, the better. You can also see how your crawl budget has changed over time.