Crawl (Crawling)

What is Crawling in SEO?

Crawling is the process by which search engines like Google, Bing, and others use automated bots (also known as crawlers, spiders, or Googlebot) to discover, scan, and read webpages across the internet. This step is essential to SEO, as it determines whether your content can even appear in search results.

If your website isn’t crawled, it can’t be indexed. If it isn’t indexed, it won’t rank — no matter how good your content is.

How Does Crawling Work?

Search engine crawling happens in several strategic steps:

1. Starting from Known URLs

Crawlers begin with a list of trusted or previously indexed URLs, including:

• Submitted sitemaps

• Backlinks from other websites

• Historical crawl data

2. Fetching the Page

The crawler visits a URL and downloads its content, including:

• HTML

• CSS/JS files

• Images and metadata

3. Analyzing the Page

It then analyzes on-page content, such as:

• Title tags and headings

• Keywords

• Internal and external links

• Alt text and structured data

4. Following Links

Crawlers follow links on the page to discover new pages:

• Internal links (to other parts of the same website)

• External links (to other websites)

5. Sending for Indexing

Once content is crawled, it’s queued for indexing — the next step in the SEO lifecycle where content is stored and ranked.

Factors That Affect Website Crawling

Several technical and strategic elements influence how efficiently your website is crawled:

1. Crawl Budget

Search engines allocate a specific number of pages they will crawl within a certain period. This depends on:

• Website authority

• Site health

• Update frequency

2. robots.txt File

This file tells crawlers which parts of your website to crawl or skip. Example:

3. XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap is a roadmap for crawlers that lists important URLs. Submitting your sitemap to Google Search Console improves crawl efficiency.

4. Site Speed & Server Errors

• Slow-loading pages reduce crawl rate.

• Frequent 5xx server errors can stop crawlers from visiting your site altogether.

5. Internal Linking

Proper internal linking helps bots discover all content — especially deeper pages that aren’t linked from the homepage.

6. Duplicate Content

Too much repetitive content wastes crawl budget. Crawlers prioritize unique, valuable pages.

Crawling vs. Indexing: What’s the Difference?

Example of Crawling in Action!

Let’s say you publish a new article:

https://yourwebsite.com/blog/seo-trends-2025

1. Googlebot discovers this URL via your sitemap or internal link.

2. It fetches and scans the content.

3. It follows outbound links from the article.

4. The content is submitted to Google’s index for ranking.

If your page loads slowly, lacks internal links, or is blocked by robots.txt, Googlebot may delay or skip crawling it — affecting SEO performance.

Why Crawling Matters for SEO!

Final Thoughts

Crawling is the first step to getting found on Google.
If bots can’t access, read, or navigate your site, your content will remain invisible to the world.

To maximize SEO success, you must optimize your website for crawlability — ensuring that crawlers can efficiently and effectively discover all of your high-value content.