Unsure how to ensure your pages are being crawled? From improving internal links to guiding Googlebot, here’s what you should focus on. Crawling is a critical step for every website, no matter its size.
If your pages aren’t crawled, they can’t appear on Google’s search results.
Let’s explore how to optimize crawling so your content gets the visibility it deserves.
What Does Crawling Mean in SEO?
In SEO, crawling refers to the process where search engine bots—often called spiders or web crawlers—systematically scan a website to discover its content.
This content may include text, images, videos, or other file formats that are accessible to these bots. No matter the type, content can only be found through links.
How Crawling Works
Web crawlers function by detecting URLs and retrieving the page content.
While doing this, they may send the content to the search engine’s index and follow any links on the page to uncover additional web pages.
When links are discovered, they fall into different categories:
- New URLs – Pages not yet known to the search engine.
- Known URLs without crawl instructions – These are revisited periodically to check for updates, ensuring the index reflects any changes.
- Known URLs with updates and clear signals – Pages that should be recrawled and reindexed, such as when an XML sitemap shows a recent modification date.
- Known URLs with no updates and clear signals – Pages that don’t require recrawling or reindexing, for example, when a server returns an HTTP 304 Not Modified status.
- Inaccessible URLs – Links that cannot or should not be followed, such as those behind login forms or tagged with “nofollow.”
- Disallowed URLs – Pages blocked from crawling altogether, often via the robots.txt file.
All crawlable URLs are placed in a “crawl queue,” a list of pages scheduled for future visits. However, each URL is assigned a different priority level.
The priority depends not only on link categorization but also on various other factors that signal a page’s importance to the search engine.
Every major search engine uses its own crawling bots, each powered by unique algorithms that dictate how and when they crawl. As a result, crawling behavior differs across bots—for example, Googlebot operates differently from Bingbot, DuckDuckBot, Yandex Bot, or Yahoo Slurp.
Why Crawling Matters for Your Website
If a page isn’t crawled, it won’t appear in search results because it’s unlikely to be indexed. But the importance of crawling goes far beyond that.
Fast crawling is especially crucial for time-sensitive content. If a page isn’t crawled quickly, it risks losing its relevance. For instance, users won’t engage with last week’s breaking news, an event that’s already over, or a product that’s no longer available.
Even in industries where timing isn’t everything, quicker crawling still offers clear benefits. When you update an article or make a major on-page SEO adjustment, the sooner Googlebot crawls it, the sooner you’ll see the positive impact—or catch mistakes early enough to fix them.
Slow crawling limits your ability to adapt quickly.
That’s why crawling should be seen as the foundation of SEO. Without it, organic visibility simply isn’t possible.
Measuring Crawling: Crawl Budget vs. Crawl Efficacy
It’s a common misconception that Google aims to crawl and index every piece of content on the internet. In reality, crawling a page is never guaranteed—and many websites have a significant number of pages that Googlebot has never crawled.
If you notice the exclusion “Discovered – currently not indexed” in the Page Indexing report of Google Search Console, this is a sign your site is affected. However, not seeing this exclusion doesn’t automatically mean your site has no crawling issues.
The Crawl Budget Misconception
Many SEO professionals focus on crawl budget, which refers to the number of URLs Googlebot is willing and able to crawl within a given time frame for a particular website.
This metric often encourages the belief that maximizing crawls is the goal. Google Search Console even reinforces this by reporting the total crawl requests. But the idea that more crawling equals better results is misleading. The total number of crawls is essentially a vanity metric.
Driving 10 times more crawl requests per day doesn’t guarantee faster indexing of important content—it only increases server load and costs without delivering real SEO benefits.
Instead of chasing higher crawl volume, the focus should be on quality crawling that adds value to SEO.
Understanding Crawl Efficacy
Quality crawling is measured by how quickly Googlebot revisits a page after it has been published or significantly updated. This time gap is known as crawl efficacy.
To measure crawl efficacy, the ideal method is to pull the created or updated datetime from your database and compare it with the timestamp of the next Googlebot visit found in server logs.
If direct log analysis isn’t possible, another option is to use the lastmod attribute in XML sitemaps and track URLs with the Google Search Console URL Inspection API until it shows the most recent crawl.
By calculating this delay between publishing and crawling, you can evaluate how effective your crawl optimizations are using a meaningful metric.
The shorter the crawl efficacy, the faster your SEO-relevant updates or new content appear in Google search results.
If your data shows Googlebot is taking too long to revisit important pages, it’s a signal to work on optimizing your site’s crawling.
Search Engine Support for Crawling
In recent years, much discussion has centered on how search engines and their partners are working to improve crawling. It’s in their best interest—more efficient crawling helps them access better content for search results while also reducing environmental impact by cutting down on unnecessary energy use.
The main focus has been on two APIs designed to optimize crawling. Instead of leaving crawl decisions entirely to search engine bots, these APIs let websites push specific URLs directly to search engines, prompting a crawl.
In theory, this enables faster indexing of new content and provides a way to remove outdated URLs—something that search engines currently struggle to support effectively.
IndexNow: Non-Google Support
The first API is IndexNow, supported by Bing, Yandex, and Seznam (but notably not Google). It’s also built into many SEO tools, CRMs, and CDNs, which can reduce the effort required to adopt it.
While it might appear to be an easy SEO win, caution is necessary. Ask yourself: does a significant portion of your audience rely on the search engines that support IndexNow? If not, triggering their crawlers may deliver little value.
Equally important, weigh the server impact of integrating IndexNow against any improvements in crawl efficacy for those engines. The costs may outweigh the benefits.
Google Indexing API Support
The second is the Google Indexing API. Google has consistently stated this API should only be used for pages containing job posting or broadcast event markup. Tests have confirmed this limitation is real.
Submitting non-compliant URLs does increase crawl activity, but it does not influence indexing. This illustrates why measuring crawl volume alone can be misleading.
What actually happens? When you submit a URL, Google will crawl it to check for the required structured data. If present, indexing is accelerated. If not, the page is ignored.
For non-compliant pages, using the API has no effect other than putting unnecessary load on your server and consuming development resources without delivering results.
Google Support Through Search Console
Another way Google facilitates crawling is through manual URL submission in Google Search Console.
Most URLs submitted this way are crawled and updated in terms of indexing status within about an hour. However, the process has a major limitation—there’s a quota of just 10 URLs per 24 hours, which makes it difficult to scale.
That said, this option still has value. By using scripts that replicate user actions, you can automate submissions for priority URLs, helping to accelerate crawling and indexing for your most important pages.
One final note: clicking the ‘Validate fix’ button for “Discovered – currently not indexed” exclusions doesn’t seem to speed up crawling. Based on testing so far, it has shown no measurable effect.
If search engines themselves won’t do much more to support us, the question becomes: how can we improve crawling on our own?
How to Achieve Efficient Site Crawling
There are five key strategies that can improve crawl efficacy:
1. Maintain a Fast, Reliable Server
A strong, high-performing server is essential. It should be able to handle Googlebot’s crawling activity without slowing response times or generating errors.
Check that your hosting status is “green” in Google Search Console, ensure 5xx errors stay under 1%, and aim for server response times of less than 300 milliseconds.
2. Eliminate Low-Value Content
Outdated, duplicate, or poor-quality content wastes crawl resources and leads to index bloat, making it harder for new or updated pages to get discovered.
Start by reviewing the “Crawled – currently not indexed” exclusions in Google Search Console. Look for patterns or issues across folders. Resolve them by consolidating pages with 301 redirects or removing them with 404 errors where necessary.
3. Tell Googlebot What Not to Crawl
While rel=canonical tags and noindex directives help keep the index clean, they still consume crawl budget. Ask yourself whether these pages should be crawled at all. If not, block them earlier with robots.txt.
Use the coverage report in Search Console to spot exclusions caused by canonicals or noindex tags. Also, check “Indexed, not submitted in sitemap” and “Discovered – currently not indexed” URLs for non-SEO critical pages, such as:
- Parameter-based URLs (e.g.,
?sort=oldest) - Functional pages like shopping carts
- Endless spaces, such as calendar-generated pages
- Unnecessary images, scripts, or CSS files
- API endpoints
Also, consider how pagination is influencing crawl efficiency.
4. Direct Googlebot on What (and When) to Crawl
An optimized XML sitemap can guide crawlers to SEO-relevant pages.
“Optimized” means it updates dynamically with minimal lag and includes accurate last modified timestamps. This helps search engines understand which pages require recrawling due to significant changes.
5. Strengthen Crawling with Internal Links
Since crawling depends on links, internal linking is one of the most powerful tactics available.
XML sitemaps and external backlinks are useful, but internal links are easier to scale and highly effective. Prioritize mobile navigation menus, breadcrumbs, filters, and related content links—making sure they don’t rely on JavaScript.
Optimizing Web Crawling
Crawling is the foundation of SEO. Now, with crawl efficacy as a meaningful KPI, you can measure improvements and use them to elevate your site’s organic performance.
FAQs on Website Crawling
Q1. What does website crawling mean in SEO?
Website crawling is the process where search engine bots systematically discover and scan web pages through links to collect information for indexing.
Q2. Why is crawling important for SEO?
If your site isn’t crawled, it can’t be indexed, which means it won’t appear in search results. Crawling is the foundation of organic visibility.
Q3. How can I check if my site is being crawled?
You can use Google Search Console’s Page Indexing and Crawl Stats reports to monitor crawling activity and identify any issues.
Q4. What factors affect crawl efficiency?
Crawl efficiency depends on server performance, content quality, internal linking, and how well you guide bots with tools like robots.txt and XML sitemaps.
Q5. What is crawl budget?
Crawl budget refers to the number of URLs Googlebot is willing and able to crawl on your site within a set timeframe. However, quality crawling matters more than volume.
Q6. How can I optimize my site for better crawling?
You can optimize crawling by ensuring fast server response, removing low-value content, guiding bots with XML sitemaps, blocking unnecessary pages, and strengthening internal links.
Q7. What happens if my site has crawling issues?
Crawling issues can delay or prevent indexing, meaning new or updated content won’t appear in search results as quickly—or at all.
