Crawl Budget: SEO Mythbusting

Summary

In this engaging conversation, Martin Splitt and Alexis Sanders dive into the concept of crawl budget in SEO. They discuss how Googlebot prioritizes which pages to crawl, considering factors like server health, content freshness, and frequency of updates. They emphasize that crawl budget is typically a concern for larger websites with millions of pages, and share best practices to avoid common pitfalls like misconfigured servers or blocking crucial resources. The experts also highlight the importance of high-quality, well-structured content and strategic use of sitemaps to improve crawling efficiency.

Takeaways

• 😀 Crawl budget is the balance between how much content Googlebot can crawl from a site without overloading its server.
• 😀 Crawl rate refers to the speed at which Googlebot accesses a site without causing server overload, while crawl demand is based on how often the site’s content changes.
• 😀 Websites with frequently updated content (e.g., news sites) require more frequent crawling, while sites with stable content (e.g., historical information) need less.
• 😀 Large sites (millions of pages) are more likely to face crawl budget issues. Small sites generally don’t need to worry about crawl budget unless there are server issues.
• 😀 Sitemaps can help Googlebot understand the frequency of page updates, making crawling more efficient. Regularly updating them with change frequency data is important.
• 😀 Googlebot uses structured data and headers like **Last-Modified** to determine when content changes and how often to crawl pages.
• 😀 Sites should aim to avoid duplication in content, such as product variations. Consolidating similar pages can prevent wasting crawl budget on redundant pages.
• 😀 Server performance is crucial—flaky servers that give error codes (e.g., 500) cause Googlebot to reduce crawling, potentially slowing down indexing.
• 😀 Using versioned URLs for resources like JavaScript and CSS helps cache these resources and prevents them from being crawled repeatedly.
• 😀 Content quality and freshness are the most important factors in improving crawl budget. The more valuable, fresh content you have, the more Googlebot will prioritize crawling it.
• 😀 Avoid blocking important resources (like CSS and JavaScript) in **robots.txt**, as this can prevent Googlebot from fully rendering pages and understanding their layout.

Q & A

What is crawl budget and why is it important for SEO?

Crawl budget refers to the number of pages that Google's crawlers will visit and index within a specific period. It's crucial because it determines how much of a website's content gets indexed, directly affecting search engine rankings. Managing crawl budget helps ensure that important pages are crawled frequently without overloading the server.

How does crawl demand affect the crawl budget?

Crawl demand refers to the frequency and priority with which Google crawls specific pages. Pages with high crawl demand, like news sites, are crawled more often, while pages with low update frequency, like static content, may be crawled less often. Google adjusts its crawl budget allocation based on how frequently a page's content changes and its overall importance.

How does Google determine the crawl frequency for a website?

Google determines crawl frequency based on several factors, including the website's content freshness, server load, and historical patterns. Websites that change often, like news sites, are crawled more frequently, while static websites, like a history of kimchi, are crawled less often. Structured data, like date elements, also helps Google assess the change frequency.

What role does server performance play in crawl budget allocation?

Server performance plays a significant role in crawl budget allocation. If the server is slow or unreliable, Googlebot may limit the crawl frequency to avoid overloading the server. A server that frequently returns error codes (like 500 errors) may cause Google to decrease its crawl rate to prevent server strain.

What are some common mistakes that can waste crawl budget?

Common mistakes include blocking important resources through the robots.txt file, which prevents Google from loading essential elements like CSS or JavaScript. Another mistake is having poor server configurations that return error codes, which may cause Google to crawl less. Additionally, duplicating content unnecessarily or not optimizing sitemap URLs can lead to inefficient crawl budget usage.

Can websites with fewer than a million pages worry about crawl budget?

Typically, websites with fewer than a million pages do not need to worry about crawl budget. Unless there's a major server issue, smaller websites can generally handle Google's crawl demands without running into crawl budget limitations. However, if a website has significant server problems, crawl budget may become a concern regardless of the page count.

How can e-commerce websites with many product pages manage crawl budget effectively?

E-commerce sites with many similar product pages can reduce crawl budget waste by consolidating similar content. For instance, instead of creating separate pages for each product variation, they could group variations together on one page. This reduces duplication, helps focus the crawl budget on important pages, and improves the site’s overall crawl efficiency.

How can websites ensure that Googlebot crawls their site more frequently?

Websites can help Googlebot crawl more frequently by providing clear signals of content freshness, such as updating sitemaps regularly and ensuring that content changes are detected. However, websites should not request more frequent crawling directly, as Google's crawler scheduler manages this automatically based on site signals and server health.

What should websites consider when migrating to a new server or domain to avoid crawl issues?

When migrating, websites should ensure that both the old and new servers are running smoothly without errors. They should also correctly set up redirects, update sitemaps, and avoid drastic changes to robots.txt. Gradually update URLs in the sitemap and make sure that nothing is blocked that might confuse Googlebot during the migration process.

What is the importance of caching in relation to crawl budget?

Caching plays a crucial role in optimizing crawl budget. Googlebot attempts to cache resources like CSS and JavaScript to avoid making repeated requests. If resources are not cached effectively, Googlebot may repeatedly request them, which can waste crawl budget. Using proper caching headers and content versioning (e.g., through hashes in URLs) can help avoid unnecessary re-fetching of resources.