There is nothing more frustrating than putting a lot of effort into creating a great website and unique content to support it, only to find that you’re not getting any web traffic. But before you start making new changes or, worst-case scenario, start over completely, it’s important that you confirm your website’s crawlability performance.
What is Crawlability?
Crawlability essentially gauges how easy or difficult it is for search engine spiders to crawl your website. If your site's crawlability is good, it will be easy for these Googlebots to move from one page of your site to the next to start scanning your content. If your credibility is poor, one or more elements can put potential roadblocks in their path, making it difficult or impossible to discover all of your website.
Crawlability vs. Indexability
It’s important to note that while “crawlability” and “indexability” both relate to a website’s ability to be found on Google search engine results pages (SERPs), they aren’t the same thing.
Crawlability denotes whether or not search engine spiders can accurately access all the pages of a website. Indexability, on the other hand, denotes whether or not the content that’s found is formatted properly so that Google decides to add it to its index of websites. This will depend on a few different variables, including the quality of the content and whether or not a “no index” tag is present on individual pages.
Why Crawlability Is Important for SEO
Knowing how well your site can be crawled can help you discover which optimization strategies are most effective for your search engine marketing efforts. Without this key element, all of your other SEO initiatives can come to a standstill.
The Role of Web Crawlers
Web crawlers are important automated worker bots that keep search engines functioning. Their primary task is to continuously “crawl” the internet, looking for new site content worth indexing in Google SERPs. They not only collect relevant details about all the content they find but also note images, videos, and underlying elements of a website’s HTML coding.
How Poor Crawlability Hurts Your Rankings
If your site’s crawlability isn’t adequately optimized, it can cause significant issues when trying to get your content added to Google’s index. This means that when users enter queries related to your site pages or even try looking for your website domain specifically, they won’t be able to find any information on Google search results pages.
Common Crawlability Problems
Robots.txt Blocking Important Pages
The robots.txt file on your website gives important instructions to search engine crawlers, showing them which areas of your site should be visited and which should be skipped. If these files aren’t properly configured, they will unintentionally stop a search engine crawler from navigating through all pages of a site.
As a result of not being able to find the pages or scan through all content elements, the pages essentially become invisible to Google and won’t be indexed.
JavaScript Links and Dynamic Content Issues
Many sites use JavaScript in their coding to create more dynamic landing pages that load different site elements as visitors scroll through the pages. Unfortunately, JavaScript often creates crawlability issues and makes it more challenging for search engine crawlers to understand the content contained within these scripts.
While smaller amounts of JavaScript on less essential content elements are normal, if key pieces of information only appear through JavaScript, web crawlers may miss these elements altogether.
Nofollow Links Preventing Crawling
Depending on how nested site pages are within a site, crawlers may have limited ways to reach them. One of the easiest ways for a web crawler to find these types of pages is to follow any internal linking structures you have in place.
However, when creating your internal links, making “nofollow” links can signal to crawlers that you don’t want them to visit these pages. Too many of these types of links can also stop a primary page’s value from being shared with other pages.
URLs Blocked in Webmaster Tools
Webmaster tools like Google Search Console provide a comprehensive platform for site owners to manage multiple elements of their web presence. One feature available in Google Search Console is the ability to manually block certain URLs from showing up in SERPs.
When this happens, Google will purposely ignore these pages and not send out its crawlers to those sections of a site. While this feature can be helpful in certain situations, it can sometimes be forgotten about and cause larger issues if not addressed.
Broken Internal Links and Poor Navigation
Linking structures on a website are similar to roadways for web crawlers. When formatted correctly, it makes it much easier for crawlers to jump from one page to the next and navigate through all site elements in less time.
However, if broken links appear throughout the site, web crawlers have to look for alternative routes to those pages, and many times, they may not be able to find them at all.
Noindex Tags Used Incorrectly
There are a couple of different ways site owners can tell (whether they know it or not) web crawlers “not” to crawl their pages. One way is through a “noindex” tag made as a meta tag on individual web pages or using an X-Robots-Tag in the HTTP header.
Each of these methods tells a web crawler to skip a page for indexing, which can also impact its crawlability. On occasion, these tags may be formatted unintentionally, causing pages not to rank on Google’s SERPs.
Bad Site Architecture and Internal Linking Problems
A website’s architecture is made up of all the individual elements that come together to keep content organized and navigable. This includes following an organized and hierarchical linking structure that’s easy to follow and makes sense for both visitors and search engines.
If a site’s architecture isn’t thought out properly, essential pieces of content can get inadvertently buried and require too many clicks for users to find them. This can translate to crawlability issues as well, making it hard for search engines to find and index all pages correctly.
Missing or Poor XML Sitemap Management
XML sitemaps communicate all of the important URLs listed on a website to Google. This provides a more curated list of pages that require crawling and can help proactively notify crawlers where they should crawl next, as opposed to stumbling on those pages organically over time.
If a website is missing an XML sitemap, out of date, or has errors, crawlers may have difficulty finding the pages correctly. This is especially the case if the most recent XML sitemap submitted to Google contains incorrect or broken URLs.
Duplicate Content Issues
When more than one page looks exactly the same or even closely resembles another page, web crawlers are trained to notice these similarities. To avoid double-indexing, crawlers will often try to ignore pages that resemble another page. This usually happens when a site owner replaces a web page with new content and accidentally doesn’t unpublish the older version.
However, this could also mean that crawlers only visit the outdated page instead of the newest version, which will impact the visibility of these new pages in SERPs.
Server-Side Errors and 5xx Responses
On occasion, server-side errors can appear that make web pages inaccessible to the public. These types of errors usually provide a “500 Internal Server Error” or might also show up as “503 Service Unavailable.” When this occurs, it usually points to a problem with the web server itself and could be temporary or a symptom of a larger problem.
Depending on how long these errors persist, they can present a number of crawlability challenges.
Redirect Loops and Chains
When updating a current website, changing domain names, or migrating to a different server, web page redirects can help to automatically send site visitors to updated URLs when they navigate to an older indexed web page. However, if these redirects aren’t set up properly, they can create crawlability errors.
In some cases, redirect loops can appear that point one URL to another and then back again. This creates an inescapable loop that traps web crawlers from moving on to other locations on a site and will eventually cause them to stop crawling altogether.
URL Parameter Problems
Depending on the site page, some URLs can contain various parameters at the end. This typically happens when creating affiliate marketing links or tracking click-through rates. URL parameters are the different strings of text usually found after a “?” in the URL ending.
Crawlability issues can appear if sites have too many of these parameters in place. If there are too many of these page types present, Google may restrict the amount of pages crawlers view on a site, often sticking to just the standard formatted ones.
Blocked JavaScript and CSS Resources
Some JavaScript links can have certain blocking elements that make it harder for crawlers to access the content contained on different pages. This can also happen with longer or poorly configured CSS files.
When this happens, crawlers may not be able to render the page correctly and only find a limited amount of information. This can also impact indexability, since only some blocks will be used when ranking the site for the keywords or phrases used on those pages.
Slow Site Speed
How quickly or slowly a site loads can also impact crawlability. When a website loads quickly, it makes it easier for crawlers to navigate to the site page, load all site elements, crawl the page, and move on to the next.
However, if a site takes too long to load, search engine crawlers might abandon a page prematurely before being able to crawl all pages successfully.
Poor Mobile Optimization
Because so many people now use their smartphones to search for information online, Google has made it clear that it applies mobile-first indexing policies. This means that crawlers typically favor mobile versions of a site when crawling for new content and indexing it in SERPs.
If a site isn’t built with a responsive design, it can significantly impact the speed and efficiency of these crawlers.
How to Identify Crawlability Problems
- Checking Robots.txt and Meta Tags - Reviewing your robots.txt files or meta tags can quickly reveal whether or not you’re likely to experience any crawlability issues. If there is a “noindex” or “nofollow” instruction on any of these where they’re not needed, they can create crawling issues.
- Analyzing Internal Links and Site Architecture - Internal link structures are critical when trying to ensure seamless crawlability on your website. It’s important to look for “404” error pages, which can indicate when a link is pointing to a URL that doesn’t really exist. Having too many broken links on a website can negatively impact its crawlability.
- Reviewing XML Sitemaps - XML sitemaps help provide search engines with a curated list of your web pages for web crawlers to look for. Checking Google Search Console and reviewing recently submitted XML sitemaps can help determine if there were any errors during submission that could cause issues with “all” site pages being crawled properly.
- Using Crawl Logs and SEO Audit Tools - SEO tools like SEMRush and Ahrefs can be used to quickly crawl all your website's webpages and look for apparent crawlability errors. You can also analyze your site logs to look for page structure errors, no index tags, or resources that may be getting blocked inadvertently.
10 Steps to Fix Crawlability Issues
Step 1: Create and Optimize an XML Sitemap
Make sure you generate an XML sitemap whenever you create new pages of content on your site. Review it for accuracy and navigate to your Google Search Console, where you can submit it manually. While this step isn’t necessarily a requirement when building a site, following this best practice will make it much more likely that Google will be able to find all the pages of your site and index them quickly.
Step 2: Set Up and Maintain a Proper Robots.txt File
It’s essential to make sure the robots.txt file is configured correctly on your site. Make use of the “allow” or “disallow” commands in this file so that you’re communicating to Google which areas of your site should or shouldn’t allow crawlers to access. Be sure to review your robots.txt file regularly, especially if you made recent changes to your site or after larger site migrations.
Step 3: Use Canonical Tags Correctly
Check to see that all your site pages properly use canonical tags whenever possible. These tags (identified as rel=”canonical”) help web crawlers differentiate similar content pages. By using these tags correctly throughout your site, you can communicate to Google which versions of your site pages are the correct ones to crawl and index. This will help you avoid “duplicate content” flags on your site, which can negatively impact your search rankings.
Step 4: Fix Internal Broken Links and Navigation Errors
Use an SEO tool or a free online service to scan your site and look for potential broken links or navigational errors. Regularly check your site over time and fix any of these errors if and when they show up. Also, make sure your site’s navigation isn’t overly complex and use a clear and logical format so that both your site viewers and web crawlers don’t have any issues accessing various site elements.
Step 5: Ensure Important Pages Are Not ‘Noindexed’
Review your website's HTML coding and ensure that you’re not using “noindex” meta tags or X-Robots-Tag across pages you actually want crawled. Depending on the type of CMS platform you use, you may have various tools or plugins available that can make locating these tags and addressing them straightforward.
Step 6: Address Redirect Loops and Server Errors
Look for potential redirect loops that might appear on your site. These will often show up with a “5xx’ status code and can signify that there are formatting issues with these links. Navigate to each of these and diagnose the source of any issues and address them. SEO tools can also help you find these codes as they appear on your site.
Step 7: Improve Site Speed and Mobile Friendliness
Website speed is an important factor that can impact the crawlability of various pages on your site. Look for different ways that you can test and improve the performance of your site speed over time, especially as you begin adding additional site elements or webpages. Google offers various tools that can help you test your site's performance and mobile friendliness. Use these tools and follow any advice given to reduce page loading times and ensure both desktop and mobile versions of your site load as quickly as possible.
Step 8: Check and Optimize Dynamic Content (JavaScript)
If your current site uses JavaScript across different webpages, consider ways to optimize its use. Limit the use of JavaScript on important content pages or in areas where it’s not necessarily needed. You can also enable features like server-side rendering or pre-rendering, which can make it easier for crawlers to see the content contained within certain JavaScript elements.
Step 9: Monitor Crawl Errors Using Webmaster Tools
You can use various webmaster tools like Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools to stay on top of crawlability issues as they appear on your site. Review these platforms regularly and keep an eye on errors or flags that show up with your site and address them. The sooner you’re able to deal with these errors, the sooner crawlers will be able to access all your pages correctly.
Step 10: Regularly Audit and Update Your Site Structure
How you structure your site can significantly affect how easy or difficult it is for crawlers to access it. Make sure the layout you have in place is logical for your visitors and that they can follow a simple path when discovering new content. Also, make sure you’re using internal links with relevant anchor text to point to other sections of your site and that each of these links is functioning correctly.
Stay Proactive with Crawlability Monitoring
Your website's crawlability is a critical element that ensures Google can access and index all its content.
It’s important to regularly evaluate and improve your site’s credibility over time. You can use a wide range of webmaster and SEO tools to perform these checks and identify potential improvements.
You should also remember that search engine algorithms are changing all the time. This means that you’ll want to keep yourself informed on new SEO strategies that can help to ensure you’re maximizing your crawlability in line with these changes. By doing this, you’ll be able to create more proactive search engine marketing campaigns that help to position your site at the top of SERPs.