Scottsdale Web Design – 8 Things to Check When Evaluating Crawl Hygiene
Our prime objective when it comes to optimizing a website is for its crawlability. The aim here is to be certain that all search engines are in our most vital pages so they be constantly crawled on a daily basis and would find new content easily. You have to be aware that Googlebots always visit your site, but it has a limited window to crawl. When the limit is over, it will stop.
Limited Budget to Crawl
Just remember that Googlebots won’t have all day. They will visit only for a limited time and that could be sporadic. So, make sure it is worth the time.
It is very difficult to know where to begin examining. Thus, this becomes harder when you have a huge site. Ultimately, you need to know how hygienic your site is for the search engine crawlers. If you are beginning to worry about it, check the items listed below:
The number of pages being indexed.
This is so vital because you will now know the number of pages that are accessible to the crawlers. Also, you will be aware of the many pages Google has found and if they are even worthy to be indexed.
The total number of pages being crawled.
This carries weight as well because when you compare Googlebot’s activity versus the many pages you have. Then, you will know the number of pages Google cannot scan.
The number of pages that are not indexable.
The time and budget of Google in crawling pages that are not indexable will just be wasted. Better allocate in pages that are indexable! You have to find out the pages that are being crawled, and decide if you really need it for index purposes.
The many URLs that are disallowed from being crawled.
You will know the many pages that are blocking search engines from entering your website. Hence, you have to be 100% sure that these pages aren’t vital for indexing; if not, then it will determine the pages that can be crawled.
The countless low-value pages that are being indexed.
The reason why this is vital is because it identifies the pages that Google had indexed on your website. This means, the crawler was able to gain entry. It could be pages that you did not include in your sitemaps because it is not as good. Nevertheless, it was discovered and indexed.
The 404 error pages that are being crawled.
Googlebots will consistently crawl 404 error pages to check if it is still there. You have to use the 410 status codes the right way so crawlers will know that the pages are no longer there and there’s NO need to be recrawled.
The many numbers of time that the internal redirects are being crawled.
You have to aid Google crawl competently and preserve the crawl budget. This is by making certain that only pages that has 200 status codes are connected in your site and lessen the requests to pages that are not final destination URLs.
The number of canonicalized pages.
The many canonicalized pages present in your website shows how many duplications there are. On the other hand, canonical tags unify link worth within sets of duplicate pages. Crawl budget will be affected Googlebots will need to crawl all the have to crawl all of the canonicalized pages first.
Aside from the above mentioned, you also have to consider the number of paginated that are being crawled and check if there are mismatches. So, there you have it. The list should give you enough knowledge of your site’s crawlability.
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