The crawlability of a webpage refers to how easily search engines (like Google) can discover the page.<\/p>\n
Google discovers webpages through a process called\u00a0crawling<\/strong>. It uses computer programs called web crawlers (also called bots or spiders). These programs follow links between pages to discover new or updated pages.<\/p>\n Indexing usually follows crawling.<\/p>\n The indexability of a webpage means search engines (like Google) are able to add the page to their index.<\/p>\n The process of adding a webpage to an index is called\u00a0indexing<\/strong>. It means Google analyzes the page and its content and adds it to a database of billions of pages (called the\u00a0Google index<\/a>).<\/p>\n Both crawlability and indexability are crucial for SEO.<\/p>\n Here’s a simple illustration showing how Google works:<\/p>\n First, Google crawls the page. Then it indexes it. Only then can it rank the page for relevant search queries.<\/p>\n In other words:\u00a0Without first being crawled and indexed, the page will not be ranked by Google<\/strong>. No rankings = no search traffic.<\/p>\n Matt Cutts, Google\u2019s former head of web spam, explains the process in this video:<\/p>\n It’s no surprise that an important part of SEO is making sure your website’s pages are crawlable and indexable.<\/p>\n But how do you do that?<\/p>\n Start by conducting a\u00a0technical SEO audit<\/a>\u00a0of your website.<\/p>\n Use Semrush’s\u00a0Site Audit<\/a>\u00a0tool to help you discover\u00a0crawlability and indexability issues<\/a>. (We’ll address this in detail\u00a0later in this post<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Detect Crawlability and Indexability Issues<\/p>\n with the Site Audit Tool<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Internal links<\/a>\u00a0have a direct impact on the crawlability and indexability of your website.<\/p>\n Remember\u2014search engines use bots to crawl and discover webpages. Internal links act as a roadmap, guiding the bots from one page to another within your website.<\/p>\n Well-placed internal links make it easier for search engine bots to find all of your website’s pages.<\/p>\n So, ensure every page on your site is linked from somewhere else within your website.<\/p>\n Start by including a navigation menu, footer links, and contextual links within your content.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re in the early stages of website development, creating a logical\u00a0site structure<\/a>\u00a0can also help you set up a strong internal linking foundation.<\/p>\n A logical site structure organizes your website into categories. Then those categories link out to individual pages on your site.<\/p>\n Like so:<\/p>\n The homepage connects to pages for each category. Then, pages for each category connect to specific subpages on the site.<\/p>\n By adapting this structure, you’ll build a solid foundation for search engines to easily navigate and index your content.<\/p>\n Robots.txt<\/a>\u00a0is like a bouncer at the entrance of a party.<\/p>\n It’s a file on your website that tells search engine bots which pages they can access.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a sample robots.txt file:<\/p>\n Let\u2019s understand each component of this file.<\/p>\n When search engines send their bots to explore your website, they first check the robots.txt file to check for restrictions.<\/p>\n Be careful not to accidentally block important pages you want search engines to find. Such as your blog posts and regular website pages.<\/p>\n Also, although robots.txt controls crawl accessibility, it doesn’t directly impact the indexability of your website.<\/p>\n Search engines can still discover and index pages that are linked from other websites, even if those pages are blocked in the robots.txt file.<\/p>\n To ensure certain pages, such as pay-per-click (PPC) landing pages and \u201cthank you\u201d pages, are not indexed, implement a “noindex” tag.<\/p>\n Read our guide to\u00a0meta robots tag<\/a>\u00a0to learn about this tag and how to implement it.<\/p>\n Your\u00a0XML sitemap<\/a>\u00a0plays a crucial role in improving the crawlability and indexability of your website.<\/p>\n It shows search engine bots all the important pages on your website that you want crawled and indexed.<\/p>\n It’s like giving them a treasure map to discover your content more easily.<\/p>\n So, include all your essential pages in your sitemap. Including ones that might be hard to find through regular navigation.<\/p>\n This ensures search engine bots can crawl and index your site efficiently.<\/p>\n Content quality impacts how search engines crawl and index your website.<\/p>\n Search engine bots love high-quality content. When your content is well-written, informative, and relevant to users, it can attract more attention from search engines.<\/p>\n Search engines want to deliver the best results to their users. So they prioritize crawling and indexing pages with top-notch content.<\/p>\n Focus on creating original, valuable, and well-written content.<\/p>\n Use proper formatting, clear headings, and organized structure to make it easy for search engine bots to crawl and understand your content.<\/p>\n For more advice on creating top-notch content, check out our guide to\u00a0quality content<\/a>.<\/p>\n Technical issues can prevent search engine bots from effectively crawling and indexing your website.<\/p>\n If your website has slow page load times, broken links, or redirect loops, it can hinder bots’ ability to navigate your website.<\/p>\n Technical issues can also prevent search engines from properly indexing your webpages.<\/p>\n For instance, if your website has duplicate content issues or is using canonical tags improperly, search engines may struggle to understand which version of a page to index and rank.<\/p>\n Issues like these are detrimental to your website\u2019s search engine visibility. Identify and fix these issues as soon as possible.<\/p>\n Use Semrush\u2019s\u00a0Site Audit<\/a>\u00a0tool to find technical\u00a0issues that affect your website\u2019s crawlability and indexability<\/a>.<\/p>\n The tool can help you find and fix problems like:<\/p>\n And more.<\/p>\n To start, input your website URL and click \u201cStart Audit<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n Next,\u00a0configure your audit settings<\/a>. Once done, click \u201cStart Site Audit<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n The tool will begin auditing your website for technical issues. After completion, it will show an overview of your website\u2019s technical health with a \u201cSite Health\u201d metric.<\/p>\n This measures the overall technical health of your website on a scale from 0 to 100.<\/p>\n To see issues related to crawlability and indexability, navigate to \u201cCrawlability\u201d and click \u201cView details<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n This will open a detailed report that highlights issues affecting your website\u2019s crawlability and indexability.<\/p>\n Click on the horizontal bar graph next to each issue item. The tool will show you all the affected pages.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re unsure of how to fix a particular issue, click the \u201cWhy and how to fix it<\/strong>\u201d link.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll see a short description of the issue and advice on how to fix it.<\/p>\n By addressing each issue promptly and maintaining a technically sound website, you’ll improve crawlability, help ensure proper indexation, and increase your chances of ranking higher.<\/p>\n Find & Fix Crawlability and Indexability Issues<\/p>\n with the Site Audit Tool<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Submitting your sitemap file to Google helps get your pages crawled and indexed.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t already have a sitemap, create one using a sitemap generator tool like\u00a0XML Sitemaps<\/a>.<\/p>\n Open the tool, enter your website URL, and click \u201cStart<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n The tool will automatically generate a sitemap for you.<\/p>\n Download your sitemap and upload it to the root directory of your site.<\/p>\n For example, if your site is www.example.com, then your sitemap should be located at www.example.com\/sitemap.xml.<\/p>\n Once your sitemap is live, submit it to Google via your\u00a0Google Search Console<\/a>\u00a0(GSC) account.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t have GSC set up? Read our\u00a0guide to Google Search Console<\/a>\u00a0to get started.<\/p>\n After activation, navigate to \u201cSitemaps<\/strong>\u201d from the sidebar. Enter your sitemap URL and click \u201cSubmit<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n This improves the crawlability and indexation of your website.<\/p>\n The crawlability and indexability of a website also lies within its internal linking structure.<\/p>\n Fix issues related to internal links, such as broken internal links and orphaned pages (i.e., pages with no internal links), and strengthen your internal linking structure.<\/p>\n Use Semrush\u2019s\u00a0Site Audit<\/a>\u00a0tool for this purpose.<\/p>\n Go to the \u201cIssues<\/strong>\u201d tab and search for \u201cbroken.\u201d The tool will display any broken internal links on your site.<\/p>\n Click \u201cXXX internal links are broken<\/strong>\u201d to view a list of broken internal links.<\/p>\n To address the broken links, you can restore the broken page. Or implement a\u00a0301 redirect<\/a>\u00a0to the relevant, alternative page on your website<\/p>\n Now to find orphan pages, go back to the issues tab and search for \u201corphan.\u201d<\/p>\n The tool will show whether your site has any orphan pages. Address this issue by creating internal links that point to those pages.<\/p>\n Regularly updating and adding new content is highly beneficial for your website\u2019s crawlability and indexability.<\/p>\n Search engines love fresh content. When you regularly update and add new content, it signals that your website is active.<\/p>\n This can encourage search engine bots to crawl your site more frequently, ensuring they capture the latest updates.<\/p>\n Aim to update your website with new content at regular intervals, if possible.<\/p>\n Whether publishing new blog posts or updating existing ones, this helps search engine bots stay engaged with your site and keep your content fresh in their index.<\/p>\n Avoiding duplicate content is essential for improving the crawlability and indexability of your website.<\/p>\n Duplicate content can confuse search engine bots and waste\u00a0crawling resources<\/a>.<\/p>\n When identical or very similar content exists on multiple pages of your site, search engines may struggle to determine which version to crawl and index.<\/p>\n So ensure each page on your website has unique content. Avoid copying and pasting content from other sources, and don’t duplicate your own content across multiple pages.<\/p>\n Use Semrush\u2019s\u00a0Site Audit<\/a>\u00a0tool to check your site for duplicate content.<\/p>\n In the \u201cIssues<\/strong>\u201d tab, search for \u201cduplicate content.\u201d<\/p>\n If you find duplicate pages, consider consolidating them into a single page. And redirect the duplicate pages to the consolidated one.<\/p>\n Or you could use\u00a0canonical tags<\/a>. The canonical tag specifies the preferred page that search engines should consider for indexing.<\/p>\n Semrush\u2019s\u00a0Log File Analyzer<\/a>\u00a0can show you how Google\u2019s search engine bot (Googlebot) crawls your site. And help you spot any errors it might encounter in the process.<\/p>\n Start by uploading the\u00a0access log file<\/strong>\u00a0of your website and wait while the tool analyzes your file.<\/p>\n An access log file contains a list of all requests that bots and users have sent to your site. Read our manual on\u00a0where to find the access log file<\/a>\u00a0to get started.<\/p>\n Find Out How Search Engines Crawl Your Site<\/p>\n with Log File Analyzer<\/p>\n<\/div>\nWhat Is Indexability?<\/h2>\n
How Do Crawlability and Indexability Affect SEO?<\/h2>\n
What Affects Crawlability and Indexability?<\/h2>\n
Internal Links<\/h3>\n
Robots.txt<\/h3>\n
User-agent: *<\/code><\/p>\nAllow:\/blog\/<\/code><\/p>\nDisallow:\/blog\/admin\/<\/code><\/p>\n\n
XML Sitemap<\/h3>\n
Content Quality<\/h3>\n
Technical Issues<\/h3>\n
How to Find Crawlability and Indexability Issues<\/h2>\n
\n
How to Improve Crawlability and Indexability<\/h2>\n
Submit Sitemap to Google<\/h3>\n
Strengthen Internal Links<\/h3>\n
Regularly Update and Add New Content<\/h3>\n
Avoid Duplicate Content<\/h3>\n
Tools for Optimizing Crawlability & Indexability<\/h2>\n
Log File Analyzer<\/h3>\n
Google Search Console<\/h3>\n