Understanding crawl frequency in SEO: a 10-point guide

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Crawl frequency

In the world of search engine optimization and digital marketingcrawl frequency is a crucial concept for maintaining your website visible and well ranked in search engines such as Google.

In this article, we're going to explore what crawl frequency is in SEO and discover 10 key points for optimising this frequency.

1. What is crawl frequency?

Crawl frequency refers to the speed at which search engine spiders, such as Googlebotvisit and index the pages on your website.

The more often robots crawl your pages, the more quickly changes and updates to your content will be taken into account when the site is indexed.

2. Importance of crawl frequency in SEO

A high crawl frequency allows search engines to quickly detect and index new content on your site, improving its visibility and ranking in search results. On the other hand, a low crawl frequency can lead to a delay in the indexing of new pages or major modifications, damaging your overall ranking in the SERPs (search engine results).

3. Factors influencing crawl frequency

There are a number of factors that can influence how often your site is crawled, including :

Site popularity: websites with a large number of visitors and incoming links are generally crawled more frequently.
The structure of the site: a clear, well-organised architecture makes it easier for robots to crawl and speeds up their passage.
Content: updating your site regularly with new quality content can encourage spiders to visit your site more often.
Site speed: fast loading times and optimal performance encourage search engines to explore your site more regularly.
Technical errors: the presence of errors, such as broken links or pages that cannot be found (404), can affect crawl frequency by making it difficult to access certain parts of the site.

4. How do you measure crawl frequency?

To assess how often your site is crawled, you can consult the reports available at Google Search Console and other similar tools. Consult the 'Coverage' section of Google Search Console for detailed information about your site, including errors, warnings and pages excluded from indexing.

5. Optimising crawl frequency: fresh, regular content

Regularly publishing new content on your site can encourage search engines to visit it more frequently. Make sure that these updates are of high quality and provide real added value for users.

6. Optimising crawl frequency: internal and external links

Establishing a good internal linking strategy and obtaining quality inbound links can also have a positive impact on the frequency with which your site is crawled. Search engines often discover new pages by following these links, which can encourage further exploration of your site.

Internal links :

Create a internal networking by integrating links between the different pages of your site and ensuring that these links are relevant and useful to the user.

External links :

Obtaining inbound links from quality websites recognised in your sector of activity can help to increase the frequency of crawls of your site, while improving its credibility and authority in the eyes of the search engines.

7. Optimising crawl frequency: site performance

Search engines favour sites that perform optimally in terms of loading time and accessibility. You can improve the speed of your site by compressing files and images, limiting the use of resources, etc. JavaScript and by setting up a cache system.

8. Robots.txt file parameters

Your site's robots.txt file is used to give instructions to search engines about crawling and indexing certain pages. You can use this file to determine which parts of the site should not be indexed, but take care not to block access to resources that are important for search engine optimisation.

9. Using sitemaps

XML sitemaps are files that list all the pages on a website, making it easier for robots to crawl the site's content. Make sure you create a sitemap XML and submit it to Google Search Console to help search engines quickly discover and index your new pages.

10. Preventing and correcting technical errors

Technical errors can affect crawl frequency by hindering crawling. Identify and correct these errors regularly, such as broken links, unnecessary redirects or canonical tag problems, to ensure that your site crawls smoothly and efficiently.

In short, managing crawl frequency is essential to a successful SEO strategy and to ensuring that your site is highly visible in search engine results.

By applying these 10 tips, you'll be doing everything you can to optimise this frequency and improve your site's ranking in the long term.