Understanding the SEO Crawler: definition and operation

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Natural referencing, also known as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), is an essential element in ensuring the visibility of your business. website on search engines such as Google.

At the heart of this process is the Crawleralso known as indexing robot or spider. This article explains the definition of a Crawler in SEO, its role and how it works.

The Crawler's role in SEO

The Crawler is an automated programme developed by search engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo. Its main objective is to explore websites to collect and index the information they contain. This indexing then enables users to easily find the pages that match their queries via the results offered by search engines.

Exploring websites

To explore websites, the Crawler follows the links on the various pages (internal or external) to browse all the content. It can detect text, images, videos and other types of media. When a new page is found, it is visited and added to the list of pages to be explored later.

Page indexing

Once the pages have been scanned, the Crawler analyses their content and classifies them according to various criteria such as the quality of the content, the relevance of the tags, etc. HTMLthe keywords used and the popularity of the site. These criteria will determine page positioning in search resultsalso known as ranking.

How the Crawler works in SEO

To understand how the Crawler works, it is essential to look at its exploration and indexing process, as well as the elements that can influence the way it navigates through websites.

1. Start exploring : The Crawler generally starts by exploring the most popular sites before following the links on these pages to discover new content. It will also take into account new content reported directly by site owners via sitemaps or tools such as Google. Search Console.
   
   
2. Compliance with directives : To avoid overloading the servers, the Crawler follows certain rules set by the site owners. For example, the robot may be asked not to index certain parts of the site or to crawl content at a specific frequency.
   
   
3. Data extraction : When the Crawler explores a page, it extracts relevant information such as metadata, HTML tags, links and keywords to create a index which will be used by the search engine algorithm.

Factors influencing the SEO Crawler

Several factors can influence the way the Crawler interacts with a website:

• The crawl budget : Each search engine allocates a certain number of pages to be crawled per day for each site. This number, known as the crawl budget, depends in particular on the popularity of the site and its size.
  
  
• Site architecture : A well-structured, easy-to-navigate site makes it easier for the crawler to explore. It is therefore essential to organise the information on your site correctly, using appropriate HTML tags and avoiding broken links.
  
  
• The quality of the content : Well-written, unique and relevant content is likely to be better indexed by the crawler. It is therefore important to ensure that you offer high-quality texts and use keywords wisely to optimise their understanding by the crawlers.

Optimising your site for the Crawler

To improve the visibility of your website on search engines and enable the crawler to explore it quickly and efficiently, you need to adopt certain good practices:

1. Create a sitemap : A sitemap file lists all the pages on your site and enables the crawler to discover them more quickly. You can submit this file directly to the search engines via their dedicated tools (Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Toolsetc.).
   
   
2. Optimising HTML tags : The tags (title, description, H1, etc.) are used by the crawler to assess the relevance of your pages. It is therefore essential to pay particular attention to them and to optimise them with keywords that match the content of each page.
   
   
3. Having a responsive site : A site that is adapted to all types of screen (computer, mobile, tablet) is better referenced by search engines because it offers a better user experience. The Crawler therefore favours these sites when exploring.

In short, the Crawler is a central element in natural search engine optimisation and plays a decisive role in the visibility of your site on search engines.

To facilitate its work and improve your ranking, it is important to optimise your website by following the various recommendations listed above.