What is a Crawl Budget & How to Optimise It for Better SEO

A crawl budget is an important yet often overlooked aspect of SEO. It refers to the number of resources allocated by search engines to crawl and index the pages on your website. Understanding and optimising your crawl budget can directly affect how well your site is indexed and how visible it is in search engine results pages (SERPs).

In this blog, we’ll explain what a crawl budget is, how it impacts your SEO efforts, and the strategies you can implement to optimise it. We will also cover the factors that influence crawl budget and how to monitor and fix common crawl issues.

What is a Crawl Budget?

Crawl budget is essentially the number of pages a search engine like Google can crawl and index on your site within a certain timeframe. The crawl budget allocated to your site depends on two primary factors:

Crawl rate limit: How often search engines can visit your site’s pages.
Crawl demand: How important your pages are in the eyes of Google (the more important or authoritative the page, the higher the crawl demand).

While crawl budget optimisation doesn’t directly influence rankings, it assists Googlebot crawl the most important pages efficiently, helping you get more pages indexed and increasing visibility. The goal is to make sure that Googlebot spends its time on the most valuable pages, rather than wasting resources on irrelevant or low-priority ones.

What Influences Crawl Budget?

Several factors influence how much crawl budget is allocated to your website, including:

Website Size: Larger websites with more pages often have a larger crawl budget. However, just because a website is large doesn’t mean that all pages will be crawled equally. High-priority pages (such as those with more backlinks or traffic) are typically crawled more frequently than lower-priority pages.
Site Structure and Internal Linking: A clear site architecture with logical internal linking helps Googlebot crawl your site more efficiently. If pages are buried deep in your website with poor internal linking, they may not get crawled as often, which can limit their visibility in search results.
Page Load Speed: Slow pages can limit how much Googlebot can crawl in a given time, reducing the crawl budget available for other pages. Optimising page load speed allows more of your site to be crawled in the same time frame.
Duplicate Content: Duplicate content can waste crawl budget because Googlebot may spend time crawling redundant pages. Consolidating similar pages and using canonical tags can help avoid this issue.
Crawl Errors and Blocked Resources: Crawl errors such as 404 errors or blocked resources (e.g., CSS or images) can cause Googlebot to waste its crawl budget on non-indexable content. Fixing these errors promptly can help optimise crawl budget allocation.
Server Performance: A slow or unreliable server can limit the crawl rate, reducing the efficiency of crawls and the overall use of crawl budget. Making sure server stability and fast response times can help Googlebot crawl your site more effectively.

How to Optimise Your Crawl Budget

Here are some effective strategies to help optimise your crawl budget:

Improve Site Structure: Confirm that your website has a logical hierarchy with clear internal linking. Use breadcrumbs and category pages to make navigation easier for crawlers, helping important pages are crawled more frequently.
Remove or Consolidate Duplicate Content: Use canonical tags to indicate to Googlebot which pages should be indexed and consider consolidating similar content to prevent wasting crawl budget. Tools like Google Search Console can help identify duplicate content.
Fix Crawl Errors: Regularly check for crawl errors in Google Search Console (such as 404 pages, redirects, and broken links). Fix these errors as quickly as possible to prevent wasteful crawling of non-existent pages.
Improve Page Load Speed: Optimise images, leverage browser caching, and use a content delivery network (CDN) to reduce page load times. Faster pages allow Googlebot to crawl more content in a shorter amount of time.
Use Robots.txt Wisely: Use the robots.txt file to block low-priority pages (e.g., login pages, thank-you pages) from being crawled. This ensures that the crawl budget is focused on more important content.
Prioritise Important Pages:
Check that Googlebot is directed to your most important pages. Use XML sitemaps and internal links to highlight key content. Regularly update your sitemap to reflect changes on your site.

How to Monitor Crawl Budget and Optimisation Efforts

To keep track of your crawl budget and assess the effectiveness of your optimisation efforts, regularly monitor the following:

Google Search Console: Use Google Search Console to view crawl stats, including the number of pages crawled, crawl rate, and any crawl errors. This will help you understand how often Googlebot is visiting your site and whether there are any issues.
Crawl Stats Report: The Crawl Stats report in Google Search Console provides detailed information on the frequency and efficiency of your website’s crawls. Use this report to evaluate crawl frequency and address any inefficiencies.
Analyse Crawl Behaviour: Look for patterns in how Googlebot interacts with your site. If certain important pages are not crawled as often, you might need to improve internal linking or increase site speed.
Audit Website Performance: Regularly audit your website to ensure there are no major errors or obstacles preventing crawlers from accessing content. Tools like Screaming Frog or DeepCrawl can help identify issues affecting your crawl budget.

Common Crawl Budget Issues and How to Fix Them

Here are some common crawl budget issues and solutions:

Low Crawl Budget: If Googlebot is crawling too few pages, consider reducing unnecessary crawl barriers (e.g., using robots.txt), improving site speed, or prioritising higher-value pages.
Crawl Errors: Regularly check for broken links, soft 404s, or pages being blocked by robots.txt or meta tags. These issues should be fixed promptly to ensure Googlebot doesn’t waste time crawling non-indexable content.
Over-Crawling of Low-Value Pages: Prevent low-priority pages from being crawled by using robots.txt, noindex tags, or canonical tags. This helps Googlebot focus on valuable content.
Too Many Redirects: Excessive redirects can waste crawl budget. Regularly check and remove unnecessary redirects to streamline the crawling process.

Make sure your crawl budget is optimised

Optimising crawl budget is a crucial part of an effective SEO strategy. By improving your site structure, addressing crawl errors, prioritising important pages, and optimising speed, you can make it easier for Googlebot to crawl your most valuable content efficiently. Monitoring your crawl budget regularly and implementing these optimisation strategies will help improve site visibility, indexing, and overall, SEO performance.

By optimising your crawl budget, you ensure that Google can find and index your key content, leading to better search engine rankings and enhanced organic traffic.

Start focusing on crawl budget optimisation today to improve your SEO and drive better results for your website.