How to Make Google Work Smarter for Your SEO!
When it comes to SEO, most people obsess over keywords, backlinks, and content—but what if Google isn’t even seeing half your website? That’s where crawl budget comes in. If search engines aren’t crawling your site efficiently, your pages won’t get indexed, and all that hard work on content and optimization is wasted.
Are you submitting sitemaps and noticing that your posts or pages aren’t being indexed? It could be an algorithm update, but before you panic, consider this: you might have outdone your crawl budget.
If Google has too much to crawl and not enough resources allocated to your site, some of your pages will simply be ignored. Understanding and optimizing your crawl budget ensures Googlebot (or any search engine crawler) prioritizes the right pages, helping your website get indexed and ranked faster.
Whether you run a blog, a business site, or an e-commerce store, managing your crawl budget properly means making Google work smarter, not harder.
We take a closer look at what a crawl budget is, why it matters, and how to make the most of it!
1. What Is Crawl Budget?
Crawl budget is the number of URLs Googlebot will crawl on your site within a given timeframe. Think of Google like a librarian with a massive reading list—there are only so many books (or web pages) it can scan in a day, so it has to choose wisely. If your site has too many pages, slow load times, or technical issues, some of your content could remain unread—meaning it never appears in search results.
Two main factors determine how much of your site gets crawled:
- Crawl Demand – How much Google wants to crawl your site (based on popularity, freshness, and backlinks).
- Crawl Capacity – How much Google can crawl without slowing down your site or overloading your server.
If your website is running efficiently and contains high-value content, Google will crawl more pages, more often. If it’s bogged down with unnecessary pages or performance issues, Google will back off—and that means fewer pages getting indexed.
What Is High-Value Content? (Hint: It’s Not Just New York Times-Worthy Journalism)
High-value content doesn’t mean your blog needs to be Pulitzer Prize-winning material. It simply means content that is:
- Useful and Relevant – It answers real questions your audience has.
- Well-Structured – Easy to read, with clear headings and proper formatting.
- Original – Not duplicated from other sites or stuffed with generic, low-effort filler.
- Engaging – Encourages users to stay on the page, interact, or share.
- Technically Sound – Fast-loading, mobile-friendly, and free of broken links or errors.
If your pages provide real value—whether that’s a detailed how-to guide, product information, or even a well-organized list—Google is more likely to crawl and index them frequently.
2. Why Does Crawl Budget Matter for SEO?
Google can’t rank what it doesn’t see. If important pages aren’t getting crawled, they won’t be indexed—meaning they won’t show up in search results. And that means lost traffic, lost customers, and lost revenue.
Here’s when crawl budget really matters:
- Large Websites: If your site has thousands of pages (e.g., e-commerce, news sites, forums), ensuring that Google focuses on your most important content is crucial.
- Frequent Updates: If you regularly add or update content, your crawl budget determines how quickly Google notices and indexes those changes.
- Technical SEO Issues: Duplicate content, redirect chains, and bloated sitemaps can waste your crawl budget and keep important pages from getting indexed.
Even if your website isn’t massive, optimizing crawl budget ensures that Google focuses on the pages that actually matter.
3. How Google Decides What to Crawl
Google doesn’t crawl your site randomly—it follows a set of rules and priorities. Here’s what influences its decisions:
A. Crawl Demand (How Much Google Wants to Crawl Your Site)
- Backlinks & Authority – Pages with strong backlinks tend to get crawled more often.
- Freshness & Updates – Sites that frequently update content are prioritized.
- Popularity – Pages that get more traffic and engagement are crawled more frequently.
B. Crawl Capacity (How Much Google Can Crawl Without Hurting Your Site)
- Site Speed – Faster websites allow Googlebot to crawl more pages in one visit.
- Server Health – Frequent 500 errors, timeouts, or slow responses can lower your crawl rate.
- Robots.txt & Noindex Tags – Misconfigured rules can prevent important pages from being crawled.
If your site is slow, has tons of broken pages, or is filled with unnecessary duplicate pages, Google will crawl less of it—or stop altogether.
4. How to Check Your Crawl Budget
Google Search Console (GSC) is your best friend here. You don’t need fancy paid tools—GSC gives you direct insight into what Google is doing on your site!
Check Your Crawl Stats in GSC
- Log into Google Search Console and navigate to “Settings.”
- Under Crawl Stats, click Open Report.
- Here, you’ll see:
- Total crawl requests – How many times Googlebot has visited your site in the last 90 days.
- Average response time – If this is too high, Google might slow down crawling. Ideally, your response time should be under 200-500 milliseconds for best performance. If it exceeds 1,000 milliseconds (1 second), you may start experiencing crawl inefficiencies, which could impact indexing.
- Host status – Any crawling errors or issues slowing Googlebot down.
Find and Fix Crawl Issues
- High response times? Check for slow hosting, large image files, or unnecessary scripts slowing things down. Aim for a server response time under 500ms to keep Googlebot happy.
- Sudden drop in crawl activity? Google might be running into errors—check for broken pages or misconfigured robots.txt settings.
- Low crawl frequency on key pages? Improve internal linking and make sure these pages are in your sitemap.
5. 7 Ways to Optimize Your Crawl Budget
1. Speed Up Your Website
- Compress images, minify CSS/JavaScript, and enable caching.
- Upgrade to faster hosting or use a CDN for better response times.
2. Use Internal Linking Strategically
- Link to your most important pages from high-authority pages.
- Avoid orphan pages (pages with no internal links pointing to them).
3. Keep Your Sitemap Clean and Updated
- Remove outdated or broken URLs.
- Only include high-value, indexable pages.
4. Block Low-Value Pages
- Use robots.txt to prevent Google from crawling duplicate, thin, or unnecessary pages.
- Use “noindex” tags where needed, but remember Google still crawls these pages before ignoring them.
5. Fix Redirect Chains and Loops
- Too many redirects waste crawl budget. Use 301 redirects strategically and eliminate redirect chains.
6. Fix Broken Links & 404 Errors
- Use a site audit tool to find and repair broken links.
- Remove dead-end pages or redirect them properly.
7. Keep Content Fresh
- Regularly update high-value pages so Google keeps crawling them.
- Consolidate outdated, low-traffic pages into stronger, more valuable content.
The Takeaway
Your crawl budget determines how much of your site Google actually sees. If search engines aren’t crawling and indexing your pages efficiently, your rankings will suffer. By optimizing site speed, internal linking, and removing crawl-wasting pages, you help Google focus on what really matters—your best content.
Make sure every crawl Google makes counts. Clean up your site, prioritize important pages, and keep your content fresh to maximize search visibility.
Further Resources
If you’re just starting out or looking to start a new blog, before you pay for expensive courses be sure to check out my RESOURCES PAGE where I lay out exactly how I started and grew my blog (this one!) from humble beginnings on an iPad to where we are today!
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