In a recent podcast published on YouTube, several Google experts revealed the truth behind the concept of Crawl Budget and explained how Google actually prioritizes content for indexing. To put it simply, you will have to aim for quality content and take care of the user experience if you want to attract indexing robots!
What you must remember is:
- Google says the concept of a crawl budget is not as rigid as you might think.
- Improving content quality and user experience are the keys to being favored by Googlebot.
- Google admits that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to crawl prioritization.
Myths and facts about the Budget Crawl
Professionals in the SEO sphere have long speculated about the existence of a crawl budget, a hypothetical daily limit on the number of pages that search engines would be able to crawl. This notion has been widely debated, suggesting that sites must deal with the limits of this budget to ensure the indexing of their pages.
Recently, in a podcast available on YouTube, Google search engineers shed some light on this subject, debunking several misconceptions around the concept and explaining how Google actually determines crawl priorities.
Crawl: Google's approach
Dave Smart, an SEO consultant and product expert at Google, points out the existence of many myths surrounding crawling, including the very concept of crawl budget. According to him, to understand Google's priorities, it is essential to rely on known starting points, from which the engine can extract links and determine the relative importance of the content to be indexed.
Gary Illyes, a member of Google's relationships team, confirms this approach, adding that search demand directly influences crawl limits. In other words, increasing the amount of content crawled by Google requires convincing the search engine of the value of that content through user interaction.
Several days ago, John Mueller had already indicated that the concept of Crawl Budget, which we owe to the SEO community, did not really make sense since Google did not impose any limits. Furthermore, he specified that if a site is little explored, this may mean that Google does not see any point in doing so. A statement that seems rather in agreement with the words of his colleagues.
Content quality and user experience
Gary Illyes also emphasizes the dynamics of crawl programming, which adjusts based on the quality of content reported by indexing feedback. In short, this means that there is no fixed budget. Improving the quality of pages and demonstrating their usefulness can overcome any supposed limitations.
Illyes also admits that Google does not offer a one-size-fits-all answer for all sites in terms of crawl prioritization. Improving a specific section of the site can significantly increase the chances of being better crawled and indexed.
According to Google, the key is to focus on producing high-quality content rather than trying to manipulate a hypothetical crawl quota. Obtaining links naturally and improving the service provided to users are winning strategies!