Most people shun that which crawls. And if the mover is sufficiently repugnant, fleeing, shrieking, and other signs of distress may ensue. Not so if the area of motion is the typical website. Here, crawling is vigorously encouraged.
The crawling entity, in this case, is known as a bot, a piece of programming that scans, searches, and surveys website content with extreme interest. Why all activity? Because these digital ‘guests’ are hunting for content characteristics that mark a webpage as worthy of a Google search. If you have what the crawling bot is scanning for, a favorable report is shuttled back to central control. Based on the quantity of favorable info, your search engine worthiness and ranking rise accordingly.
Basically, bots need a reason to show up. And the more of those you provide, the more readily they will pay you a visit and persuade headquarters to index your content. The motivating reasons are many, but some of the primary ones are as follows:
Load Before Yesterday – Bots have little patience with slow-loading content. The more nanoseconds elapse before a page displays, the less likely they’ll crawl in for a visit. Believe it or not, one of the most notorious speed-inhibitors can be an image file. Wherever possible, use JPG images, as these materialize quicker than GIFS and PNG files.
Crawlers Crave Updates – Dropping new content into your blog page or other website sector is a major motivator. As with people, bots shun the same-ol-same-ol. In their quest for freshness, these crawlers crave updates. The more they see, the more readily they’ll index your pages.
Sleeping Servers Don’t Rate Well – If your server is down for lengthy periods, bots will adjust their timetable accordingly. Basically, they’ll cut down on their visits – Why show up if the path is blocked? A reliable server with extended working hours is your best bet for results.
If you have any questions or comments about improving Google crawl rates, or about any other brand-related topic, feel free to send them our way.