Imagine a search engine as a tourist who has only one day to see all the highlights of a big city. Your website is like this city, and the crawl budget decides how much the tourist can explore in that limited time.
By understanding what influences this crawl budget, we can guide the tourist to the most important spots first, making sure they experience the best attractions. Let’s look into the key factors that significantly impact this crucial exploration.
Factors That Directly Impact Your Crawl Budget
Just like a tourist’s day depends on traffic, roadblocks, and how easy it is to move around the city, a search engine’s crawl budget depends on how smoothly it can explore your website. If everything is clear and easy to access, the crawler can cover more ground. But if there are too many issues or slowdowns, it might run out of time before getting to the important pages.
Let’s take a closer look at what affects your crawl budget and how it plays a role in your website’s visibility.
1. Faceted Navigation and Infinite Filtering Combinations
Faceted navigation lets users filter products by things like size, color, brand, or price. You’ve probably used it on e-commerce sites to narrow down your search and find exactly what you want. While it makes shopping easier, it can cause a big mess for search engines.
Think of the search engine like a tourist using a city map. Every time a filter is applied, a new version of the map is created. The more filters there are, the more paths the tourist has to choose from. Instead of discovering new and valuable places, they keep running into slightly different versions of the same spot.
Take this example. Say you sell clothes online. A customer selects “Blue T-shirts” and your site creates a page like:
👉 example.com/t-shirts?color=blue
Then they choose “Small size” and a new version shows up:
👉 example.com/t-shirts?color=blue&size=small
Now imagine that happening across dozens of filters. Google ends up spending its crawl budget on hundreds of almost identical pages instead of the ones that really matter.
How to Fix This?
To keep search engines from spending time on unnecessary pages, you can:
- Use Robots.txt: Block search engines from crawling filter-generated URLs so they don’t waste crawl budget on pages that are too similar..
- Set Canonical Tags: Let search engines know which version of a page is the main one. This helps avoid indexing duplicates.
- Optimize URL Parameters in Google Search Console: This tells Google which filters are useful and which ones it can ignore.
By managing how search engines crawl your filtered pages, you help them stay focused on the content that actually matters for your rankings. Google also offers an official guide on faceted navigation with best practices to keep your crawl budget from being wasted on endless filter combinations.
2. Broken Links and Redirect Chains
Imagine our search engine tourist is walking through the city, following signboards to different spots. But some signs lead to dead ends, while others send them in circles before they reach the right place. It’s frustrating and wastes time. That’s exactly what broken links and redirect chains do to search engines when they try to crawl your site.
What Are Broken Links?
Broken links are links that point to pages that no longer exist or show errors, like a 404 Not Found. These usually happen when pages are deleted, URLs are changed, or someone adds an incorrect link. When a search engine runs into too many broken links, it ends up spending time chasing pages that go nowhere instead of discovering the content that matters.
👉 Example: If a website links to example.com/product123 but that page has been deleted, visitors and search engines will hit a 404 error page instead of finding something useful.
What Are Redirect Chains?
Redirect chains happen when one URL sends you to another, which then sends you to yet another, and so on, before finally landing on the right page. It’s like our tourist being sent through multiple detours before reaching the actual spot they wanted to visit. Search engines face the same issue. They end up wasting crawl budget following all those extra steps instead of getting straight to the right page.
👉 Example:
1️⃣ example.com/old-page → 2️⃣ example.com/new-page → 3️⃣ example.com/final-page
Instead of going straight to the right page, both search engines and users have to pass through several redirects just to get there.
Why Do These Issues Matter?
Both broken links and redirect chains slow down crawling, waste your crawl budget, and create a bad experience for users. If search engines spend too much time chasing dead ends or following unnecessary redirects, they might miss the pages that actually matter on your site.
How to Fix These Issues?
- Find and Fix Broken Links: Use tools like Google Search Console or Ahrefs Site Audit to identify broken links and update or remove them.
- Minimize Redirect Chains:Redirects should go straight from the old page to the final page. If a user or search engine has to pass through multiple redirects to reach the destination, it slows things down and wastes crawl budget. Keep your redirects clean and to the point to make crawling faster and smoother.
- Use Internal Links Wisely: Always update internal links when URLs change to avoid unnecessary redirects or broken pages. Outdated links waste crawl budget and create a poor experience for both users and search engines.
By fixing broken links and reducing redirect chains, you make it easier for search engines to crawl your site efficiently. That way, they spend their time on pages that actually matter for search rankings and visibility.
3. Outdated Sitemaps
Think of a sitemap as a city’s official guidebook that helps tourists find the best attractions. If the guidebook is outdated, missing important spots, or listing places that no longer exist, tourists end up wasting time or skipping key locations. The same thing happens when search engines rely on an outdated sitemap to crawl your site.
What is a Sitemap?
A sitemap is a file, usually in XML format, that tells search engines which pages on your site should be crawled and indexed. It works like a roadmap, helping them find your important content instead of crawling around aimlessly.
How an Outdated Sitemap Affects Crawl Budget
When your sitemap is outdated, search engines may spend time crawling:
- Deleted pages that return a 404 error
- Pages that have moved but are still listed with the old URL
- Irrelevant pages that don’t need to be crawled
At the same time, new or updated pages might not get indexed quickly if they’re missing from the sitemap. This wastes crawl budget and slows down the visibility of fresh content.
👉 Example: If your site just launched a blog but the sitemap hasn’t been updated, search engines might not find the new posts, delaying their indexing.
How to Fix and Maintain Your Sitemap?
- Keep Your Sitemap Updated: Make sure your sitemap reflects any changes you make, like when you add, remove, or update pages.
- Submit Your Sitemap to Google Search Console: Use Google Search Console to submit or refresh your sitemap so Google has your latest content.
- Remove Old or Broken Links: Clean out any links that point to deleted or broken pages. This helps search engines avoid wasting time on dead ends.
- Use Dynamic Sitemaps for Large Websites: If your site updates often, use an automatically generated sitemap to keep everything current.
A well-maintained sitemap helps search engines crawl and index your content faster. It keeps them focused on the right pages and makes better use of your crawl budget.
4. Website Architecture
A well-structured website is like a well-planned city, where roads are clear, signs are easy to follow, and key places are easy to find. Just like a tourist who doesn’t want to waste time navigating confusing streets, search engines prefer websites with a clear and simple layout that helps them reach important pages quickly.
Why Website Architecture Matters for Crawl Budget
If your website is messy, with pages buried too deep, broken links, or too many unnecessary paths, search engines may struggle to crawl and index your content properly. A poor structure can cause important pages to be missed while unimportant ones use up crawl budget.
👉 Example: Imagine you have product pages hidden under multiple layers. If search engines have to go through too many steps, they might not reach the product page at all. That means it won’t show up in search results.
Homepage → Category → Subcategory → Sub-sub category → Product Page
Best Practices for Optimizing Website Architecture
- Keep Your Site Structure Shallow: Make sure important pages are no more than two to three clicks away from the homepage. Avoid deeply nested URLs that make it harder for search engines to reach your key content.
- Use Internal Linking Wisely: Link to important pages within your content to help search engines find them faster. A good internal linking setup works like clear road signs that guide both users and crawlers to what matters.
- Organize Categories Clearly: No matter if it’s a blog or an e-commerce site, your categories and subcategories should be simple and easy to follow.
- Use Breadcrumbs Navigation: Breadcrumbs help users and search engines understand where they are on your site. They offer a second path to navigate and improve overall site clarity.
- Ensure a Mobile-Friendly Structure: Since Google uses mobile-first indexing, your site should be just as easy to navigate on a phone as it is on a desktop.
By keeping your website architecture clean and well-organized, you make it easier for search engines to crawl efficiently and focus on indexing the pages that matter most for rankings and visibility.
For more insights, check out Google’s Guide on Site Structure and SEO to learn how to build a structure that works for both users and search engines.
5. Server Response Time
Imagine a search engine as a tourist trying to enter a popular attraction, but every time they reach the entrance, there’s a long line. If the wait takes too long, they might give up and head somewhere else. That’s exactly what happens when your server response time is slow. Search engines end up waiting instead of using that time to crawl more pages.
How to Improve Server Response Time?
- Upgrade to a Better Hosting Plan: A faster and more reliable hosting service helps your server handle traffic smoothly without slowing down.
- Enable Caching: Caching temporarily stores website data so returning visitors and crawlers can load pages much faster.
- Optimize Images and Media: Large images and videos slow things down. Compress your images and use formats like WebP for better performance.
- Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN): A CDN keeps copies of your website on servers around the world, making it quicker for search engines and users to access your content.
- Reduce Unnecessary Scripts: Too many JavaScript and CSS files can delay page load times. Minimize or defer anything that isn’t needed right away.
For more details, check out SiteGround’s guide on optimizing server performance to see how you can improve site speed for better crawling and indexing.
If you don’t have time to deal with all the technical stuff, let us handle it. Our Website Speed Optimization Service is built to make your site faster, so you never lose a customer just because your website was too slow.
3 Factors That Control How Much Google Crawls Your Site
Google doesn’t crawl every website the same way. Just like a popular tourist spot gets more visitors than a quiet small town, some websites get crawled more often and more thoroughly than others.
Here are three key factors that influence how often and how deep Google goes when crawling your site.
1. Website Authority and Popularity
Google prioritizes websites that are well-known and trusted, just like tourists head straight for famous landmarks instead of random side streets. If your site has strong authority and gets links from other reputable sources, Google gives it a higher crawl budget.
👉 Example: A news site like CNN gets crawled every few minutes because it’s always publishing new content. On the other hand, a small blog with no backlinks might only get crawled once in a while.
🛠 How to Improve It?
- Build high-quality backlinks from trusted websites.
- Keep your website active by publishing fresh content regularly.
- Improve brand visibility through social media and PR efforts to attract more traffic.
2. Frequency of Content Updates
Google loves fresh content. If your site gets updated regularly, search engines are more likely to visit more often. But if nothing changes for a long time, your site might not get crawled as frequently.
👉 Example: An online store that keeps adding new products and updating descriptions will get crawled more often than a site that hasn’t touched its content in years.
🛠 How to Improve It?
- Update existing pages with fresh information to keep content relevant
- Publish new blog posts, product pages, or news updates consistently
- Use Google Search Console to submit new pages and speed up indexing
3. Crawl Demand (Search Engine Interest in Your Site)
Google crawls pages based on how much demand there is for their content. If people are actively searching for topics on your site and clicking through to your pages, Google is more likely to crawl them often. But if your pages don’t get much attention, crawl frequency may drop.
👉 Example: If you publish content on trending topics, search engines may crawl and index it quickly because users are actively looking for it. In contrast, an outdated page with low traffic might not get crawled for months.
🛠 How to Improve It?
- Optimize pages for high-demand keywords that people are actively searching for
- Improve internal linking so search engines can reach key pages faster
- Use Google Search Console’s Crawl Stats to track crawl activity and spot trends
Final Thoughts
Google’s crawl budget depends on how optimized, authoritative, and regularly updated your site is. The better your site structure and content strategy, the more efficiently search engines will crawl and index your pages.
If you want to improve your SEO and make sure Google is crawling the right pages, Launch with WP can help. Our technical SEO services include fixing indexing issues, optimizing site speed, and improving internal linking. We make sure your website is search-friendly and set up to perform at its best.
