The most important facts in brief:
- Automated programs that search content on the web
- Crucial for the search engine optimization of websites
- Different types such as web crawlers, cloud website crawlers or crawlers for commercial websites
- Control via rotots.txt and meta tags possible
- Balance between accessibility for crawlers and user experience important for websites
- Various tools available for the analysis and optimization of crawling
- Crawlers are constantly being developed further
Definition:
Crawlers are programs that systematically search the Internet to index websites and collect information for search engines.
What are crawlers and how do they work? The basics
Crawlers, often referred to as web crawlers, bots or spiders, are the backbone of search engine technology. These automated programs roam the World Wide Web to discover websites, analyze their content and index them for search engines.
Crawling is systematic: the crawlers start with a list of URLs, follow the hyperlinks on each page and summarize relevant data. This enables them to find a huge amount of text, images and videos and make them available for processing in the index of a search engine.
The Googlebot is the best-known example of a search engine crawler
The Googlebot is a specialized search engine crawler. It uses a complex algorithm to decide which pages to visit and how to structure its users’ search results.
To evaluate the page, Googlebot analyzes both the articles and other content itself, as well as the quality of the links that refer to this page from other websites. The topicality of content also plays an important role.
Types of crawlers
Crawlers come in many different forms, each with a specific mode of operation to suit individual crawling requirements. The following list presents some common types of crawlers:
- Web crawlers: These basic crawlers crawl the internet to capture the content of the website. They are particularly useful for tasks that require high computing power, as they can analyze large amounts of data within a short period of time.
- Commercial Website Crawler: Aimed at commercial goals, this type of crawler often focuses on specific industries or areas, collecting data for market analysis, price monitoring or collecting leads.
- Email crawlers: They crawl the internet specifically for email addresses. This is usually done to generate leads or - illegally - to create lists for spam mails.
- Social media crawlers: Crawlers that collect public content from social platforms for trend analysis, marketing strategies and user tracking.
These and many other types of crawler do their work non-stop and extremely effectively in the chassis of the Word Wide Web. The bots are constantly searching for new or changed content and data, enabling the search engines to deliver up-to-date results.
The importance of web crawlers for SEO
Crawling robots have an importance for search engine optimization that can hardly be underestimated. They have a significant influence on how visible a website is on the internet. The work of the crawlers, sometimes also referred to as “spiders”, serves to discover pages and correctly classify their content for the search engine.
Without crawling, a website would remain virtually invisible on the web. As the crawler captures the page and interprets its content correctly, internet users can be shown the result that is relevant to them in their search queries.
Making your own website crawler-friendly
In order to design a website so that it can be crawled optimally, it is important to focus on a clear structure and easily accessible content. Crawlers, which operate as user agents on behalf of search engines, evaluate the pages according to various criteria. It is therefore important that the crawling robots can search and understand the page effectively.
With the help of a rotbots.txt file, it is possible to give the crawler specific instructions. The robots file shows which website content is permitted for indexing and which should not be indexed. This allows the crawler’s activities to be controlled, which can improve the search results for users and at the same time lead to better rankings for the website.
Attention: Crawlers are very important for the findability of the website on the Internet. This is important to know and should always be taken into account. At the same time, however, we must not forget that a website should primarily serve the user.
Focusing solely on the crawlers may mean that the actual topic is neglected and important information is lost. It is therefore important to always check whether the current form of your own site offers an optimal user experience and is suitable for effective crawling.
Monitor the ranking of your own website using RTR
The so-called Rank Tracking Resolution (RTR) is an important concept for the optimization of search engine results and the optimal indexing of your own website by crawlers.
RTR refers to the accuracy and frequency with which website positions are monitored and measured. An efficient RTR program gives website owners precise insights into how well their pages are performing for specific keywords or search queries.
The knowledge acquired through RTR can then be used to analyze the possibilities with which the site can be further improved for the user agent.
Conclusion: If you understand crawlers, you can make your own website more successful
The chassis of an effective online strategy consists of solid SEO fundamentals. These make it possible to present your own name and brand appropriately in the digital world. Linking relevant content through sensibly placed links is more important than ever these days.
A website must always be optimized with regard to both the user experience and its usability for crawlers. This ensures that the site is helpful for users and can be easily found by them via Google or other search engines.
