What is a robot?
In the field of search engine optimization, a robot is a program or bot that independently searches for new content and directories without human assistance, evaluates them and then indexes them. Robots are also known colloquially as crawlers and now account for around 40% of global traffic. In order for a robot to do its job properly, it must be given commands. This can be done by the search engine or by a website operator, who specifies in a file exactly which directories may and may not be read by the robot.
How does a robot work?
A robot usually works fully automatically and analyzes documents and pages during the search. In order to interpret relationships correctly, it also follows internal and external links. To ensure that all data on the Internet can be recorded correctly, it needs a specific task before searching. This is necessary, for example, to assign products or pages to a specific category and to bundle information. The robot searches the Internet repeatedly and can therefore also take note of updated information and pages that have already been indexed. Ideally, the crawler, bot or robot searches all pages and links that belong to a website. However, this task can be prevented by a password or an extensively created Robots.txt file, for example.
How can a robot be influenced?
A crawler, which is often also called a robot, can be influenced by site operators by creating a Robots.txt file. A crawler actually has the task of searching through all files and pages that belong to a directory. However, this can be prevented by a Robots.txt file. In the text file, which must always be in the main directory so that it can be read, you can define exactly which pages a robot is not allowed to search. Although the search engine crawlers are not directly forced to observe such a Robots.txt file, the search engines have been communicating for some time that the commands of such a text file are always read first before other directories on the page are accessed.
In the Robots.txt file, the site operator can then define exactly which directories remain untouched by the crawler. The rights of different search engine crawlers can also be clearly defined.
Why are robots used?
Robots or crawlers are used by search engines because they can automatically create indices that provide a basis for classifying various search results. The bots are assigned a very specific task. For example, they can search for explicit subject areas or further links for certain events. Research for price comparisons, classic web analysis and data mining are particularly common with bots.
What is web analytics, data mining & co?
Price comparisons collect data on product categories and prices so that customers can view different offers on comparison portals. Classic web analytics involves all data related to visitors to a website. This allows the crawler to make clear statements about visitors to a website. This includes, for example, the number of visitors, but the bounce rate and length of stay are also important web analysis parameters. In data mining, the internet is mainly searched for email addresses and telephone numbers.
