3 Ways to Increase Googlebot Crawling

In the world of SEO, ensuring that Googlebot frequently crawls your website is crucial for maintaining and improving your search engine rankings. Google’s Gary Illyes and Lizzi Sassman recently discussed 3 key factors that can significantly increase Googlebot crawling. While they emphasized that constant crawling isn’t always necessary, they acknowledged that certain strategies can encourage Googlebot to revisit your site more often. Here, we delve into these three strategies and how we in content marketing can implement them to boost the website’s visibility.

1 – High-Quality Content

One of the primary triggers for increased Googlebot crawling is the presence of high-quality content on your website. Gary Illyes highlighted that Google’s algorithms are designed to detect signals of high quality and helpfulness. When your content is deemed valuable and engaging by users, Googlebot is more likely to crawl your site frequently.

High-quality content is not just about well-written articles; it encompasses a range of factors including relevance, originality, and user engagement. To create high-quality content, focus on the following:

• Relevance: Ensure that your content is relevant to your target audience. Conduct thorough keyword research to understand what your audience is searching for and tailor your content to meet those needs.
• Originality: Avoid duplicate content. Google values unique content that provides new insights or information.
• User Engagement: Create content that encourages user interaction, such as comments, shares, and likes. Engaging content signals to Google that your site is valuable to users.

By consistently producing high-quality content, you can signal to Google that your site is worth crawling more frequently.

2 – Increased Publishing Activity

Another effective way to encourage more frequent Googlebot visits is by increasing your publishing activity. Regularly updating your website with fresh content signals to Google that your site is active and continuously providing new information.

Here are some tips to increase your publishing activity:

• Create a Content Calendar: Plan your content and stick to a regular publishing schedule. This not only helps in maintaining consistency but also ensures that you are continually adding new content to your site.
• Diversify Content Types: Experiment with different types of content such as blog posts, videos, infographics, and podcasts. This variety can attract different segments of your audience and keep your site dynamic.
• Repurpose Existing Content: Don’t hesitate to update and republish older content. Refreshing outdated articles with new information or insights can make them relevant again and encourage Googlebot to crawl your site.

By maintaining a steady flow of new content, you can keep your website active and appealing to both users and search engines.

3 – Consistency of Content Quality

Consistency in content quality is another crucial factor that can influence Googlebot crawling frequency. Google’s algorithms favor websites that consistently provide high-quality content over those that have sporadic bursts of quality followed by periods of inactivity.

To maintain consistent content quality, consider the following strategies:

• Set Quality Standards: Establish clear guidelines for content creation that all contributors must follow. This can include standards for grammar, formatting, and the depth of information provided.
• Regular Audits: Periodically review your content to ensure it meets your quality standards. Remove or update low-quality content that no longer serves your audience.
• User Feedback: Pay attention to user feedback and analytics. Identify which content performs well and why, and use these insights to guide future content creation.

Consistency in content quality not only helps in retaining your audience but also signals to Google that your site is reliable and worth frequent visits.

Conclusion

Increasing Googlebot crawling frequency is a multifaceted approach that involves producing high-quality content, maintaining a regular publishing schedule, and ensuring consistent content quality. By implementing these strategies, you can enhance your website’s visibility and improve its ranking on search engine results pages.

Remember, while these strategies can encourage more frequent Googlebot visits, the ultimate goal should always be to provide value to your audience. When your content is valuable to users, it will naturally attract more traffic and, in turn, more frequent crawling by Googlebot.

Image: macrovector@freepik
Source: Search Engine Journal