The SEO Bot is an automated software infused with any search engine for indexing data or content. The process of indexing is known as SEO Ranking. Technically an SEO Bot is called a “Web Crawler Bot”. The function of this automated software is to “crawl” over a page for search-related data (query) and “index” the information according to the relevancy of the information.

Every search engine whether it is Google, Bing (Microsoft), Yahoo, etc. uses these web crawler bots to understand and index (ranking) the information. Web crawler bots are an essential part of the digital marketing process. Without a proper understanding of “how a web crawler bot or SEO BOT functions?” It will be like throwing a dart in the darkness.

Why is SEO BOT Important?

These web crawler bots help SEO experts analyze the performance of a particular page or website. In SEO (search engine optimization) web page ranking in a search engine plays a significant objective to achieve. One can understand that content first goes under the scanner of a web crawler bot for updated information & relevancy.

Thus, the web crawler bot indexes the “piece of information” and stores it in its cloud library. The web crawler bot is intelligent. Therefore, it follows an algorithm for scanning data or content to index the information. A set of rules that helps the web crawler bot scan the content. Web crawler bot cannot read HLL (human language). It goes for specific indications, for instance; keywords, Headings, backlinks, etc.

It helps us under the performance of our website ranking and provides detailed insights into website traffic and content relevancy. Several web crawler bots are aggressive in acquiring more personal data. They crawl aggressively and collect more insight into data like privacy, data security, etc. of a webpage or website.

Let’s understand in detail because according to Neil Patel,

“No website can stand without a strong backbone. And that backbone is technical SEO.”

What is Crawling & Crawler?

The job of all search engines is to create an archive of millions of data in an organized, chronological relevancy according to queries. In 2006, Google’s SEO bot had crawled over 1 trillion web pages. It has achieved a massive milestone and by 2013, it became 30 trillion. Now why is it so important?

Web Crawler Bot

It is an automatic software for following new links to new pages. “Crawler”, “Robot” or “Spider” are some of the generic names for a web crawler bot.

Crawling

It is a process of following a backlink of an old page to a new page and continuing the process, till the last page. It is an automatic process of fetching browsing data while following the links to new pages.

The spider bot crawls to check the relevancy and authenticity of the link. The link could be from any dependable website. Even these spider bots use the past experiences of a crawled page to configure the link’s authenticity.

A good quality link always comes from a registered authentic source of the website where the owner submitted his sitemaps of the website.

For example government sites, company sites, registered and paid sites. Spider bots determine a link based on the page’s popularity, quality, and frequent updates. Often these bots prefer fresh new content with an updated content context.

Crawler Budget

Crawler budget refers to requesting Google to limit and specify crawler to crawl over a specific number of pages for a given time. This includes; size, quality, popularity, speed of site, etc. The secret to ranking better in search engines is not to waste crawler resources (Less crawling = low ranking).

Links play a crucial role in the ranking of a website. Make sure, you use only relevant dependable authentic URLs of quality websites (Quality Links = Quality Crawling).

Factors that affect Less Crawling

Sometimes good content gets less crawling due to several loose end factors. These are directly related to the low quality of using UR-links. This includes;

• Unorganized Navigation
• Plagiarised Content
• Soft Error Page
• Spam pages
• Unorganized Headings
• Proxies
• Low-quality spam content

What is Robots.txt?

Google allows a feature to enhance specific crawling of the pages by using a command file known as robots.txt. This file directs the “Googlebots” to crawl only specified pages. These are specific sets of rules to direct the spider bot to the crawler for specific links to increase the ranking. Commands like “Disallow: /” (blocks the crawler to the entire site), and “Disallow: / login / ” (blocks the crawler on enter URL basis).

What is Indexing?

It refers to storing, organizing, and chronologically ranking in a search engine by rendering the content, data, & metadata (Headings, backlinks, etc), on the page. It’s a massive process, the spider bot renders millions of pages that require huge database storage.

What is Rendering?

The spider bot not only follows the quality links but also renders (interprets) the content on the page to create a visual interpretation for the user. The bot reads the codes on the page like; HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc to decode the info and represent what you see on the screen.

The Difference Between Crawling & Indexing

Crawling	Indexing
According to the technical SEO, it refers to following quality links (URLs)	According to technical SEO, it refers to the storing of pages in a chronological ranking.
Indexing is done through a technique called crawling. Google indexes the web pages by crawling through them.	Crawler uses indexing as a database for storing large number of pages.
It is a process of searching new pages through links.	It is a process of ranking the pages while archiving the links through indexing.
It provides the analysis of web page authenticity.	It provides an analysis of the website’s performance in the search engines.

Conclusion

Understanding the web crawler is a crucial step, to under the function of a search engine. A spider crawler is a subject of deep understanding that requires specialty to access the advantages of a crawler for site ranking. Spider bots are responsible for ranking web pages in search engines, but without having a technical understanding of some factors like robot.txt. Therefore, this is the most important aspect of technical Search Engine Optimization (50%). Right optimization will boost your website presence and ROI.