Have you ever wondered what’s going on behind the scenes of your website’s SEO? The Crawl Stats report is like a secret window that shows you how search engines are interacting with your site. It’s especially useful for big websites, like online stores, that are constantly adding new products and pages. If you’re not careful, it can be hard for a search engine to figure out what’s important, and your new pages might not get found. This report gives you a way to see what’s going on and make sure everything is in good shape.
Where Is the Crawl Stats Report in Google Search Console?
Finding this report is a little bit like a treasure hunt. You’ll need to go to your search console account. Once you are logged in, just scroll down the left-hand menu. You’ll see a section called Settings. Click on that, and then look for the Crawl stats link. From there, you can open the report to see how search engines are interacting with your website.
Critical Data in Your Crawl Stats Report
Total Crawl Requests
This report shows you how often a search engine visits your website. If you are constantly updating your content, you want to see a steady number of visits. It also shows you how much data is being downloaded. If the number is very high, it might mean your website is too slow. You can optimize your images and other assets to make sure your website is as fast as it can be.
Website Availability
If a search engine tries to visit your website and finds it is not available, it might reduce the amount of time it spends on your site in the future. This can hurt your ability to get new pages indexed. You should make sure your website’s uptime is excellent. The report will show you if there have been any issues with your host.
Troubleshooting Host Status Issues in the Crawl Stats Report
This is where you can find and fix problems with your server. The report will show you if there are issues with your robots.txt file, your domain name, or your server’s connectivity. If you find a problem, you should check your settings to make sure everything is set up correctly.
Analyze the Crawl Requests Breakdown
This part of the report shows you how much of your crawl budget is being spent on different types of pages.
Troubleshooting Crawl Requests in the Search Console
- 200 (OK): This is a great sign. It means everything worked, and the page was successfully crawled.
- 301 (Moved Permanently): This means a search engine successfully followed a redirect. You should check to make sure the redirect was intentional.
- 302 (Moved Temporarily): This is a temporary redirect. You should check to make sure it is intentional and hasn’t been in place for too long.
- 404 (Not Found): This is a bad sign. It means a search engine is wasting its time on a page that doesn’t exist. You should find the broken link and fix it.
- 5xx (Server Errors): This is a very bad sign. It means there is a problem with your server and a search engine can’t access your pages. You should contact your hosting provider to fix this immediately.
Check Crawl Requests by File Type
Search engines crawl all the files on your website, including HTML, images, and JavaScript. You want to see that it is crawling your HTML and images more than your code. You can optimize your code and minify it to make your website faster.
Crawl Requests by Purpose in the Search Console Crawl Stats
This part of the report shows you why a search engine is visiting your website. Is it trying to discover new content or just checking for updates on old pages? The stats here should match your website’s strategy. If you are launching a lot of new pages, you should see a lot of “discovery” crawls.
Googlebot Type
Finally, this section tells you what kind of bot is crawling your website. For example, if you run an online store, you want to see the “Store Bot.” If you run a content website, you want to see the “Smartphone” and “Desktop” bots.
Fix Your Crawl (and the Rest Is a Breeze)
Without crawling, a search engine can’t index your website. And without indexing, you can’t rank. So, if you are seeing issues in your crawl stats, you should fix them immediately. You can find and fix broken links, improve your content, and make sure your website is as fast as it can be.
What is a crawl stats report?
The Crawl Stats report is a tool that shows you how Google is crawling your website. It provides insights on how often it visits your site, how much data it downloads, and what types of pages it is finding.
Does crawl budget matter for SEO?
Yes, it does. Crawl budget is the number of pages a search engine will crawl on your site in a given period. If you waste your crawl budget on error pages or thin content, it may not find your most important pages.
What is the difference between a 301 and a 302 redirect?
A 301 is a permanent redirect that tells search engines a page has moved for good. A 302 is a temporary redirect that tells a search engine a page has moved for a short time. A 301 is the best way to preserve the SEO value of a page that has a new, permanent address.
