Having a good-looking and functional website with high quality content is not only essential for grabbing the attention of online users but also for improving your Google crawl rate. Up to 61% of global online users search for products using search engines.
If the Google Web crawler doesn’t visit your page to add your business to its index, it could be a sign your search engine optimization and your online content isn’t as great as it could be.
Search engine optimization tips for increasing Google crawl rate
It’s important to note it’s not possible to forcibly bring Googlebot to your website. However, there are some search engine optimization tips you can follow to improve your website to make it more inviting for Googlebot and more friendly for search engines in general. Here are some possible changes you can make to your website and some search engine optimization tips to increase your Google crawl rate:
- Ping Google after posting new content
It’s typically recommended that websites update three times a week with new and unique content. This tells Google your website is active. However, to improve your Google crawl rate, ping Google after you’ve updated the content. You can do this by changing the last modified date of the pages in your sitemap. Sitemap plugins are available for WordPress websites and allow users to update the last date modified automatically. This tells Google that you’ve updated recently and therefore your website is worth looking into again during the next crawl. - Check your links
Your website’s internal links are what make your site significant to search engines and help separate your site from online marketing schemes. Ensure the different URLs in your website’s internal link structure don’t link to duplicate content. This makes Google crawler spend a significant amount of time on the duplicate content and less time on the other unique pages on your site. Once you’ve gotten rid of the duplicate URLs, consider increasing the number of quality backlinks you have. - Reduce your website’s load time
Just like online users, Googlebot isn’t fond of spending long periods of time waiting on slow-loading websites. The longer the Web crawler spends waiting on images to load on a few number of pages the less likely it’ll crawl your other high quality pages. - Add a sitemap
Web users have reported in the past that their Google crawl rate improved after adding a sitemap to their web pages. While some web users may disagree with this approach, it’s worth trying out if it can improve crawl rate and indexing problems.
MRN Web Designs provides digital marketing services, PPC advertising services, and custom web design all in one place. Whether you need to improve your Google crawl rate, the ranking of SEO keywords, or developing high quality content, MRN Web Designs can help you create the web presence you want with the results you need. Contact MRN Web Designs today to get started.
