{"id":16319,"date":"2018-07-09T10:00:03","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T07:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/?p=16319"},"modified":"2018-07-09T18:04:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-09T18:04:00","slug":"what-is-googlebot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/what-is-googlebot\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Googlebot? Here’s the Answer, Plus How You Can Optimize Your Site for Googlebot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wondering, “What is Googlebot?” When it comes to search engines, there are a lot of terms and phrases you\u2019ll hear thrown around. Not all of these are going to be familiar when you\u2019re first learning to optimize your site<\/a>. To help demystify one common term, we’re going to spend this post answering that question.<\/p>\n

Learning the answer to this question is vital because Googlebot will have a significant effect on the way you design your site. This complex program has a lot of control over how your content is ranked in Google. To improve your site\u2019s visibility, you need to understand what Googlebot is looking for and how to \u2018speak\u2019 its language<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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If you\u2019re still asking yourself \u201cWhat is Googlebot?\u201d, don\u2019t worry. In this post, we\u2019ll explain everything you need to know about this search engine crawler and discuss how to use that knowledge to optimize your WordPress site for Googlebot. Let\u2019s start from the top!<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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\n\t\t \t\tEver wondered what Googlebot actually is? Here's the answer, plus how you can optimize #WordPress...<\/a>\n\t\t \t<\/div>\n\t\t \t
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What is Googlebot? A basic introduction…<\/h2>\n
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Google is one of the primary ways people will find your content online \u2013 and Googlebot is the way that happens.<\/p><\/div>\n

So, what is Googlebot? In a nutshell, it\u2019s Google\u2019s web crawling bot<\/a> \u2013 sometimes called a \u2018crawler\u2019 or \u2018spider\u2019. In other words, it\u2019s a program developed by Google that\u2019s designed to explore web pages on the internet.<\/p>\n

Googlebot has a few important jobs. The two most significant things it does are:<\/p>\n

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  1. Explore web pages for new links to follow, in order to find and index as much content as possible.<\/li>\n
  2. Gather information about each page it finds, keeping Google\u2019s database up to date.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This is a nonstop process. Googlebot travels from page to page, checking out every link it finds<\/a> and recording the information it accesses along the way. Of course, it’s also fully automated. Googlebot is therefore likely to crawl a specific website multiple times, but not at predictable intervals.<\/p>\n

    Also, it\u2019s important to note that Googlebot is not really one isolated program. Google runs many crawlers from servers located in various places, in order to streamline the process and index as much of the web as possible.<\/p>\n

    Why Googlebot matters to your website<\/h2>\n
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    An example of how Googlebot will “crawl” your site every day. You can view this chart in Google Search Console<\/p><\/div>\n

    Now that you know the answer to the question \u201cWhat is Googlebot?\u201d, you may already see why this web crawler is so important. After all, it\u2019s the primary vehicle Google uses for understanding your website.<\/p>\n

    Google itself is incredibly significant to your site\u2019s success. It\u2019s far and away the most popular search engine<\/a>, which means that it\u2019s where a lot of your traffic will come from<\/a>. There\u2019s a reason most advice you\u2019ll find on optimizing your site for search engines focuses on Google.<\/p>\n

    To drive searchers towards your content, Google needs two things:<\/p>\n

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    1. It has to know your content exists in the first place.<\/li>\n
    2. It has to understand enough about it to decide what search terms it\u2019s relevant to.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Googlebot is vital in both cases.<\/p>\n

      Most obviously, this crawler is responsible for finding all of your site\u2019s pages and letting Google know about them. Plus, it collects the data Google needs to present those pages to the right kinds of searchers. While Googlebot itself doesn\u2019t evaluate the information it collects \u2013 the Google index<\/a> is responsible for that \u2013 it\u2019s a crucial first step in the process.<\/p>\n

      To sum up, Googlebot has a huge impact on how many visitors you\u2019re able to attract to your site through the world\u2019s most popular search engine. If you want to bring in lots of new views, you\u2019ll need to make sure this crawler can find everything it\u2019s looking for.<\/p>\n

      How to optimize your site for Googlebot<\/h2>\n
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      One of the simplest steps you can take to optimize your site for Googlebot is to make sure it’s visible to search engines<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

      After \u201cWhat is Googlebot?\u201d, the natural next question is \u201cHow can I make sure this bot can find my site and understand it?\u201d Before we wrap up, let\u2019s explore what you can do to make your site as friendly as possible to Googlebot.<\/p>\n

      It\u2019s almost a certainty that Googlebot will find your site sooner or later, so theoretically you don\u2019t have<\/em> to do anything. However, there are steps you can take to tip the scales in your favor. This is a vital aspect of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)<\/a> \u2013 the process of tweaking your site and content so that it ranks highly in search engine results.<\/p>\n

      SEO is a broad field encompassing many useful techniques. We\u2019ve explored a lot of these in depth elsewhere. Let\u2019s run through some of the most vital SEO strategies for making Googlebot\u2019s job easier. To get started, you\u2019ll want to:<\/p>\n