Googlebot. What is it and Why You Should Think Like One
Sure, search engine optimization is an important piece to secure quality website visitors. But making sure it is easy for search engines to find you in the first place is KEY to driving traffic to your site. The best way to ensure you are visible to search engines is by applying Googlebot optimization.
While SEO optimization focuses more on how people find you, Googlebot optimization focuses on how Google finds you and serves you up to search queries. Simply put, the more they can find or “crawl” your site, the more opportunities your property has to render on Google’s first page.
What is Googlebot?
A Googlebot is the search bot (as in “robot”, or automated algorithm) software used by Google that collects and analyzes documents from the web to build a searchable index for Google search engine. In other words, Googlebots work behind the scenes gathering up all the information on the web to create a valuable search index for users.
How do Googlebots work?
So, exactly how do Googlebots search and comb the web for relevant information to create searchable indexes? Googlebots discover your site pages through links, sitemaps, and Google fetch requests.
The quickest way for Google to crawl your site is for you to submit your XML sitemap in Google Search Console. By doing so, you’re making Google aware that your website and all its associated pages exist, which will signal to Google to go out and locate every single one of them. The more pages Google finds and places in their index or library, the more opportunities you have to display on Google’s first page of search results. Not only do you want to do this for your current site, but any time you launch a new page.
Tip: A quick way to check if your site has been indexed by search engines, like Google, is to enter the URL of your domain with “site:” before it, i.e. “site:rezStream.com.” The results will show each of your website pages that have been indexed. If one does not appear this means that the page is not indexed.
So, now that you know a little bit more about what a Googlebot is and how it works, let's discuss how you can optimize for Googlebots.
Keep it simple
When it comes to building your website pages it is always best to keep it simple. Not only does this create a better user experience for your visitors but it also helps Googlebots crawl your site faster. Simply put, Googlebots don’t crawl JavaScript, Flash, and other code as fast as it does with HTML, so lead with HTML-based code when developing pages.
Use internal linking
In addition to submitting your XML sitemap to Google, you should use internal links to ensure search engines can locate all the pages on your website. An internal link is a link featured on your site linking to another page on your site. Linking to other pages on your site builds page value and creates a better user experience.
Don’t promote just one page when you’re implementing your internal link strategy; share the love with all pages. Of course, you must also make sure the links make sense to promote. The last thing you want is for a website visitor to be surprised about where they landed after clicking on an internal link.
Example: (hint; the underlined words are links to other pages on this website)
Optimize Images
You know how important images are to your site and so does Google. But in order to help Google better understand how your images relate to your content there are a few simple steps you should take to help optimize your images. Start by correctly naming the file, then add an image alt text and schema markup to describe images, and finally add an image sitemap.
Read here for more tips on how to improve your website’s images.
Create a sitemap.xml
To ensure all segments of your website that should be crawled, are crawled, be sure to create a sitemap. An XMLsitemap operates as a guide to your website for Googlebot to follow. A sitemap makes it easy, even for the most complicated of websites, for Googlebots to clearly understand what should be crawled and how often. If your current website doesn’t provide an automated plug-in for this, you can use a free tool like https://www.xml-sitemaps.com/.
If it’s broke, fix it
We all know broken links are bad for SEO value, but they can also create a bad experience for the visitor. So, make sure you are cleaning up all broken links associated with your website. There are several free tools to use such as https://www.brokenlinkcheck.com/ to help you identify pages that have broken links. Not only will this help your optimization, but it will provide a better user experience for all those visitors accessing your site.
At the end of the day, for a site to be indexed and show in search engine results, it must be crawled. And to ensure it is properly crawled, Googlebot optimization is your first step to take.
Still, have questions? The marketing experts at rezStream are here to help. Be sure to reach out to us at marketing@rezStream.com and see how we can help implement these Googlebot optimization tactics for your website.