Web crawler
A web crawler is an automated bot that browses the web to discover and read pages so search engines and AI tools can index them.
Web crawler at a glance
A web crawler (also called a bot or spider) is a program that follows links across the web, reading each page it finds. Search engines use crawlers like Googlebot to discover pages and understand their content, and AI answer engines use their own crawlers such as GPTBot and ClaudeBot. If a crawler cannot reach or read a page, that page cannot be indexed or cited.
Why crawlers matter for your website
Being crawlable is the first step to being found. A clear site structure, an up-to-date sitemap, fast pages, and a robots file that allows the right bots all help crawlers read your site efficiently. Blocking important crawlers, or hiding content behind scripts they cannot read, quietly removes you from search and AI answers.
FAQ
What is the difference between crawling and indexing?
Crawling is when a bot reads a page; indexing is when the search engine stores and organises that page so it can appear in results. A page must be crawled before it can be indexed.
How do you help crawlers read your site?
Provide a sitemap, keep a clean link structure, make pages fast, and use a robots.txt that allows search and AI crawlers to reach the content you want found.
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