What They Are & How They Affect SEO

What Is Crawlability?

The crawlability of a webpage refers to how easily search engines (like Google) can discover the page.

Google discovers webpages through a process called crawling. It uses computer programs called web crawlers (also called bots or spiders). These programs follow links between pages to discover new or updated pages.

Indexing usually follows crawling.

What Is Indexability?

The indexability of a webpage means search engines (like Google) are able to add the page to their index.

The process of adding a webpage to an index is called indexing. It means Google analyzes the page and its content and adds it to a database of billions of pages (called the Google index).

How Do Crawlability and Indexability Affect SEO?

Both crawlability and indexability are crucial for SEO.

Here’s a simple illustration showing how Google works:

First, Google crawls the page. Then it indexes it. Only then can it rank the page for relevant search queries.

In other words: Without first being crawled and indexed, the page will not be ranked by Google. No rankings = no search traffic.

Matt Cutts, Google’s former head of web spam, explains the process in this video:

It’s no surprise that an important part of SEO is making sure your website’s pages are crawlable and indexable.

But how do you do that?

Start by conducting a technical SEO audit of your website.

Use Semrush’s Site Audit tool to help you discover crawlability and indexability issues. (We’ll address this in detail ...