A successful SEO framework must take into consideration the systemic differences between crawlability vs indexability. Before your website can be listed in the SERPs and benefit from CTRs from relevant users, it must first be crawlable by the indexing algorithms utilized by search engines.
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Crawlability, as a key element for SEO practices, refers to the visibility and discoverability of certain website pages for crawling bots. How can a website become visible to these crawling agents? It’s simple: through the utilization of links, XML sitemaps, direct URLs, or robots.txt files. However, the main difference between crawling and indexing relates to the way the SERP-listed website is presented to online users.
Crawlability vs Indexability
Even though a page is discoverable by crawling bots, this doesn’t mean it will automatically become visible to target users. Technical errors, canonical issues, the presence of duplicated pages, or structural misconfigurations that impact CWVs could all prevent a page from being properly indexed. Crawlability is about giving access to your page’s data, while indexability is about getting listed in SERPs and AI-generated results, after optimizing your pages.
Crawlability vs Indexability: TL; DR
Crawlability is about making sure search engines are able to discover and interpret the information present on a webpage. Think of crawlability as a library and the crawling bots as a librarian. If all doors are unlocked, and everything is in its designated place, then the librarian can move through the shelves and add certain books to a specific catalog.
Indexation, on the other hand, refers to the on-page and backend elements that ensure the visibility of the website for target users. A website can be crawlable to Google bots, but it might not be visible in the SERPs if the content present on it doesn’t respect the E-E-A-T framework, or the backend site elements don’t align with the Core Web Vitals.
Think of it this way: If crawlability is the ability of the librarian to find books, indexation is about whether those books are actually worth adding to specific catalogs. Maybe all doors are unlocked and the books are widely available. But if they are damaged, duplicated, and low in quality? Then they might not be worth considering.
Crawlability
What Is Crawlability?
In the context of crawlability and indexability issues, crawlability refers to the capacity of Google’s crawling bots to discover and interpret the informational data present on pages ready for indexation. In other words, crawlability refers to Google’s ability to reach your content and follow links to other pages on your website.
Search engines discover pages through:
- XML sitemaps, which are structured files that list a site’s essential URLs
- Hyperlinks from external websites
- Internal links that connect to other pages on the same website
- Previously crawled URLs
- Canonical signals
- Structured feeds
That said, access to your site’s pages can be blocked by:
- Incorrect URL structures
- Dead links that orphan some of your site’s internal pages
- Misconfigurations in the site’s robots.txt file
- Server errors
- Pages that require authentication
Around 60% to 80% of internet available URLs are crawlable by Google. However, only a small percentage of them are actually indexed and available to the general public. Crawlability and indexability issues are, unfortunately, quite common, and only through professional SEO audits and via the experience of specialized digital marketing agents can you ensure that you are amongst the websites with an increased presence in the SERPs.
What Is Indexability?
When it comes to crawlability vs indexability, we can think of indexation as the ability of a particular web page to get indexed for user-visible results. If a page is properly indexable, Google can store it in its available database, display it to users searching for specific queries, and make use of it for the information generated in AI overviews.
Robot indexing web pages in action
Before a page gets indexed, it must be crawled and analyzed by the crawling agents utilized by search engines. But just because a page is crawlable, it doesn’t mean that it will automatically become eligible for Google indexation. In fact, there are a couple of elements that can help a page get indexed:
- A proper configuration of the pages’ robots.txt file
- A lack of the “noindex” tag in the HTML
- The presence of helpful content that falls in line with the E-E-A-T guidelines
- A valid XML sitemap
- Link references from other pages important to the site.
There are also elements that can stop indexing, such as:
- The presence of duplicated content with low authority signals
- 304 or 404 internal server error
- Incorrect utilization of canonical tags
- A lack of meta-descriptions
- Issues with the CWVs
- A lack of external links from high-authority websites.
Crawlability vs Indexability: Main Differences and Similitudes
| Key Differences | Crawling | Indexing |
|---|---|---|
|
What it means |
Google can access the page. |
Google can store and consider the page for ranking. |
|
Goal |
The discovery of new content |
The evaluation and analysis of already crawled content |
|
Search visibility |
Does not make the page appear in search results. |
Can make the page appear in search results. |
Key Differences
Similitudes:
- Both are part of SEO – Crawling and indexing are both essential steps in how Google processes web pages.
- Both involve Google systems – Googlebot and Google’s indexing systems work together to handle pages.
- Both affect search performance – Problems with either process can reduce a page’s visibility in search results.
Practical Examples of Crawlability and Indexability Issues
Let’s say you are the owner of a blog, and you are trying to increase your site’s presence in the SERPs and AI Overviews through the professional backend and on-page offerings provided by our agency. Your pages could be crawlable but not directly indexable if:
- Googlebot can load the page
- Understand the content of your site
- But in the HTML of your page, you have the “noindex” tag.
By the presence of this tag, Google is allowed to see this page, but not to index it for search results. Why would you utilize this tag? Well, for example, you could make use of it in order to analyze its structure on the site, before publication.
What is Crawlability and Indexability in SEO?
But What if the Page Is Not Crawlable in the First Place?
Let’s take this scenario. Google tries to crawl a section of your blog pages, but the bots are blocked by an error or a potential intentional inclusion of the “disallow:/blog/” tag. If the robots.txt file presents a tag like this, Google could see the URL exists, but it cannot read the content of the page, and thus, it cannot evaluate its quality. That said, it’s risky, as Google could continue indexing the URLs if they are linked elsewhere.
Why would the “disallow:/blog/” tag be present in the robots.txt file? Usually, this is the result of an error that can be easily fixed via an in-depth crawlability audit. However, other times, it can be intentional. A webmaster could block an entire section of a website, temporarily, in order to avoid crawl waste on archive, low-value pages, or to hide site sections that are not yet ready for proper indexation.
Common Crawlability and Indexability Issues
Robots.txt and “Noindex” Problems
One of the most common reasons for crawlability and indexability issues comes in the form of incorrect directives in the site’s backend data. A robots.txt file that accidentally blocks search engine crawlers from visualizing and interpreting the data of a certain page could very well contribute to the errors you discovered in GSC.
Likewise, the presence of the “noindex” meta tag will prevent the addition of your pages to Google’s index. Crawlability and indexability issues are common, and auditing for them should be one of the first steps of a properly implemented digital marketing framework designed to enhance the ROI expected from commercialized services.
Internal Linking and Orphan Pages
Search engines primarily discover crawlable content through internal links. Let’s say then that you have a page that should be directly linked to one of your previously indexed articles, but the link you provided results in a 403 error. That page would effectively be isolated from the rest of the site, and will therefore be much more likely to be crawled by search engines.
Incorrect Canonical Tags and Duplicated Content
In the context of crawlability and indexability issues, incorrect canonical tags can make search engine crawling agents analyze different versions of certain pages, even if this action was not intended. Likewise, duplicated content that’s visible across multiple URLs can lead to ranking cannibalization, making certain keywords compete with each other and dilute authority signals.
Thin or Low-Quality Content
Many times, a lack of proper presence in the SERPs is not necessarily caused by backend crawlability and indexability issues, but rather by issues with the quality of the written content. Content with low-informational content can still be crawled and indexed by search engines, but its visibility in the SERPs and its utilization as a reference for AI Overviews will be dependent on the alignment with the E-E-A-T guidelines and the overall on-page structure of the page.
Thin, low-value content is not necessarily ignored by Google’s crawling agents. But to contribute to rankings and CTRs, you will need to focus on unique, valuable content for people. Crawlability and indexability issues can have a backend, technical cause. But oftentimes, they are related to issues in content quality.
Crawlability and Indexability Issues
Crawlability and Indexability Checklist:
Before starting with a proper SEO modifications framework and optimizing your services for the after-effects of core algorithm updates, a good idea would be to mitigate the long-term impact of crawlability and indexability issues by following the information of the following checklist. Do you want to be more hands-off? Then we will do it for you.
| Crawlability | Indexability |
|---|---|
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FAQs About Crawlability vs Indexability
1) What Is the Difference Between Crawlability and Indexability?
ACrawlability involves the discoverability of your pages by the crawling bots utilized by search engines, while indexability refers to the potential of that page to be stored in Google’s index. In other words, crawlability is Google’s ability to find your content, and indexability is whether it decides to make the gathered data visible for target users.
2) Is There a Difference Between Crawling and Indexing?
AYes. Indexation is the process of storing the informational data found on a page, so it can later be presented to users who utilize specific search patterns, while crawling is the process by which that informational data is discoverable to algorithmic bots.
3) Can Google Crawl a Page But Not Index It?
AYes. If that page is low-quality and not useful for search results, it has canonical tag problems or the “noindex” tag in the HTML, or it’s duplicated, Google might decide not to index it.
4) How Do I Fix Crawlability and Indexability Issues?
AThe first step should be to leverage the professional SEO services provided by our agency. Our team will check GSC for errors, ensure that your pages are not blocked by robots.txt misconfigurations, and fix any content quality issues that might make your pages unsuitable for proper indexation.
Final Thoughts:
Crawlability can help search engines find and access specific pages of your website, but the indexation of the informational content present on these pages will depend on its relevance for user-specific queries. Solving crawlability and indexability issues is essential for SEO, and without these two digital foundations working in harmony, even well-developed content, implemented by experienced professionals, might fail to deliver desirable CTRs.
About Author
Mihai C. Tudorache
I am the president and co-founder of GAMIT. My business administration background is important in understanding our client’s necessities, so my expertise includes building comprehensive and all-inclusive SEO strategies for lead results. Our advanced SEO solutions are developed through extensive analysis and complete SEO improvement audits.
