Do you belong to the field of SEO? If yes, then you might be familiar with the terms indexing links and link crawling. These two are the fundamental processes in search engine optimization that are often confused with one another. Although they are closely related and work together to help search engines discover and rank web pages, they serve different purposes.
Link crawling involves the discovery of web pages, while link indexing is the process of storing and categorizing these pages in a search engine’s database. Understanding the key differences between link indexing and link crawling is crucial to developing an effective strategy, as both processes directly impact the visibility and performance of the website in the SEO.
What is link crawling?
Link crawling is the initial step in how search engines discover content on the internet. Every search engine uses automated bots, known as spiders to explore web pages by following links from one page to another. Crawlers start by visiting a list of known web pages, which could include frequently updated sites or pages submitted through sitemaps.
Once they arrive at a webpage, these bots analyze its content and identify all the links on that page. The primary purpose of link crawling is to find new or updated content and follow links to other pages on the same site or other websites.
Understanding the Link Indexing
Link Indexing is an advanced process that can be done after link crawling. In a simple world, it is a process that follows crawling. Once a crawler discovers a webpage, the search engine evaluates whether the page should be added to its index, which is essentially a massive database of web pages. During the indexing process, search engines analyze the page’s content and other elements to understand its relevance and value to users.
The page only gets added to the index of a search engine if it meets certain quality standards and is deemed useful, it is added to the search engine’s index. Pages that are not indexed remain invisible to users searching for relevant terms, which can significantly limit their reach and potential traffic. The decision to index a page depends on several factors, such as:
- Relevance Of Page
- Content Quality
- Originality
- User Experience
The primary difference between Link Crawling and Link Indexing
The primary difference between link crawling and link indexing lies in their roles in the search engine process. Crawling is the discovery phase, where search engines explore web pages and gather information about their content and structure. On the other hand, indexing is the selection phase, where the search engine decides whether to include the discovered pages in its database for future retrieval.
Crawling is all about finding new or updated pages The goal of crawling is to create a comprehensive list of pages that the search engine needs to evaluate. Indexing takes the process further by analyzing the pages discovered during crawling. The search engine evaluates the content’s relevance, the presence of keywords, the structure of the page, and the overall user experience. It determines whether the page should be stored in its index and, if so, where it should be ranked in search results for specific queries.