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Understanding Crawl Depth: What It Is
and How to Optimize It

  1. What Is Crawl Depth?

Crawl depth refers to the number of clicks it takes for search engine bots, or "crawlers," to reach a specific page from the website’s homepage.


For instance, a page accessible directly from the homepage without intermediary clicks has a shallow crawl depth. In contrast, a page requiring multiple clicks or navigation through several intermediary pages has a deeper crawl depth.


This concept influences SEO from both a user experience and a search engine standpoint.


You can observe user behavior in Google Analytics GA4 by navigating to Engagement > Landing Pages.


While the homepage typically starts with 100% of sessions, this percentage tends to drop with each click: for instance, 8% may reach the second step, 3% the third, and less than 1% the fourth. The more clicks users need to reach a page, the less likely they will continue.


The same principle applies to search engine crawlers. Studies of hundreds of websites reveal that the farther a page is from the homepage, the less frequently Google crawls it. Google has also confirmed that a page's distance from the homepage influences its importance, which can affect its ranking.


It's essential to differentiate crawl depth from website structure depth or URL depth. Crawl depth refers explicitly to the distance of a page from the starting point based on the number of clicks or links needed during the crawl process. On the other hand, website structure depth refers to the hierarchical levels or organization within a site, representing the layers of pages or sections users must navigate to reach specific content.

Landing Pages Report in Google Analytics 4

2. Importance of Crawl Depth for SEO

How is crawl depth calculated? In SEO, crawl depth measures how far a page is located from the main page, with the homepage typically being at a depth of 0. Pages directly linked from the homepage are considered to have a crawl depth of 1, while pages accessible via subpages or additional links have increasing depth values.

Indepth crawl is crucial for SEO because it influences how search engines discover and index content. What is a good crawl depth? Pages with shallow crawl depth are easier and more frequently accessed by search engine crawlers, resulting in faster indexing and improved visibility in search results. In contrast, pages with a deeper crawl depth may experience slower or less frequent crawling, potentially limiting their visibility and ranking.

Here’s why crawl depth is important:

  • Indexing Priority: Search engines prioritize pages that are easier to access. Pages with a lower crawl depth are typically crawled and indexed more frequently than deeper pages. This priority can help search engines understand a site's structure and hierarchy and provide a better user experience.

  • Crawl Budget Optimization: Each website has a "crawl budget," which is the number of pages a search engine will likely crawl within a set timeframe. Sites with many deep pages may exhaust their crawl budget on less valuable pages, leaving important pages uncrawled. Managing crawl depth can help optimize the crawl budget, directing it toward pages strategically crucial for SEO.

  • User Experience and Site Architecture: Crawl depth also reflects user experience—if search engines find it challenging to reach a page, users may as well. A well-organized site architecture with manageable crawl depth enables visitors to navigate and access key content easily, contributing to positive user engagement.

3. Why Should You Manage Crawl Depth?

Managing crawl depth helps ensure that high-priority pages are indexed and ranked effectively. Here are some main reasons to manage crawl depth:

  • Improved Crawl Efficiency: Reducing the number of clicks it takes to reach essential pages helps bots find and index them more efficiently, which improves SEO performance.

  • Enhanced Visibility for High-Value Pages: Strategic management of crawl depth ensures that high-value content is closer to the homepage and more accessible to search engines.

  • SEO Resource Allocation: Keeping key pages easily reachable allows the search engine to allocate resources to index important content rather than deep, less significant pages.

  • Enhanced User Experience and Navigation: A shallow crawl depth promotes a seamless user experience by making it easy for visitors to locate relevant content quickly. Streamlined navigation boosts user engagement and lowers the chances of users leaving the site due to difficulty finding the information they need.

4. How to Improve Crawl Depth Efficiency

Improving crawl depth involves organizing a website’s structure and links to enhance access to key pages. Here are some practical tips:

  • Create a Logical Site Hierarchy: Limit the number of nested subcategories or subpages, which can reduce the clicks needed to reach important pages. Organize your website so essential pages are within three clicks from the homepage. A well-organized hierarchy allows search engines to navigate content more effectively and prioritize it accordingly.
  • Use Internal Links Strategically: Internal linking helps surface deeper pages by connecting them to more visible pages. By placing links to relevant deep content on higher-level pages, you can reduce the adequate crawl depth of those pages.
  • Optimize Navigation Menus: Effectively use menus and sidebars to make important content accessible throughout the site. For instance, linking to product categories or important resources in the main navigation can reduce the crawl depth for these pages.
  • Add Breadcrumb Navigation: Breadcrumbs help users and crawlers trace a page’s position within the site hierarchy. They provide an additional navigational path that can make deeper pages more accessible.
  • Submit an Updated XML Sitemap: Sitemaps provide search engines with direct access to URLs, helping to improve crawl depth efficiency. Regularly update your XML sitemap to ensure crawlers can reach all important pages.
  • Evaluate Website Size and Structure: Deeper crawl depths may be unavoidable for larger websites with complex hierarchies. However, it's crucial to balance well-organized content with keeping crawl depth minimal for key pages to ensure accessibility.
  • Optimize Your URL Structure: An optimized URL structure supports a smoother crawl process. Use clear, descriptive URLs that reflect each page’s content and place in the site hierarchy, making it easier for search engines to understand and navigate your website.
  • Review and Prune Low-Value Pages: If a website has many pages with little SEO value, consider consolidating or removing them. This reduces unnecessary crawl depth, allowing crawlers to focus on higher-value pages.
  • Boost Site Speed: Improving page load times is essential. A fast-loading site minimizes the time required for crawlers to access and render pages, allowing them to explore more assets within your crawl budget. This helps maximize the content that gets indexed and enhances overall crawl efficiency.
  • Identify and Fix Broken Links: Broken links disrupt your site's crawl efficiency by leading search engine bots to dead ends, wasting valuable resources that could be better spent indexing important content. This not only hampers the discovery of new or updated pages but also signals poor site maintenance and reduces the user experience, which can harm your SEO health.
  • Track and Fix Crawl Errors: Use Google Search Console to monitor crawl errors. Address these issues by repairing broken links, setting up redirects, or resolving server-related problems.

5. How to Check the Crawl Depth?

To check indepth crawl of your website, you can use several tools and methods to assess how many clicks it takes for crawlers to reach each page from the homepage. Here are some practical ways to check crawl depth:

1.    Use Google Search Console
Google Search Console provides insights into how Google crawls your site. While it doesn’t explicitly show crawl depth, you can review the Indexing > Pages report to identify pages that may not be frequently crawled or indexed. Pages that don't appear regularly in this report might have a deeper crawl depth and require more optimization.
Not Indexed Pages Report in Google Search Console
2.    Use SEO Crawling Tools
SEO tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefsallow you to crawl your website and analyze its structure. In Screaming Frog, for example, you can use the “Crawl Depth” filter, which calculates the number of clicks from the homepage to each page. This will show you the depth for each URL and help identify pages with a higher crawl depth that may need to be moved closer to the homepage.

3.    Analyze Internal Links with Ahrefs or SEMrush
Tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush can map out internal links and visually represent your site's structure. Reviewing the link flow and hierarchy lets you see how accessible each page is from the homepage, helping you identify pages that may be too deep in the structure.
Ahfres’ Depth Craw Report
4.    Use Google Analytics Behavior Flow Report
In Google Analytics, navigate to Engagement > Landing Pages. This report shows user flow across pages and can indirectly reveal the path users and crawlers might follow through your site. Pages rarely accessed or requiring multiple steps to reach may indicate deeper crawl depth.

5.    XML Sitemap Inspection
Create an XML sitemap of your site and check the URL order. Important pages should appear near the top, signaling priority to crawlers. This can help ensure high-priority pages are readily accessible with a shallow crawl depth.

6. Common Crawl Depth Issues and How to Avoid Them

There are several common issues associated with crawl depth that can hinder a site’s SEO performance:

  • Excessive Depth for Key Pages: Important pages located more than three clicks away from the homepage may not be crawled frequently enough. Regularly audit key pages to ensure they’re easily accessible.

  • Orphaned Pages: Pages with no internal links pointing to them are known as orphaned pages, and search engines may not find them at all. Conduct a site audit to identify and link to these pages, ensuring they are part of the navigational structure.

  • Overshadowed Crawl Budget: Deep, low-value pages can unnecessarily consume the crawl budget. Review and optimize your site's structure to limit crawl budget usage on low-priority pages.

  • Inconsistent Internal Linking: Inconsistent or insufficient internal links can prevent crawlers from accessing deeper pages. A clear and consistent internal linking strategy is essential for optimizing crawl depth.
Crawl depth is critical to ensuring that important pages are easily accessible to both search engines and users. By managing crawl depth effectively, you can optimize your site's crawl efficiency, improve the visibility of high-value pages, and maximize the effectiveness of your SEO strategy. Regular audits and thoughtful site architecture adjustments are key to maintaining an accessible, well-organized website that performs well in search rankings.

Regular audits and thoughtful site architecture adjustments are crucial to maintaining an accessible, well-organized website that performs well in search rankings. A vital part of this process is routinely auditing and repairing broken links, which, if left unresolved, can interrupt the crawl process. Broken links hinder search engine bots from fully accessing and indexing your site, leading to incomplete indexing and impacting your site's visibility. By fixing these links, you ensure search engines can navigate and index your content more effectively, ultimately supporting better rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs).

To quickly and efficiently check for broken links, users can utilize the Atomseo Broken Links Checker, which identifies all known errors and broken links on a website. Atomseo allows free daily checks of up to 1500 links, making it a valuable resource for maintaining a well-functioning site.
Check your website now!

7. Relevant Links