“I updated all meta tags and content on key pages three weeks ago, but Google still shows the old version — it’s like shooting in the dark!” wrote one Reddit user. Such questions about why Google is ignoring a site despite SEO efforts are common on forums and often lead to people jokingly rewriting their robots.txt to say “Please, Google, come in.”
The reality is, many of these issues stem from the same root: search bots crawl your site differently than you expect. This is where understanding how search engine algorithms behave on your site becomes useful. If you know which pages are visited and how often by Googlebot or Bingbot, indexing becomes predictable and manageable.
That’s why we’re going to show you how to track and analyze crawl frequency — and how to use this info for your link-building strategy.
How search bots work and why crawl frequency matters
Published a new product? Updated an old article? Great! But those updates are like Schrödinger’s cat — they exist, yet are invisible in search. That’s because bots don’t come every day — and worse, they don’t crawl every page.
Search crawlers are programs that visit webpages, follow links, and collect information for indexing. The most famous bot — Googlebot — works in two stages:
- Crawling — gathers URLs from known pages.
- Indexing — analyzes content and “decides” what’s worthy of being added to Google’s index.
But there’s a catch: bots can’t crawl everything — they’re limited by a crawl budget. This is the “resource” a search bot allocates to crawl your site over a set period. It’s influenced by:
- Domain authority
- Page loading speed
- Frequency of content updates
- Absence of duplicates and technical errors
- Logical site structure
Crawl frequency directly affects how quickly new or updated content appears in search results. If bots visit rarely, that signals a problem — often due to:
Crawl budget mismanagement. If the budget is wasted on technical pages, outdated sections, or duplicate content, crucial commercial pages might be skipped entirely.
Technical roadblocks. Slow-loading pages, server errors, hosting glitches, or broken redirects deter bots. If Google repeatedly hits such issues, it reduces visits to avoid wasting resources.
Site structure issues. Important pages buried deeper than three clicks or poor internal linking may result in bots not finding or rarely visiting them — leaving parts of the site unindexed.
While Google doesn’t reveal its exact crawl budget formula, one thing is clear: the better your site is optimized, the more and deeper it’s crawled.
For large sites especially, managing crawl budget is critical to staying competitive — but that’s not all.
Google’s 130-Day Rule: Don’t Let Content Go Stale
Few people know about Google’s unofficial “130-day rule” — if a page hasn’t been updated in over 130 days, it may drop in relevance and rankings. Why 130 days? That’s when Googlebot activity on that page tends to plummet.
Google values freshness. Even small updates — new data, typo fixes — signal the page is alive.
We recommend creating an update calendar. Review and update key pages every 100–120 days.
How to Analyze Crawl Frequency Using Screaming Frog
Let’s get practical. To understand how bots behave, open your log files.
With Screaming Frog Log File Analyzer, you can see your SEO strategy through the eyes of search bots. Here’s what to focus on:
- Googlebot visit frequency — is Google crawling your site regularly?
- Even distribution — helps spot crawl issues across sections
- Types of Googlebot — see crawl time spent on mobile vs. desktop
- Crawl trends — is bot interest in your site rising or falling
Take a look at how bot attention is distributed across your site. Then go to the “URLs” tab to find out:
- Content prioritization — are bots crawling key pages more frequently than secondary ones?
- Crawl anomalies — excessive attention to specific pages could signal issues (e.g., if a bot spends 70% of its resources crawling thousands of filter combinations on an online store)
- Uncrawled pages — which pages are bots ignoring, and why
The “Response Codes” tab helps you evaluate the ratio of successful vs. error responses — remember, errors (4XX, 5XX) negatively impact your crawl budget. Also pay attention to server delays — long response times reduce how often bots visit your site.
Pro tip: Add dynamic elements to key pages that update automatically. For example, a “popular products this week” block that rotates daily. Googlebot will detect consistent changes and visit the page more often. Even minimal content changes can boost crawl frequency to several times per week.
How to plan link-building campaigns based on crawl frequency
Now for the good part — if you know when Googlebot visits your site most often, you can “serve” it new links at the optimal time and plan your link-building efforts more effectively.
- Identify Googlebot’s daily/weekly “activity peaks.”
Check your server logs to see which days bots are most active. Publishing links just before those days yields the greatest impact. - Evaluate Google’s reaction speed to new content.
Measure the time between publishing a page and its first crawl. This helps predict when Google will notice your new backlinks and when they’ll start influencing rankings. - Place external links to your most important pages during peak bot activity — and save secondary links for quieter periods.
Stick to a natural growth pace for your niche. A sudden spike in backlinks might be flagged as spam by search engines.
Here’s a practical strategy you can follow:
Week 1: Update the content on pages you plan to build links to.
What it does: Signals to Google that the pages are fresh and worth indexing.
Week 2: Publish the first 30% of your planned backlinks.
What it does: Creates an initial wave of interest in your site.
Week 3: Analyze how bot activity changes.
What it does: If bot visits increase, continue with the next 30%. If not, pause.
Week 4: Add the remaining 40% of links and review results.
What it does: Reinforces the effect and lets you assess the total impact on crawling and rankings.
If your logs show that Googlebot is most active from Tuesday to Thursday, publish important content and get key links live on Monday — so they’re picked up during the high-crawl window.
Using this approach, you’re not just building links — you’re strategically aligning with Google’s algorithms.
Final thoughts
Understanding how Googlebot interacts with your site opens the door to huge SEO potential. You’ll know how to steer bot attention toward your key pages, spot underperforming content, and plan smarter link-building.
For small websites, monthly log analysis is enough. E-commerce sites should check weekly and always review crawl behavior after major site updates.
In short — start monitoring now, and you’ll finally understand what Google really “thinks” about your site. And if you need full-scale help with content or link-building — reach out, we’ve got you covered. 😉
Bonus: additional tools
Besides Screaming Frog, you can also use Google Search Console to monitor bot activity.
Pros: direct Google data, crawl charts, and indexation issue alerts.
Cons: limited data retention (up to 16 months), no granular URL detail, and Googlebot-only tracking.
You can also try:
- Splunk, GoAccess — advanced server log analyzers
- Semrush, Ahrefs — SEO tools with crawl/indexation data
- Datadog, New Relic — monitor server load during bot activity
For ongoing monitoring, set up automated log exports, regular Screaming Frog API analysis, and automatic reports/alerts for bot activity changes and anomalies.
To the top, everyone!
