How to Request Google to Recrawl Your URLs

How to Request Google to Recrawl Your URLs #

1. Using URL Inspection Tool (For a Few URLs) #

Best for individual URLs or small batches.
Requires you to be owner or full user in Google Search Console.
Go to Search Console > URL Inspection > Enter your URL > Click Request Indexing.
Note: There’s a quota limit, and multiple requests for the same URL won’t speed up crawling.

2. Submit or Resubmit a Sitemap (For Many URLs) #

If you have many URLs, submitting a sitemap is the efficient way.
A sitemap helps Google discover and prioritize pages.
Useful when launching a new site, making major changes, or adding lots of new content.
You can submit a sitemap via Google Search Console > Sitemaps > Add Sitemap URL.
Sitemaps can also include metadata for videos, images, news, or alternate language pages.

Important Points #

Hosted platforms like Blogger or WordPress often submit new content automatically — check their support docs.
Crawling can take days or weeks — be patient and monitor progress.
Requesting a crawl does not guarantee instant indexing or ranking; Google prioritizes quality and usefulness.

What’s the Issue with Faceted Navigation URLs? #

Faceted navigation lets users filter items (products, articles, events) by parameters in the URL query string, like:

https://example.com/items.shtm?products=fish&color=radioactive_green&size=tiny

The problem: Many filter combinations generate tons of URLs, which can lead to:

Overcrawling: Googlebot wastes resources crawling many similar filtered URLs with little SEO value.
Slower discovery: Crawlers spend time on filtered URLs instead of your important new content.

How to Manage Faceted Navigation URLs #

1. Prevent Crawling of Faceted URLs (If You Don’t Need Them Indexed) #

Use robots.txt to block crawling of URLs with specific query parameters:

User-agent: Googlebot

Disallow: /*?*products=

Disallow: /*?*color=

Disallow: /*?*size=

Allow: /*?products=all$

Use URL fragments (#) for filters instead of parameters — Googlebot ignores fragments, so these URLs won’t be crawled.
Use rel=”canonical” on filtered pages pointing to the main unfiltered URL to consolidate SEO signals.
Use rel=”nofollow” on links pointing to filtered pages to discourage crawling.

Note: rel=”canonical” and rel=”nofollow” are less effective at saving crawl budget than robots.txt or URL fragments.

2. If You Need Faceted URLs to Be Crawled and Indexed (Use Best Practices) #

Use standard & to separate URL parameters — avoid commas, semicolons, brackets.
If filters are encoded in the URL path (e.g., /products/fish/green/tiny), keep filter order consistent and avoid duplicates.
Return HTTP 404 status for:
- Filter combinations with no results.
- Duplicate or nonsensical filter combinations.
- Invalid pagination URLs.
Don’t redirect these to a generic “not found” page; serve 404 on the actual URL to prevent indexing useless pages.

Summary Tips: #

Block unnecessary filtered URLs with robots.txt if they don’t add value.
Use canonical tags to point filtered pages to their main versions.
Serve proper 404 errors for empty or invalid filters.
Use standard URL syntax to help Google parse URLs properly.

Large Site Owner’s Guide to Managing Crawl Budget — Key Points #

Who Should Read This? #

Sites with 1 million+ pages updating moderately (about weekly)
Sites with 10,000+ pages updating very frequently (daily)
Sites with lots of URLs marked as Discovered – currently not indexed in Search Console

If your site is smaller or pages get crawled quickly after publishing, this guide is not essential.

What Is Crawl Budget? #

Crawl Budget = How many pages Googlebot can and wants to crawl on your site within a given time.

It’s controlled by two main factors:

Crawl Capacity Limit (Googlebot’s limit)
- Maximum simultaneous connections and crawl rate set by Google to avoid overloading your server.
- Adjusts dynamically based on your server’s health (fast responses = more crawl capacity, slow/errors = less).
- Limited by Google’s overall crawling resources too.
Crawl Demand (Googlebot’s interest)
- How much Google wants to crawl your site, based on:
  - How many URLs it knows exist (including duplicates or low-value pages, which waste crawl budget)
  - Popularity of URLs (more popular pages get crawled more often)
  - How fresh/stale content is (frequent updates mean more crawl demand)
- Special events (like site moves) can temporarily boost crawl demand.

How to Increase Your Crawl Budget? #

Google allocates crawl budget based on:

Serving Capacity: Make sure your server responds quickly and reliably to crawlers.
Content Value: Publish unique, high-quality content that searchers find valuable.
Site Structure: Reduce duplicate URLs and remove low-value or thin-content pages to avoid wasting crawl budget.

Important Tips for Large Sites #

Keep server performance optimized to encourage higher crawl capacity.
Regularly review and clean up duplicate or unnecessary URLs.
Use tools like Search Console’s Index Coverage and URL Inspection to monitor crawl & index status.
Maintain an updated sitemap to guide Google efficiently to important URLs.
Avoid unnecessary URL parameters or faceted navigation that generate infinite URLs (manage via robots.txt or canonical tags).

What If Your Pages Aren’t Indexed? #

If pages have been around but never indexed, check their status with the URL Inspection tool rather than relying on crawl budget changes.

Best Practices to Maximize Google Crawling Efficiency #

1. Manage Your URL Inventory #

Use tools (robots.txt, canonical tags, noindex) to guide Google on which URLs to crawl or avoid.
Avoid letting Google waste crawl budget on URLs that are irrelevant for indexing.
Consolidate duplicate content to focus crawling on unique pages.

2. Block Unwanted URLs with Robots.txt #

Block crawling of low-value or duplicate pages (e.g., infinite scroll, sorted versions).
Avoid using robots.txt as a temporary crawl budget reallocator.
Don’t use noindex to block crawling — Google will still crawl and then drop those pages, wasting crawl time.

3. Handle Removed Pages Properly #

Use HTTP status 404 (Not Found) or 410 (Gone) for permanently removed pages.
Soft 404s (pages that appear empty but return 200 status) waste crawl budget — fix these.

4. Keep Sitemaps Fresh and Relevant #

Include all URLs you want Google to crawl.
Use the <lastmod> tag to indicate updated pages.
Avoid submitting sitemaps with URLs you don’t want indexed.

5. Avoid Long Redirect Chains #

They slow down crawling and reduce crawl efficiency.

6. Make Pages Fast and Efficient to Load #

Speed up server response and rendering times.
Block non-essential resources (like decorative images or large scripts) via robots.txt.
Minimize heavy or slow resources to speed up crawling.

7. Use HTTP Caching Headers #

Support If-Modified-Since and return 304 Not Modified when content hasn’t changed.
Saves server resources and allows Googlebot to crawl more efficiently.

8. Monitor Crawl Activity and Site Availability #

Use Google Search Console’s Crawl Stats report to detect availability issues or server overloads.
Use URL Inspection tool to check crawl status of individual URLs.
Check server logs for Googlebot crawl patterns.
Increase server capacity if Google is hitting crawl limits.

9. Help Google Discover Important Content #

Submit updated sitemaps regularly.
Use crawlable, standard HTML <a> links for navigation.
For mobile sites, ensure the same links exist as on desktop or include them in sitemaps.
Use simple URL structures.

10. Avoid Over-Exposing Low-Value URLs #

Faceted navigation, session IDs, duplicate content, soft 404 pages, hacked pages, infinite URL spaces — block or fix these.
Shopping cart or “action” pages usually shouldn’t be crawled or indexed.

11. Don’ts #

Don’t toggle robots.txt frequently to manipulate crawl budget.
Don’t rely on noindex meta tags for blocking crawling.
Don’t expect immediate crawling or indexing after sitemap submission.
Don’t submit unchanged sitemaps multiple times per day.

12. Handling Overcrawling Emergencies #

Temporarily return 503 Service Unavailable or 429 Too Many Requests when server overloads occur.
Stop returning these errors after 1-2 days; prolonged usage will cause permanent crawl reduction.
Monitor server logs for Googlebot request volume.
For AdsBot crawl spikes, adjust Dynamic Search Ads targets or increase capacity.

How HTTP Status Codes, Network, and DNS Errors Affect Google Search #

What are HTTP Status Codes? #

When Googlebot (or any browser) requests a page, the web server responds with a status code.
Status codes tell Googlebot what happened with the request — success, redirect, error, etc.
Different codes have different meanings, but many share similar outcomes (e.g., several types of redirects).

HTTP Status Code Categories & Impact on Google Search #

Status Code Range	Meaning	Google Search Impact
2xx (Success)	Request succeeded; page delivered	Page content can be indexed (but 2xx doesn’t guarantee indexing).
3xx (Redirects)	Page moved or redirecting	Google follows redirect to new URL; if redirect fails, Search Console shows errors.
4xx (Client errors)	Page not found, forbidden, etc.	Pages with 4xx errors aren’t indexed; Google reports these as errors.
5xx (Server errors)	Server failed to respond properly	Crawling is delayed; Google may reduce crawl rate; pages won’t be indexed until fixed.

Most Important Status Codes to Know #

200 OK: Page loaded fine; content eligible for indexing.
301 Moved Permanently: Permanent redirect to another URL; Google passes ranking signals to new URL.
302 Found / 307 Temporary Redirect: Temporary redirect; Google treats the original URL as the canonical one unless otherwise told.
404 Not Found: Page doesn’t exist; Google drops it from the index over time.
410 Gone: Page removed permanently; stronger signal than 404 to drop URL faster.
500 Internal Server Error: Server had an error; Google retries crawling later.
503 Service Unavailable: Server temporarily unavailable; signals Google to retry later without dropping URL.
429 Too Many Requests: Server rate-limiting requests; Google slows crawling.

Network and DNS Errors #

If Googlebot cannot reach your server due to network errors (timeouts, connection failures) or DNS errors (domain name resolution fails), Google treats this as a temporary issue.
Google will retry crawling but repeated failures can lead to crawl delays or drops.
These errors show up as warnings or errors in Search Console under Coverage or Page Indexing reports.

Key Takeaways #

Successful responses (2xx) mean Google can index your content — but indexing depends on quality, relevance, etc.
Redirects (3xx) must be set correctly; broken redirects can cause crawl errors.
Client errors (4xx) remove URLs from Google’s index.
Server errors (5xx) slow crawling; fix quickly to maintain crawl budget.
Temporary server unavailability (503) or rate-limiting (429) tells Google to back off temporarily.
Network/DNS failures cause Googlebot to retry but too many failures will reduce crawl frequency.

Status Code	Meaning	How Google Handles It
2xx (Success)		Content considered for indexing, but indexing is not guaranteed.
200	Success	Content passed to indexing pipeline.
201, 202	Created, Accepted	Googlebot waits briefly for content, then passes what it has to indexing.
204	No Content	Signals no content; may show soft 404 in Search Console.
3xx (Redirects)		Googlebot follows up to 10 redirects; final URL content is indexed, intermediate redirect content ignored.
301	Moved Permanently	Strong signal that target URL is canonical.
302, 307	Temporary Redirect	Weak signal that target URL is canonical.
303	See Other	Treated like 302.
304	Not Modified	Signals content unchanged since last crawl; no impact on indexing.
308	Permanent Redirect	Treated like 301.
4xx (Client Errors)		URLs returning 4xx are not indexed; previously indexed URLs are removed from index. Content ignored by Googlebot.
400	Bad Request	Signals content doesn’t exist; URL removed from index if previously indexed; crawling frequency reduces gradually.
401	Unauthorized	Treated like other 4xx; no effect on crawl rate.
403	Forbidden	Same as 401.
404	Not Found	Same as 400.
410	Gone	Same as 400; stronger signal to remove URL from index faster.
411	Length Required	Treated like 400.
429	Too Many Requests	Treated as a server error; signals server overload; Googlebot slows crawl.
5xx (Server Errors)		Googlebot slows crawl rate; content ignored; URLs persistently failing are eventually dropped from index.
500	Internal Server Error	Crawl rate decreased proportionally to number of errors.
502	Bad Gateway	Same as 500.
503	Service Unavailable	Same as 500; signals temporary server overload.

Soft 404 Errors #

What is a Soft 404?
A page that shows a “not found” or error message but returns a 200 OK HTTP status code instead of a 404 or 410. Sometimes it’s an empty page or one missing content due to backend issues.

Why it’s bad:

Confuses users who expect a working page.
Wastes Googlebot’s crawl budget on pages that are essentially errors.
These pages are excluded from Search and flagged in Search Console.

How to Fix Soft 404 Errors: #

Page & Content No Longer Exists:
- Return a 404 (Not Found) or 410 (Gone) HTTP status code.
- Customize your 404 page for user experience: friendly message, navigation, popular links, report broken links option.
Page or Content Moved Elsewhere:
- Use a 301 Permanent Redirect to the new URL.
- Verify correct response via URL Inspection Tool.
Page & Content Still Exist:
- Check if Googlebot sees the full content or errors out during rendering.
- Use URL Inspection Tool to view rendered page.
- Fix missing or blocked critical resources (images, scripts).
- Ensure resources aren’t blocked by robots.txt.
- Improve page load time and fix server errors.

Network and DNS Errors #

Impact on Googlebot:

Googlebot treats these errors like 5xx server errors.
Causes immediate crawl slowdown.
Google can’t get page content, so URLs are removed from index within days if errors persist.
Errors show in Search Console reports.

How to Debug Network Errors #

Check firewall rules — ensure Googlebot IPs aren’t blocked.
Analyze network traffic with tools like tcpdump, Wireshark.
Look for overloaded or misconfigured network interfaces or closed ports.
Contact your hosting provider or CDN support if unsure.

How to Debug DNS Errors #

Check firewall to allow DNS queries from Googlebot IPs (both UDP and TCP).

Verify DNS records with dig or similar tools:

dig +nocmd example.com a +noall +answer

dig +nocmd www.example.com cname +noall +answer

dig +nocmd example.com ns +noall +answer

Confirm your name servers are correctly set and responding.
If DNS changes were recent, wait up to 72 hours for propagation.
Flush Google Public DNS cache to speed up propagation.
Ensure your DNS server is healthy and not overloaded.