How deep into a site's architecture search engines crawl, with shallow pages generally receiving more frequent crawling.
Crawl depth refers to how many clicks or levels away from the homepage search engine bots travel when crawling a website. Pages closer to the homepage (at shallow depths) are typically crawled more frequently and prioritized higher than pages buried deep in a site's architecture.
This concept directly impacts which pages search engines discover, how often they're updated in the index, and ultimately how they rank. A page that's seven clicks away from your homepage will receive significantly less crawl attention than one that's just two clicks away, regardless of its content quality or relevance.
Why It Matters for AI SEO
Search engines allocate limited crawl budget to each site, making crawl depth a critical factor in modern SEO strategy. Google's algorithms have become more sophisticated at understanding site architecture, but they still follow the fundamental principle that important pages should be easily accessible. AI-powered SEO tools now analyze crawl depth patterns to identify optimization opportunities. These tools can reveal when valuable content sits too deep in your site structure, recommend internal linking strategies to reduce depth, and predict how architectural changes might affect crawl efficiency. This becomes especially important for large sites where AI content generation might create numerous pages that compete for limited crawl resources.
How It Works
Crawl depth is measured from your homepage, with each internal link representing one additional level of depth. For example: Homepage (depth 0) → Category page (depth 1) → Subcategory (depth 2) → Product page (depth 3). Most SEO experts recommend keeping important pages within 3-4 clicks of the homepage. Tools like Screaming Frog and Sitebulb visualize crawl depth across your entire site, showing exactly how many clicks each page requires to reach. Google Search Console's Coverage report can reveal pages that aren't being crawled effectively, often due to excessive depth. Smart internal linking strategies, breadcrumb navigation, and strategic use of category pages can dramatically reduce crawl depth for important content.
Common Mistakes
The biggest mistake is assuming that having pages indexed means they're at optimal crawl depth. Many sites have thousands of pages technically accessible to search engines but buried so deep that they rarely get recrawled or updated. Another common error is creating overly complex navigation hierarchies that push valuable content unnecessarily deep, often happening when sites grow organically without architectural planning.