The speed at which a search engine bot requests pages from a site, adjustable in Google Search Console settings.
Crawl rate refers to the number of requests per second that a search engine bot makes to your website when scanning pages for indexing. Google's crawlers automatically determine this rate based on your site's hosting capacity and crawling demand, but webmasters can set maximum limits through Google Search Console to prevent server overload.
Unlike crawl budget, which focuses on the total number of pages crawled over time, crawl rate specifically measures the frequency of requests. A higher crawl rate means Googlebot visits your pages more frequently, while a lower rate spreads requests across longer time periods. This distinction becomes critical for large sites where aggressive crawling could impact server performance and user experience.
Why It Matters for AI SEO
AI-powered content generation has fundamentally changed how websites approach crawl rate optimization. Sites using AI to produce high-volume content must carefully balance rapid content publication with sustainable crawling patterns. When AI tools generate hundreds of new pages daily, an improperly configured crawl rate can either overwhelm your server or delay the discovery of fresh content. Modern AI systems also influence Google's crawling decisions through improved content quality detection. Sites publishing valuable AI-generated content may see natural crawl rate increases as Google's algorithms recognize patterns of helpful, regularly updated material. Conversely, AI content farms often experience crawl rate reductions as Google's systems identify low-value automated content.
How It Works
Google Search Console's Crawl Rate Settings allow you to limit the maximum requests per second, though Google typically manages this automatically. Most sites should leave this setting on "Let Google optimize for my site" unless experiencing server issues. For sites with limited hosting resources, setting a conservative limit prevents crawling spikes that could cause downtime. Technical monitoring tools like Botify and Screaming Frog help analyze actual crawl patterns versus your configured limits. Log file analysis reveals whether Google respects your crawl rate settings and identifies patterns where certain page types receive more frequent crawling attention. Enterprise sites often use these insights to optimize server resources and ensure critical pages receive adequate crawl attention.
Common Mistakes
The most frequent mistake is setting an unnecessarily low crawl rate limit out of excessive caution, which can significantly delay indexing of new content. Many site owners panic over server load spikes during crawling and impose restrictive limits that harm their SEO performance. Google's automatic optimization typically handles crawl rate better than manual intervention, unless you're experiencing genuine server capacity issues that affect real users.