Stage 1: Crawling Google’s mission in this stage is to discover web pages. Since there’s no central registry, Google’s web crawlers continuously explore the web for new and updated pages—an exciting process called “URL discovery.” Some pages are already known, having been visited before, while others are found through links from known pages. It’s a thrilling journey of exploration! Plus, you can even submit a list of pages (a sitemap) for Google to crawl. Surprise us!
Once a page’s URL is discovered, Googlebot (the trusty companion crawler) pays it a visit, known as “crawling,” to unveil its secrets. With an army of computers, Googlebot determines which sites to crawl, how often, and how many pages to fetch. We’re polite guests, crawling at a reasonable pace, and respecting the site’s limitations. We’ve got manners!
But here’s the twist: not every page discovered is crawled. Some pages are off-limits due to site owners disallowing crawling or requiring login access. Privacy is paramount!
During the crawl, Google goes the extra mile by rendering the page, running JavaScript, and capturing the full experience—just like your browser does. It ensures nothing escapes our attention.
Of course, there may be challenges along the way. Common issues include server problems, network glitches, or rules in the robots.txt file restricting Googlebot’s access. But fear not, Google is resourceful and adaptable!
