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Definition of the term, "Googlebot"

googlebot

Googlebot is the name of the crawler (aka spider, robot) that Google uses to index the web. "Crawler", "robot" and "spider" are deceptive terms to the uninitiated - in reality Googlebot is simply a program designed to view webpages and take a copy of them back to a central database which Google ultimately uses to score or rank webpages.

Googlebot will follow links on any page (although it can be restricted with certain web design techniques, such as the use of JavaScript or Flash), which is how Google can find new pages and new websites - all they need to do is follow all the links on each website they visit.

Googlebot allows Google to automatically search for new webpages, without website owners having to "submit" their site to Google. All major search engines use crawlers similar to Googlebot to index the web - this is why "submit your site" services are no longer required and should be avoided - you don't need to submit your site to search engines - they find you automatically as long as you have links from other sites.

Any search engine optimisation campaign will begin with a technical review to ensure that Googlebot (and other search engine crawlers) can easily find and crawl your site - although the majority of standard web design techniques are easily followed by Googlebot, there are occasions where certain methods can prevent Googlebot crawling and indexing pages on your site. These issues need to be rectified before your SEO campaign can successful.

Related terms and definitions

• algorithm
• Google
• indexing

eflaunt is a UK Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation agency based in Edinburgh, Scotland. For industry news, please refer to the eflaunt SEO blog.