site-crawlability

SEO Technical: Crawlability

Guides crawlability improvements: robots, X-Robots-Tag, site structure, and internal linking.

When invoking: On first use, if helpful, open with 1–2 sentences on what this skill covers and why it matters, then provide the main output. On subsequent use or when the user asks to skip, go directly to the main output.

Scope (Technical SEO)

• Redirect chains & loops: Fix multi-hop redirects; point directly to final URL
• Broken links (4xx): Fix broken internal/external links; 301 or remove
• Site architecture: Logical hierarchy; pages within 3–4 clicks from homepage
• Orphan pages: Add internal links to pages with no incoming links
• Pagination: Prefer pagination over infinite scroll for crawlability
• Crawl budget: Reduce waste on duplicates, redirects, low-value URLs (see below)
• AI crawler optimization: SSR for critical content; URL management; reduce 404/redirect waste (see below)

Initial Assessment

Check for project context first: If .claude/project-context.md or .cursor/project-context.md exists, read it for site structure.

Identify:

1. Site structure: Flat vs. deep hierarchy
2. Framework: Next.js, static, SPA, etc.
3. Key paths: Sitemap, robots.txt, API, static assets

Best Practices

Redirect Chains & Loops

• Fix multi-hop redirects; point directly to final URL
• Loops: URLs redirecting back to themselves; break the cycle

Broken Links (4xx)

• Fix broken internal/external links; 301 or remove
• Audit regularly; update or remove broken links

Site Architecture

Principle	Guideline
Depth	Important pages within 3–4 clicks from homepage
Orphan pages	Add internal links to pages with no incoming links; see internal-links for link strategy
Hierarchy	Logical structure; hub pages link to content

Pagination vs Infinite Scroll

Problem: With infinite scroll, crawlers cannot emulate user behavior (scroll, click "Load more"); content loaded after initial page load is not discoverable. Same applies to masonry + infinite scroll, lazy-loaded lists, and similar patterns.

Solution: Prefer pagination for key content. If keeping infinite scroll, make it search-friendly per Google's recommendations:

Requirement	Practice
Component pages	Chunk content into paginated pages accessible without JavaScript
Full URLs	Each page has unique URL (e.g. ?page=1, ?lastid=567); avoid #1
No overlap	Each item listed once in series; no duplication across pages
Direct access	URL works in new tab; no cookie/history dependency
pushState/replaceState	Update URL as user scrolls; enables back/forward, shareable links
404 for out-of-bounds	?page=999 returns 404 when only 998 pages exist

Reference: Infinite scroll search-friendly recommendations (Google Search Central, 2014)

Pagination (Traditional)

• Reference links to next/previous pages; rel="prev" / rel="next" where applicable
• Avoid dynamic-only loading; ensure links in HTML

Crawl Budget

Crawl budget is the number of URLs Googlebot will crawl on your site in a given period. Large sites (10,000+ pages) may waste up to 30% of crawl budget on duplicates, redirects, and low-value URLs.

Waste source	Fix
Duplicate URLs	Canonical; consolidate; 301 to preferred
Redirect chains	Point directly to final URL
Parameter proliferation	Use rel="canonical"; consider Clean-param (Yandex)
Low-value pages	noindex for thin/duplicate; see indexing
Crawl traps	Avoid infinite URL generation (e.g. faceted filters)

Sitemap: Include only indexable, canonical URLs. See xml-sitemap, canonical-tag.

AI Crawler Optimization

AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, etc.) now represent ~28% of Googlebot's crawl volume. Their behavior differs from search engines—optimizing for both improves GEO (AI search visibility). See generative-engine-optimization for GEO strategy. Vercel/MERJ study (Dec 2024):

Factor	AI Crawlers (GPTBot, Claude)	Googlebot
JavaScript	Do not execute JS; cannot read client-side rendered content	Full JS rendering
404 rate	~34% of fetches hit 404s	~8%
Redirects	~14% of fetches follow redirects	~1.5%
Content in initial HTML	JSON, RSC in initial response can be indexed	Same

Recommendations for AI crawlability:

Practice	Action
Server-side rendering	Critical content in initial HTML. Use SSR, ISR, or SSG. See rendering-strategies for full guide.
URL management	Keep sitemaps updated; use consistent URL patterns; avoid outdated /static/ assets that cause 404s. AI crawlers frequently hit outdated URLs.
Redirects	Fix redirect chains; point directly to final URL. AI crawlers waste ~14% of fetches on redirects.
404 handling	Fix broken links; remove or redirect outdated URLs. High 404 rates suggest AI crawlers may use stale URL lists.

Reference: The rise of the AI crawler (Vercel, 2024)

Common Issues

Issue	Check
Redirect chains	Update links to point directly to final URL
Broken links	301 or remove; audit internal and external
Orphan pages	Add internal links from hub or navigation; see internal-links for strategy
Infinite scroll	Provide paginated component pages; or replace with pagination for key content; see above
AI crawlers missing content	Ensure critical content in initial HTML; see rendering-strategies

Output Format

• Redirect audit: Chains and loops to fix
• Broken link audit: 4xx links to fix
• Site structure: Orphan pages, hierarchy
• Pagination: Implementation for crawlable content
• AI crawler: SSR/URL/redirect checks if GEO or AI visibility is a goal

Related Skills

• seo-strategy: SEO workflow; crawlability is Technical phase (P0)
• website-structure: Plan which pages to build, page priority, structure planning; use before or alongside crawlability audit
• robots-txt: robots.txt configuration; AI crawler allow/block (GPTBot, ClaudeBot)
• xml-sitemap: URL discovery; keep updated to reduce AI crawler 404s
• google-search-console: Index status, Coverage report
• indexing: Fix indexing issues
• internal-links: Internal linking best practices
• masonry: Masonry + infinite scroll has same crawl issue; layout skill references this for SEO
• generative-engine-optimization: GEO strategy; AI search visibility; crawlability enables AI citation
• canonical-tag: Canonical reduces crawl budget waste on duplicates
• rendering-strategies: SSR, SSG, CSR; content in initial HTML; crawler visibility