Google Search Advocate John Mueller said there is no persistent shortcut for faster website crawling; however, John noted that you can expedite crawling in specific situations.
No magic trick for faster crawling
Barry Shwartz from Search Engine Land picked up on a conversation on Bluesky, where a news publishing organization employee asked John Mueller for solutions to speed up Google crawling, as they were experiencing “outdated info in search results.”
John confirmed there’s no “magic trick to fast crawling,” but you can expedite crawling in specific situations and at specific times.
Here’s the question put to John on Bluesky:
- “I work with a major news organization that publishes breaking global, national, and local news. We face delays in Google recrawling updated articles, even with the “Last Modified” tag in our News Sitemap, causing outdated info in search results. Any solutions?”
Mueller gave some valuable advice on how search engines learn to crawl a site, also saying a crawling-friendly technical foundation is essential:
- “There’s no magic trick to fast crawling – Google’s systems (and all search engines, really) learn through consistent high quality, uniqueness, strong value-add across the whole site, and then a technical foundation that doesn’t hinder faster crawling can help. There is no persistent shortcut.”
Here’s a screenshot of the conversation on Bluesky:
How to speed up crawling
Although John said there is no persistent shortcut for fast crawling, his advice on how to speed up Google’s (and other search engines) crawling of your site is fundamentally sound.
As John advised, to optimize your website for crawling, you should:
- Consistently create high-quality content.
- Ensure your content is unique, informative, and meets your user’s intent.
- Build a website with a technical foundation that encourages fast crawling.
The takeaway
John’s advice to create high-quality original content aligns with several recent Google updates that aim to demote spam, unoriginal, and generative AI content.
Those updates include the new “Search Quality Rater Guideline,” tackling unoriginal content and spam, where Google’s Gary Illyes said:
- “Originality is something we’re going to be focusing on this year. That’s going to be important.”
Google has also added the term “Generative AI” to its “search quality rater guidelines,” which outline what you can and cannot use AI for and what Google deems as “scaled content abuse.”Regarding John’s technical advice, a website with a “technical foundation that doesn’t hinder faster crawling” should be your first step in ensuring Google can prefetch your site for faster loading times.
