I have in previous posts written about website crawling and the importance of correct indexing.
Today, we’ll dive into the concept of crawl depth and how it affects your SEO.
When search engines like Google crawl your website, they follow links from one page to another to index the content. The distance a subpage is from the homepage — measured in clicks — is called crawl depth.
The fewer clicks it takes to reach a page, the lower its crawl depth.
A low crawl depth means the page is more accessible to both users and search engines, while pages that require many clicks to reach have a higher crawl depth.
This distance has a greater impact than many realize.
Pages close to the homepage are visited more frequently by Google’s crawlers, share in more internal link equity, and are indexed faster.
Conversely, pages buried deep within the site structure risk being overlooked or deprioritized — and ultimately struggle to achieve visibility in search results.
What exactly is crawl depth and how is it measured?
In simple terms, crawl depth refers to the number of clicks a search engine bot must make to go from the homepage to a specific subpage.
- Homepage = 0 clicks (crawl depth 0)
- A category page linked from the homepage = 1 click (crawl depth 1)
- A product linked from a category page = 2 clicks (crawl depth 2), and so on.
There are several tools and methods to measure crawl depth.
You can use website crawlers like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs’ auditor, Google Search Console, or internal log files to see which pages the bot actually visits.
It’s also important to distinguish between crawl depth in your menu/structure and internal linking.
Even if a page is deep in the structure, it can still be easily accessible via internal links if you link to it from other relevant places on the site.
Why crawl depth matters for growth and SEO
Crawl depth affects multiple elements of your site and SEO performance:
- Indexing – The deeper a page is, the higher the risk that Google doesn’t crawl it frequently or at all. Pages with poor internal linking or many clicks away may be “forgotten.”
- Link authority – Internal links from pages near the homepage help distribute link equity. If your important pages are buried too deep, they lose some of that value.
- User experience (UX) – Users rarely navigate through pages that take many clicks to reach. A high crawl depth can signal complicated navigation, leading to higher bounce rates or lost content visibility.
- Content prioritization – By identifying which pages have excessive crawl depth, you can decide to optimize them by moving them closer to the homepage, improving internal linking, or creating new entry points.
How to optimize your website with crawl depth in mind
There are several initiatives you can take to improve crawl depth and ensure your website performs well for both users and search engines:
Improve site architecture and internal linking
Design your site with clear organization in mind.
Use categories and subfolders wisely so that no page is too far away. Consider keeping “key pages” within 1–2 clicks of the homepage.
Also ensure that important pages have internal links from pages near the homepage (menus and related articles).
If a subpage lies deep in the structure (2–3 clicks), you can add links from category or index pages to reduce click distance.
Sitemap and XML-sitemap
A sitemap acts as a map of your website and helps both users and search engines understand the structure.
While a regular sitemap (typically in HTML format) helps visitors navigate, an XML sitemap is specifically designed for search engines. It provides a technical overview of all important pages, their hierarchy, and update frequency.
An updated XML sitemap makes it easier for Google and other search engines to find and index even the pages that lie deep in the structure or are not directly connected through internal links.
Continuous monitoring
Finally, use tools to regularly crawl the site and identify pages with high crawl depth that show low traffic or poor performance.
You should then decide whether these pages should be optimized, deprioritized, or possibly removed.
How do you know if your crawl depth is too high?
To determine whether your pages are too far from the homepage, look at:
- How many clicks it takes to reach the page — is it 3–5 clicks or more?
- How often the pages are visited by crawl bots (you can see this in web server logs or via crawl tools).
- Whether the pages are indexed at all. In Google Search Console, you can see non-indexed pages — sometimes simply because the bot doesn’t know they exist due to poor internal linking.
Pages with high crawl depth often have low traffic and few internal links — a sign that they may not be performing well.
For example, imagine a webshop with 10,000 products, where many can only be reached through 4–5 clicks from the homepage.
If these pages don’t receive internal links or aren’t included in sitemaps, they may be poorly indexed and therefore fail to contribute to sales.
By moving some of these products closer to the homepage, for instance through “featured products,” internal listings, or category links, you can improve their visibility in search results.
Pitfalls and when crawl depth optimization might not be enough
Although crawl depth is important, it’s not a universal solution. There are cases where focusing on crawl depth alone won’t yield full results:
- Extensive file or documentation content – If your site has thousands of files or documents, it may be impractical to move them all closer to the homepage.
- Niche content for limited audiences – Highly specialized or technical pages can exist deep in the structure without hurting overall SEO, if they’re relevant and have backlinks.
- Speed, HTTPS, and mobile-friendliness – Even with optimal crawl depth, poor technical SEO can still hurt performance. A page near the homepage but poorly optimized for mobile can still underperform.
How to make crawl depth work for you
Crawl depth is a technical but highly important aspect of SEO and website performance. Once you understand where your pages sit within your site structure, you can decide which ones to improve, move, or remove.
By refining internal linking, flattening site structure, and ensuring that essential pages are easily accessible, you can reduce crawl depth for your key pages.
The result is better indexing, higher visibility in search results, and potentially more traffic and conversions.
When you make crawl depth a consistent part of your SEO strategy — alongside content optimization, technical elements, and user experience — you can actively improve visibility and digital growth.
Comments