Google Using HEAD as Opposed to GET Requests More Frequently?

Jul 7, 2006 - 8:19 am 4 by

Honestly, I do not personally track Google at the level of looking at my raw log files daily. But a WebmasterWorld thread describes Google recently (i.e. "for months") using HEAD only requests for crawling. Typically, Google uses GET requests when crawling pages, to pull the content down to its index. Google has now been also using HEAD requests to just pull the header data.

This is possibly a method to more efficiently crawl pages. They can (1) make sure the page exists quicker and (2) they can pull the last modified date and other header type information only.

Forum discussion on this new (??) GoogleBot behavior at WebmasterWorld.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 10, 2025

Jul 10, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google Updates

Google June 2025 Core Update Leading To Some Partial HCU Recoveries

Jul 10, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Search Console Performance Report Average Position Bug?

Jul 10, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google Ads

Google Search Ads People Also Consider Carousel Format

Jul 10, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Maps

Google Business Profiles Drops Utility Bill As Evidence For Appeal

Jul 10, 2025 - 7:21 am
Google

Google AI Mode Comes To Circle to Search and Lens

Jul 10, 2025 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: eBay Forbids Use of Google Checkout on eBay