Google: GoogleBot China Crawler A Bug

Mar 10, 2011 - 9:39 am 5 by

GoogleBot ChinaMost all SEOs know that Google's search spider, GoogleBot, crawls from Mountain View, California.

So when a webmaster asked in a Google Webmaster Help thread why GoogleBot is crawling from China as opposed to from California, some Googlers began scratching their heads.

It turned out that there was some sort of bug that Google fixed to stop GoogleBot from appearing to be crawling from China.

JohnMu of Google said:

It looks like that was a temporary quirk and shouldn't be happening anymore :). Thanks for pinging us!

This can be a serious issue for many sites because I know of many sites that outright block Chinese IP addresses from accessing their web sites. And if Google crawls from China and you are blocking China, then you are blocking Google from accessing, crawling, indexing and ranking your site in Google.

It is weird to me that this would happen but it was also weird to Google.

I am not sure how wide spread it was but this is the first complaint I have seen on this topic.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google June Core Update Done, Local Ranking Update, AI Mode Updates & AI Calling Businesses

Jul 18, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Maps

New Google Business Profile Check Edit Status

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Login Service Pages Are Hard To Rank In Search

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google AI Overviews For Movie Queries

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Rolling Out Smart Bidding Exploration To Some Advertisers

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:21 am
Bing Search

Bing Tests Sitelinks With Light Gray Underlines

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: Crafting Google Instant Search Suggestions