PSA: Google Crawl Rate Setting Does Not Speed Up Crawling

Nov 11, 2021 - 7:31 am 0 by

Google Slow

Google has a legacy Search Console feature to let you limit, or slow down, how fast Google can crawl your site under the crawl rate setting. This feature, as we know, takes a day or so to kick in, and does not speed up crawling, it only can slow crawling of your site.

You can access the setting over here and this is what it looks like:

click for full size

As you can see, it says "limit Google's maximum crawl rate" not speed up the crawl rate.

John Mueller said all it does is limit the QPS, does that mean crawling per second? I think normally QPS means queries per second, but we get it.

It is best if you do not touch this setting, if you can avoid it. Google's help document says "if your crawl rate is described as "calculated as optimal," the only way to reduce the crawl rate is by filing a special request. You cannot increase the crawl rate. Otherwise, select the option you want and then limit the crawl rate as desired. The new crawl rate will be valid for 90 days."

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: May 9, 2025

May 9, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Volatility, D.C. Creator Summit, Apple Safari Google Searches Drop & Google Ads AI Max

May 9, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Ads

Google Ads With Number Of Followers

May 9, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google

Google Search Country & Language Parameters

May 9, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Search Stops 20X More Scammy Pages With Better AI

May 9, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google AdSense

Google AdSense Auto Optimize Adds Site Level Controls

May 9, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Google Business Profile Manager Logo Now Live