Google: GoogleBot Doesn't Make Up URLs To Crawl & Index

Jan 3, 2018 - 7:32 am 13 by

Google Web Flows

There is this long run theory in the SEO world that Google will sometimes make up URLs with the attempt to try and discover, crawl and index pages they can't find otherwise. If you think of that theory, it kind of seems inefficient and un-Google like - but hey, that is why we have theories.

Well, John Mueller from Google pretty much said that Google does not do that. He said in a Google Webmaster Help thread "in general, Googlebot doesn't make up URLs." In general, of course, he said in general. But again, if you think about it, why would Google go through the effort?

John said:

In general, Googlebot doesn't make up URLs, so if they were found (and not in your sitemap file), it's likely that they were linked from somewhere within your website (it's also possible that these links have since been removed).

I would assume, most of these cases are people linking to you weird or broken links that Google follows from other sites or your own internal site.

Either way, do you think Google tries to crawl URLs that they make up out of the blue?

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 Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: June 13, 2025

Jun 13, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google AI Mode Search, Apple Intelligence Updates, Google Live Search, AI Content, SEO & Google Ads

Jun 13, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google

Google Is Now Rolling Out AI Mode In The US

Jun 13, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Drops Support For Seven Existing Structured Data Markups

Jun 13, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Shows Audience Size For Custom Segments

Jun 13, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google

Google Search Autocomplete With Back To All

Jun 13, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Pamela Lund - The Search Community Honors You