Diagnosing Multi-Domain Crawling Issues: A Guide for SEO Specialists
When Googlebot suddenly stops crawling across multiple sites, the root cause can be challenging to identify, especially for site owners who manage multiple domains. Recently, Google Search Advocate John Mueller provided valuable insights into resolving multi-domain crawling issues, emphasizing that shared infrastructure, such as CDNs (Content Delivery Networks), is often the root cause.
This guidance emerged in response to an issue encountered by Adrian Schmidt, who reported a sudden crawl disruption across several of his domains. Despite the interruption, Schmidt observed that live tests within Google Search Console continued without error, and there was no increase in typical crawl issues like 5xx errors or problems with robots.txt requests. This case sheds light on a particular type of vulnerability that can affect any organization relying on shared infrastructure without realizing the potential implications. Understanding how to diagnose and resolve these disruptions can ensure your site’s optimal performance.
The Role of Shared Infrastructure in Multi-Domain Crawling Disruptions
In situations where multiple domains are affected by crawling issues, shared infrastructure typically emerges as the primary cause. Shared infrastructure elements can include anything from CDNs to load balancers and web application firewalls, which are often configured to handle traffic for several sites simultaneously. If a shared component fails or undergoes changes, it can disrupt multiple domains at once. Mueller’s take on the matter was straightforward: “If it’s shared across a bunch of domains and focuses on something like crawling, it’s probably an issue with a shared piece of infrastructure.” This suggestion directs us to start by investigating shared resources as the most likely source of the issue.
In Schmidt’s case, all his affected sites were using Cloudflare as their CDN, which naturally raised suspicions about shared resources playing a role in the crawl interruption. Cloudflare, like other CDNs, provides services such as caching and content delivery, which streamline site loading times and provide additional security. However, any misconfiguration or temporary issue in these shared services can impact Googlebot’s ability to crawl all associated domains, as was seen in Schmidt’s scenario.
Diagnosing the Issue: Leveraging Google Search Console
Mueller recommended using Google Search Console to dig deeper, especially the Crawl Stats report. This tool offers crucial data on Googlebot’s activity on your sites, revealing whether the issue stems from DNS-related problems or if requests are failing due to other reasons.
To begin the diagnosis:
- Check Crawl Stats for Each Domain: Access each domain’s crawl data to see if there is a noticeable drop in Googlebot’s activity, such as requests failing across multiple domains.
- Differentiate DNS Issues from Request Failures: Search Console data can help determine if DNS issues or actual request failures (HTTP errors like 5xx) are the problem. Identifying this distinction early on helps streamline the troubleshooting process.
- Assess the Timing of the Interruption: If Googlebot stopped crawling multiple domains simultaneously, this synchronization suggests the issue lies in shared infrastructure. Mueller noted that such concurrent interruptions are unlikely to involve robots.txt errors, which are typically domain-specific. Instead, they indicate something affecting all domains at once, like a shared network or DNS configuration issue.
Temporary Crawling Issues and Their Impact on Search Rankings
One common concern among site owners facing a crawl interruption is whether this might harm their search rankings or affect the discovery of new content. Here, Mueller provided some reassurance: if the disruption is short-term, lasting only a few hours, it’s unlikely to impact search performance or rankings. Search engines have robust mechanisms to handle brief outages, and Googlebot will likely resume crawling without any adverse effects.
However, prolonged crawl issues can limit Google’s ability to index newly published content. Therefore, if the interruption continues, immediate troubleshooting becomes essential to avoid indexing delays. Google’s crawling system is designed to revisit pages at intervals based on site content frequency and authority, so a short-term pause should not disrupt indexing on an ongoing basis. Nonetheless, website owners should take proactive steps to understand and resolve any infrastructure-related crawl interruptions to maintain optimal search engine performance.
Key Steps for Managing Multi-Domain Crawling Issues
To avoid significant disruptions and maintain seamless crawling across your sites, you’ll want to implement a few best practices:
- Verify Whether Multiple Domains Are Affected Simultaneously: If multiple domains experience crawling issues at the same time, it’s worth investigating shared infrastructure. Focus your initial troubleshooting efforts on shared components like your CDN, load balancer, or DNS configuration.
- Use Google Search Console’s Crawl Stats Report: This report provides insights into crawl errors and helps identify the root cause. For example, if Crawl Stats show a significant drop in Googlebot requests without corresponding increases in errors, the issue may stem from external restrictions (such as firewalls or CDN settings) rather than internal site problems.
- Check Infrastructure Logs and Recent Changes: If you or your infrastructure provider recently made configuration changes, investigate these first. Logs can reveal patterns in crawl activity and error spikes that may correspond with recent updates. This process may require collaboration with your hosting provider, CDN provider, or IT team to access detailed logs.
- Monitor and Log Crawl Activity Regularly: Set up consistent monitoring for Googlebot crawl activity across your sites to detect changes before they impact search rankings. Advanced monitoring tools can track Googlebot activity in real time, allowing you to spot unusual behavior quickly and respond promptly.
- Establish a Communication Plan with Your Providers: For businesses that depend on third-party infrastructure like Cloudflare, having a contact person or dedicated support with your provider can expedite resolution in case of widespread crawling issues.
Final Takeaway: Minimizing Multi-Domain Crawling Issues
As a final note, remember that although short-term crawl interruptions typically won’t impact search rankings, resolving them swiftly is still beneficial. Proactively managing shared infrastructure, regularly reviewing logs, and monitoring crawl data in Google Search Console are key to maintaining seamless crawl performance across multiple domains. With a structured troubleshooting approach, you can ensure any disruptions have minimal impact on your sites’ visibility and search engine rankings.
By following these guidelines, you can mitigate the risks associated with shared infrastructure and keep your domains consistently accessible to Google’s crawlers.
