As websites grapple with the dual demands of traditional search engines and surging AI-driven systems, the stakes for online visibility and revenue have never been higher. Today, we’re diving into these critical topics with Milena Traikovich, a seasoned Demand Gen expert who has helped countless businesses optimize their digital presence. With her extensive background in analytics, performance optimization, and lead generation, Milena offers invaluable insights into how crawlability, site health, and strategic frameworks can directly impact a company’s bottom line. In this conversation, we’ll explore the nuances of managing crawl budgets, the transformative power of server-side rendering, and actionable strategies to ensure your most valuable pages are seen by both bots and users.
How does crawlability shape a website’s ability to generate revenue, and why is it such a critical factor in today’s digital landscape?
Crawlability is essentially how easily search engines and AI systems can access and index a website’s content. If your pages aren’t crawlable, they’re invisible to these systems, which means no traffic, no leads, and ultimately, no revenue. It’s a critical factor because both traditional search engines like Google and newer AI tools rely on crawling to discover and rank content. For enterprises, especially those with thousands or millions of pages, ensuring the right content gets crawled can make or break their online visibility. When high-value pages—like product listings or conversion-focused landing pages—are missed, you’re directly losing out on potential sales and competitive positioning.
What challenges do websites face in balancing the needs of traditional search crawlers and emerging AI systems?
The biggest challenge is that both systems operate within the same limited crawl budget, but their behaviors and priorities differ. Traditional crawlers like Googlebot focus on indexing for search results, while AI systems often consume massive amounts of data with little direct traffic return. This creates a strain on resources, as your website has to cater to both without neglecting either. The surge in AI crawler traffic—nearly doubling in a year—means you’re splitting attention between two demanding audiences. If you don’t strategically prioritize which pages get crawled, you risk wasting budget on low-value content, leaving your key pages invisible to the systems that drive revenue.
Why do so many businesses fixate on the total number of pages crawled rather than focusing on which specific pages are being prioritized?
It’s often a matter of what’s easiest to measure. Tracking total pages crawled is a straightforward metric, and it feels like a win to see big numbers. But this misses the forest for the trees. Not all pages are equal—some drive conversions, while others are just clutter. Businesses get caught up in vanity metrics instead of digging into whether their high-value pages, like product or service pages, are actually getting attention from crawlers. This misstep can cost them dearly because if bots are spending time on irrelevant or outdated content, your revenue-generating pages are left in the dark.
Can you break down what a crawl budget is and why it’s such a precious resource for websites?
A crawl budget is the limited number of pages a search engine or AI system will crawl on your site within a given timeframe. It’s precious because bots don’t have infinite time or resources to explore every corner of your website, especially for large enterprise sites with millions of pages. Every page crawled uses up part of that budget, so if it’s spent on low-priority or duplicate content, you’re squandering opportunities for your important pages to be indexed and ranked. It’s like having a finite marketing budget—you’ve got to spend it where it counts, or you’re missing out on visibility and traffic.
How can a poorly managed crawl budget translate into lost revenue for a company?
When your crawl budget is mismanaged, bots might overlook your high-value pages—think product pages, pricing information, or key landing pages. If these aren’t indexed, they won’t show up in search results or AI responses, meaning potential customers can’t find them. That’s a direct hit to traffic and conversions. For instance, if a competitor’s product page gets crawled and ranked while yours doesn’t, you’ve lost that sale. Over time, this compounds into significant revenue loss, especially for enterprises where even a small percentage of missed traffic can mean millions in lost opportunities.
Could you share an example of how the wrong pages consuming crawl budget can impact a company’s online presence or sales?
Absolutely. Imagine an e-commerce site with thousands of product pages, but also a blog section with outdated or low-traffic posts. If the crawl budget gets eaten up by those blog pages—maybe due to poor internal linking or unoptimized sitemaps—the product pages, which are the real revenue drivers, might not get crawled at all. This means they don’t appear in search results or AI-generated answers. A customer searching for a specific item might land on a competitor’s site instead, and that’s a lost sale. I’ve seen cases where companies didn’t realize this was happening until a revenue dip forced them to audit their crawl data, and by then, the damage was done.
What are some telltale signs that a website’s crawl budget is being wasted on less important content?
One clear sign is when you see low-value pages—like outdated blogs, duplicate content, or error pages—showing up frequently in crawl logs, while key pages are rarely or never crawled. You might also notice a drop in organic traffic or rankings for important pages, even though your overall site traffic looks fine. Another red flag is slow indexing of new or updated content; if it takes weeks for changes to reflect in search results, bots likely aren’t prioritizing your updates. These issues often point to a budget being squandered on content that doesn’t drive business goals, and it’s a wake-up call to reassess your site structure.
Can you walk us through the PAVE framework and how it helps decide which pages deserve to be crawled?
The PAVE framework is a strategic tool to prioritize crawl budget based on four dimensions: Potential, Authority, Value, and Evolution. ‘Potential’ assesses whether a page has realistic ranking or referral power—if it’s not optimized for conversions or lacks depth, it shouldn’t eat up budget. ‘Authority’ looks at signals like credibility and expertise that make content appealing to both traditional and AI crawlers. ‘Value’ evaluates how much unique, accessible information a page offers per crawl, factoring in things like rendering complexity. Finally, ‘Evolution’ considers how often a page updates with meaningful changes, as fresh content tends to attract more crawler attention. By scoring pages across these areas, you can focus budget on what truly drives revenue.
How can a business determine if a page has strong ‘Potential’ under the PAVE framework for ranking or driving referrals?
To gauge ‘Potential,’ start by looking at the page’s purpose and performance data. Is it designed to convert, like a product page, or is it just informational with little action? Check keyword research to see if it targets terms with search volume or intent that aligns with your goals. Also, analyze historical data—has it ever ranked well or driven traffic? If a page lacks depth, has thin content, or doesn’t align with user intent, it’s likely not worth prioritizing. Tools like search console reports can help identify which pages already show promise, so you can double down on optimizing those for crawlers.
What role does server-side rendering play in improving crawlability, and how does it benefit both bots and users?
Server-side rendering, or SSR, pre-builds HTML on the server before sending it to browsers or bots, unlike client-side rendering where content loads via JavaScript in the browser. For crawlability, SSR is a game-changer because bots get fully formed content on the first request—no waiting for JavaScript to execute, which many AI crawlers skip entirely. This means your key information, like product details or pricing, is instantly accessible and indexable. For users, SSR slashes load times since the heavy lifting is done server-side, leading to a faster, smoother experience. That speed isn’t just convenient—it directly boosts engagement and conversions.
How do you see the future of crawlability evolving with the rapid growth of AI-driven search systems?
I think crawlability will become even more complex as AI-driven systems continue to grow and diversify. We’re already seeing AI crawlers prioritize different signals compared to traditional search engines, and this split will likely widen. Websites will need to adapt by building stronger authority and ensuring content is accessible in raw, static formats that AI can easily digest. At the same time, the integration of unified data systems to track both traditional and AI crawl behavior will be crucial. My forecast is that businesses who invest in scalable site health management and proactive monitoring now will be the ones who stay ahead, turning crawl challenges into competitive advantages.
