This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
Why do websites and search engines use web crawlers?
This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
The process of web crawling can be defined as the use of web crawlers to perform search engine optimization.
So what is a web crawler? Michael Brown, the Customer Success Manager of Semalt, explains that a web crawler is a script program used by search engines to browse the web automatically and methodically. A web crawler is used by search engines to blend all the top results in a search. It provides the user with options for images, or images, video, audio, news, yellow pages and white pages. Web crawlers are also referred to as web spiders or search engine robot.
Role of web crawler
A web crawler plays a very important role in a search engine. It plays different roles to ensure the search engine is working efficiently. Every search engine requires the use of web spiders for several reasons. The roles of web crawlers include.
Provide data. Most web sites and search engines use web crawlers provide them with the latest data from every other website. A web crawler is able to merge all the information in a search.
Create copies of all visited pages. This is a very important role of web crawlers. Their ability to copy all visited pages plays a vital role in facilitating fast searches in a search engine. A user will, therefore, be able to view their latest searches and all the information provided all through the web. The web pages downloaded by the web crawlers are also used by search engines to enhance search speed.
Create entries of a search engine index. A web crawler generally crawls throughout the web and reads all websites information and other details. It then uses this data to from a search engine index.
Build and revise indexes. After going through all websites and their webpages, eventually, the web crawler returns home. Once it's returned home, the information gathered will be used by the search engines to revise and build search indexes. Most such engines such as Yahoo and Google use web spiders for this purpose.
Automating maintenance tasks on websites to validate HTML code, gather all types of information from different websites and to check links, websites use web crawlers. Their ability to gather all this information is important for the maintenance of a website. If a site is using a web spider, the information the web spider gathers is automatically updated on the website or the search engine. All related searches will also be updated meaning the site is always up to date with every detail of information on the web.
The information gathered by a web crawler is determinant to the data displayed in a websites index. Every search engine and website depends on their web crawlers to gather all the information and keep them updated. Their relevancy is greatly determined by what their web crawlers gather. What is displayed during searched is also determined by the information gathered by the crawlers from websites. The web crawler ensures that when a search begins, the search engine will provide every single piece of information that relates to relevant keywords on the search.