Hi, I’m Emmanuel Dan
a PPC & SEO Specialist Product Marketer Growth PM

SEO Content Writing: How to optimize for Entity Salience

Entity salience offers a peek into the way Google’s AI appraises content in order to create an objective score for web pages.

Whenever we type in a search, as humans we can easily decide which piece of content is best suited to our needs. On the other hand, Google has to process 2.4 million searches per minute, while matching them to content across a web whose size is tending towards infinity i.e. The web contains trillions of pages, while Google’s index contains only about 50 billion of these pages. So at the speed of thought, Google has to decide which site offers the best content for multiple queries (15% of these searches are unique)

How on earth does Google manage to do this? How can Google manage to consistently serve good results faster than most websites or mobile apps can load content?

We would never really know, however Google gave us a glimpse through the entity salience scores offered in their NLP demo. In this article I will attempt to guide SEO content writers on entity salience as a concept and how to optimize articles against this metric.

What is an entity?

An entity is the noun or set of nouns contained in a text. Anything that has a name in your blog or article is therefore an entity. They are nouns and noun phrases that the AI can identify as a distinct object. Google’s entity categories include people, locations, organizations, numbers, consumer goods and more

What is Entity Salience

The noun “salience” derives from the Latin word saliens – ‘leaping, or bounding’. In modern usage it means “Prominent”, “stand out”.

Entity salience therefore refers to the degree of prominence that’s ascribed to a named object within a piece of text.

The salience score for an entity provides information about the importance or centrality of that entity to the entire document. Below is an example

Scores closer to 0 are less salient, while scores closer to 1.0 are highly salient.

How Content Writers Can Optimize for Entity Salience

Since salience scores are more important than simplistic keyword stuffing, every writer needs to know how these scores are calculated in order to produce content that can rank

How The Salience Score Is Calculated

Based on Google research papers, there are certain textual attributes that determine the scores assigned to each named object within a sentence. The factors are;

1. The entity’s position in the text
2. The entity’s grammatical role
3. The entity’s linguistic links to other parts of the sentence
4. The clarity of the entity
5. Named, nominal and pronominal reference counts of the entity

1. The entity’s position in the text

One of the most basic elements of salience is text position. In general, beginnings are the most prominent positions in a text. Therefore, entities placed closer to the beginning of the text and, to a lesser extent, each paragraph and sentence, are seen as more salient. The end of a sentence is also slightly more prominent than the middle.

Advice To Writers: Position the target keyword towards the start of the text, paragraphs and sentences.

2. The entity’s grammatical role

The grammatical role of the entity is usually contingent on its subject or object relationship with the rest of the text.

The subject (the entity that is doing something) of a sentence is more prominent than the object (the entity to which something is being done).

• Messi Scored the winning goal

• The winning goal was scored by Messi

In the first sentence, “Messi” has a score of 0.7, whereas “goal” has a score of 0.3. In the second sentence, “goal” is more salient, with 0.69, whereas “Messi” has a score of 0.31.

Advice to writers: Reword your write ups  to ensure that the target keyword is the subject of the sentence wherever possible.

3. The entity’s linguistic links to other parts of the sentence

If you use the Syntax tab in Google’s API demo, you’ll actually see a sentence-by-sentence breakdown of which words link to each other, along with a grammatical label.

I plugged this sample sentence in – “France held Argentina to penalties but could not have done it without Mbappe’s hattrick”

We can see how the entity “France” links to so many parts of the sentence through the verb “Held”.

An Entity does not need to be repeated artificially in every clause for it to be seen as prominent. It is more important that the other clauses and entities in the sentence depend on the target keyword for their meaning. This is how the linguistic dependency factors into the entity salience score

Advice for writers: When using target keywords in longer sentences, structure the sentence so that its clauses and other entities depend on your target keyword for sense.

4. The Entity’s Clarity

Google’s NLP tool is good at recognising entities but it’s not perfect. For example, it’s not great at recognising two entities as the same when their capitalisation, pluralisation or acronym changes.

Writers should also be wary of how switching between acronyms and full phrases (“SEO” vs “search engine optimization”) can impact salience scores

Advice To Writers: Refer to your target keyword consistently throughout the text if it is a multi-word phrase.

5. The Named, Nominal And Pronominal Reference Counts Of The Entity

The frequency with which an entity is mentioned in your text is a straightforward but crucial aspect of salience scoring. However, resist the urge to veer into archaic, spammy writing techniques. Increased mentions of your focus entities shouldn’t ever be used as a cover for keyword stuffing.

Note: Google has the ability to recognise different references to the same thing e.g.

• Mo Salah – named
• Striker – nominal
• He – pronominal

Advice To Writers: Increase mentions of your focus entities by using a mixture of named, nominal and pronominal references, don’t just repeat the named phrase every time it comes up.

Limitations of Google’s NLP Demo Tool

The natural language processing API demo is best used for product pages, short service, category pages, meta descriptions and ad copy. However, for long form content, its usefulness diminishes the longer the text you input. There is no way for it to process all the signals given across multiple sections of text.

Hence for longer pages, you may want to analyze single sections bit by bit rather than at once.

Conclusion

Google’s natural language API demo gives content writers a tool to help them craft their writing in a more structured way. If you are a writer and are looking to improve your SEO skillset, then you should integrate entity salience analytics into your practice.

How To Use Google BERT Scores In SEO Content Writing

• The Query = How SEO Content Writers Can optimize BERT Scores?
• Top Ranked Page = https://www.webfx.com/blog/internet/google-bert/
• BERT Score of the top page = 0.9767347251 (98%)

As you can see, all the top ranking pages in this sheet have a BERT score that’s above the 80th percentile for the query

Note: the BERT score of a page shows the mathematically derived match between the context and intent of the page in relation to the search query

I believe that BERT score optimization, combined with Higher Entity Salience Scores, can help SEO content writers to achieve first page ranking for their articles

Python Script For Calculating Google BERT Scores

Here is a python script you can use to scrape the web and compare how competitor sites score against yours for various queries.

Here are the steps for running the script

(1) Install the Dependencies in Google Colab

(2) Choose Your Query or Keyword against which the top Websites will be scored

(3) Scrape Google to extract web pages, their ranking position, and the search date

The above is a clear guide on how to calculate BERT scores by yourself. But what are BERT scores, what’s their significance and if you know how an article measures against this metric, how can you improve the scores

Introduction

As search engines become more sophisticated in understanding natural language, traditional metrics for evaluating content are evolving. One such metric that has gained prominence is the BERT Score.

BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) Score measures the relevance and quality of content based on contextual understanding.

In this blog post, we will provide a step-by-step guide on how to calculate BERT Scores and leverage this metric to improve your content’s performance.

Understanding BERT Score

BERT Score evaluates how well your content matches the context and intent of search queries. Unlike traditional metrics that focus on keyword density or backlinks, BERT Score emphasizes natural language processing and semantic relevance. It takes into account the fine-grained nuances of user queries, enabling search engines to provide more accurate and relevant search results.

Here’s how BERT takes a look at the context of the sentence or search query as a whole:

• BERT takes a query
• Breaks it down word-by-word
• Looks at all the possible relationships between the words
• Builds a bidirectional map outlining the relationship between words in both directions
• Analyzes the contextual meanings behind the words when they are paired with each other.

How Google Utilizes BERT scores

(a) Enhancing Search Relevance: One of the primary ways Google utilizes BERT Scores is by improving search relevance. BERT allows Google to better comprehend the nuances and context of search queries, enabling it to deliver more accurate search results. By considering the BERT Score, Google can identify content that aligns closely with the user’s intent, resulting in a more satisfying search experience.

(b) Understanding User Intent: BERT Scores help Google understand user intent more effectively. With the ability to interpret complex search queries, Google can decipher the true meaning behind the words used by users. This allows the search engine to provide more precise answers and relevant content, even when the user’s query is not phrased explicitly.

(c) Contextual Understanding: BERT Scores take into account the context in which words are used. Google’s algorithm analyzes the surrounding words and phrases to grasp the meaning and context of the query. This contextual understanding enables Google to present search results that match the user’s intent, even when keywords alone may not capture the full meaning.

(d) Semantic Relevance: Semantic relevance is another crucial aspect that BERT Scores consider. Instead of relying solely on individual keywords, BERT focuses on the overall meaning and semantics of the content. By understanding the relationships between words, BERT helps Google identify content that provides the most accurate and valuable information to users.

(e) Natural Language Processing: BERT Scores leverage the power of natural language processing (NLP) to enhance search results. With NLP, Google can interpret and process human language more effectively, taking into account factors such as sentence structure, grammar, and context. This enables Google to deliver search results that better match the natural language used by users.

Impact of BERT Scores on Search Rankings

BERT Scores play a significant role in determining search rankings. Websites that optimize their content to align with BERT’s contextual understanding and semantic relevance have a higher chance of ranking well in search results. By creating content that aligns with the user’s intent and addresses their queries comprehensively, website owners can improve their BERT Scores and increase their visibility on search engine results pages.

How To Optimize BERT Scores

(1) Optimize for Featured Snippets: Featured snippets are highly visible and can significantly boost organic traffic. Content writers should aim to provide concise and direct answers to commonly asked questions related to their target keywords. Structuring content in a way that makes it easy for search engines to extract relevant information increases the chances of obtaining a featured snippet.

Featured Snippet Rules For Content Teams

• Rule 1: Use a “What is [Keyword]”Heading
• Rule 2: The First sentence under the heading should use an Ïs” statement
• Rule 3: Always start the first sentence with the core keyword
• Rule 4; The 1st sentence should provide a definition and the second should explain the most important information about the keyword
• Rule 5: Never Use Brand names in portions of text that will be pulled into a featured snippet e.g. Listicles, Tables etc
• Rule 6: Eliminate all first person language in the featured snippet text
• Rule 7: Be as concise as possible
• Rule 8: Refine. If we don’t capture it, then observe the existing snippet and product a content structure that is of superior concise and explicative quality

(2) Enhance Your Content Structure: Organizing your content with clear headings and subheadings helps search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of information. Proper use of H1, H2, and H3 tags signals the importance of specific sections. Aim for a logical flow and readability, incorporating keywords naturally throughout the content.

(3) Focus On Contextual Relevance: Understanding the user’s intent behind search queries is crucial for creating relevant content. Tailor your content to match user expectations, addressing specific pain points and providing valuable solutions. Analyzing search engine result pages (SERPs) can provide insights into the context surrounding the topic.

(4) Optimal Content Length: Long-form content tends to perform better in terms of BERT Score. Aim for comprehensive and in-depth content that covers the topic thoroughly. Strive to strike a balance between quality and quantity, ensuring that each word adds value. Don’t hesitate to update and refresh existing content to maintain relevance.

(5) Prioritize Language and Style: Simplicity and clarity should be the guiding principles of your content. Use plain language and avoid excessive jargon that might confuse readers and search engines alike. Craft clear and concise sentences in active voice, incorporating LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords to demonstrate a deeper understanding of the topic.

(6) Readability and User Experience: Enhancing the readability and user experience of your content is vital for optimizing BERT Score. Break up the text with bullet points, lists, and subheadings for easy scanning. Keep paragraphs concise and consider incorporating multimedia elements like images and videos where relevant. Ensure your content is mobile-friendly and responsive.

(7) User Engagement Signals: User engagement signals, such as dwell time and click-through rates (CTR), are closely related to BERT Score. Encourage user interaction by enabling comments and social sharing. Craft engaging headlines and meta descriptions that entice users to click through. Engage your audience with high-quality content that encourages them to spend more time on your page.

(9) Monitoring and Optimization: Regularly monitor your content’s BERT Score using SEO tools to track its performance. Continuously review and update your content to keep it fresh and relevant. Pay attention to user feedback and adjust your content accordingly. Stay informed about search engine algorithm changes that may impact your content’s visibility.

Conclusion

Calculating BERT Scores allows you to measure the relevance and quality of your content in alignment with user queries and intent. By leveraging the power of BERT models and following the steps outlined in this guide, you can gain valuable insights into how well your content matches user expectations. Remember to keep refining and optimizing your content based on the BERT Scores to enhance its visibility and drive organic traffic to your website.

In the ever-evolving landscape of SEO and content optimization, understanding and utilizing metrics like BERT Score is crucial to staying ahead of the competition and delivering valuable content to your audience.

How to Avoid Being a Victim of Domain Squatting & Homograph Attacks

If you had a site that was doing well but suddenly, things just went downhill, it could be worth exploring to see if you have been a victim of a negative SEO attack. Negative SEO attacks are in many forms and each type has a different degree of impact on a website. Of all the negative SEO attacks I’ve experienced, one of the most devastating is a Domain squatting attack. These types of attacks exist in various forms which are:

1. Typo squatting attacks and
2. Homograph attacks

What is domain squatting

This is a family of negative SEO techniques which are deployed in order to harvest web credentials, steal direct traffic, harm an organization’s reputation, achieve affiliate marketing monetization, install adware, transmit malware or to achieve other malicious objectives. 

How these attacks are initiated

These groups of attacks are initiated by registering a variation of a legitimate domain and building a mirror website of that domain. This enables the attacker to deceive people into mistaking the fake domain as the legitimate URL of the website they were trying to visit (which could be a bank, a fintech solutions provider, or an online store)

When this happens, visitors will interact with the fake domain by clicking through or trying to login. This is what enables the attackers to achieve whatever objective they had in mind. The techniques vary which will be discussed individually under their respective classes which are:

a. Typo squatting attacks: An attacker registers a domain similar to the target domain in spelling. They do this based on the likely keyboard typos that can occur whenever the target domain is being typed into a search bar. They also pick variations of the target domain based on TLD’s (replacing abc.com with abc.ng) with the goal of stealing traffic that people accidentally direct to the target domain. For example, the attacker could replace ab.cd.com with abcd.com or biz.com with biiz.com. 

b. IDN homograph attacks: The International Domain Name protocol allows for the display of Tamil, Arabic, Chinese, Amharic, etc. characters in domain names. Some characters, like the Greek “p” (meaning Rho in their language) appear identical to the English “p”, and can resolve to entirely different servers. 

This is what attackers exploit when initiating a homograph attack. For example, websites like “picnic.com” could be registered such that the p in picnic is actually not an English but a Greek or German letter. This will allow two domains called “picnic.com” to be registered for two different but identical sites (one fake and one legitimate) on two different servers. 

How to protect your website

Any domain can be squatted and this is what makes these types of attacks very common and effective. To protect your website, you might consider the proactive registering of similar variations of your domain name. This is usually an expensive option but if you can snatch of the most similar versions of your site, you can reduce the likelihood of a successful domain squatting attack ever being initiated against you. You can also consider other mitigative measures such as:

1. Trademarking your assets
2. Informing your staff, site visitors and other relevant stakeholders
3. By monitoring domain registrations using tools like swimlane or CipherBox
4. Use the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act or ICANN’s Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) to take hold of the domains or have them taken down.

How to detect and resolve Google analytics errors on your website

Google analytics is an amazing tool that helps to collect data about users and their activity on your website. You can learn amazing things about your online audience such as their demographics (gender and age distribution), how much time they spend on your site, the type of pages they are most interested in, the number of pages they read before leaving and so on.

All of Google’s really cool data is only useful if it is reliable, and there are many reasons why the data that Google collects may be wrong. This is why it is necessary to ensure that your Google analytics codes are properly installed, and properly audited. Even without an audit, you can tell if your tracking code is faulty when you have:

1. An unusually high or low bounce rate
2. An unreasonably high or low number of page views, especially when ad revenue does not match the rise and fall in views
3. When you have static data like time on page that doesn’t improve or diminish over several months.

All these are indicative of a faulty Google analytics implementation and these faults are due to certain errors which are fairly common.

To detect these sort of errors, tools like Google Analytics debugger and tag assistant come in handy.
The analytics debugger helps to analyze JavaScript events coming from your Google analytics tag right within your chrome console. The tag assistant extension usually looks like this.

Google tag assistant is a lot easier to work it as it gives a snapshot overview of all detected tags on a page and color codes them based on four characteristics which are:

• When the tag is green, then this means that there are no implementation issues associated with it.
• When the tag is blue, it means that there are minor implementation problems along with suggestions to correct those issues.
• When the tag is yellow, this means that there are risks to your data quality and the tag setup is likely to give unexpected results.
• When the tag is red, this means that there are outright implementation errors with the set up which could lead to missing data in your reports.

When using tag assistant, here are some common errors you could find

1. Invalid or missing web property ID

This usually happens when the property ID in your analytics code is either missing or wrong. The property ID is like a phone number that tells Google analytics the exact account it should send all the data it has collected to. So if the property ID is missing, data will be collected but won’t be sent to your analytics account.

Solution: Ensure that the web property ID on your page matches the ID in your Google analytics account. To be safe, just ensure that script on your page matches the script that is generated in your account.

2. Same web ID property is tracked twice

Source of the problem: This error usually results from multiple installations of your Google analytics property ID. This happens when Google analytics is reporting to the same web ID from the global site tag, googlr tag manager and Google analytics. It can also happen when Google analytics code from the same web property is installed through an external file and through a direct installation in the HTML of your website.

Solution: The solution is to ensure that the tracking code of each web property ID is only installed once. So you can look through your site’s source code. Use ctrl + F to find all instances of the web property. Identify the tags through which it’s injection into the page is being duplicated, then proceed to eliminate all but one of them.

3. Missing http response

This error indicates that while Google analytics has been detected on the page, it isn’t sending any responses to Google’s servers. Without a http response, data isn’t being transported to the server and hence, cannot appear in your analytics account.

Solution: Reinstall Google analytics in the head section of your website since this error usually results from faulty installations of the tracking code.

4. Method X has X additional parameters

Each method in Google Analytics has a set number of allowed parameters. You can find out the number and type of allowed parameters for any method by reading the documentation.

This error denotes that you have exceeded the number of allowed parameters for the given method.
Exceeding the number of allowed parameters will either cause Google Analytics to drop any parameter over the limit OR cause Google Analytics to fail to record data associated with the given method.

Solution: Review the documentation and parameter allocation for the respective Google Analytics methods and ensure that your implementation follows the documentation appropriately.

You can check Google’s documentation here

5. Leading or trailing whitespace in ID

This error indicates that your Google Analytics ID is not properly set within the setAccount function in the Google Analytics JavaScript. The error explicitly states the existence of a whitespace or empty space either before or after the account ID that is preventing the correct ID from being identified or collected. Your account ID is important because it indicates the account that the collected data is to be sent to.

Solution: Ensure that there is no space before, after or within your Google a analytics ID. Also check to ensure that the ID in your source code matches with the ID in your analytics account.

6. Move the tag inside the head

This error indicates that the analytics ID is not in the ideal location within your sites HTML. The ideal location for the analytics scripts is the head section because it is it the the head section that the tracking beacon is guaranteed to have fired before the visitor has left your site. If the tracking code is in the body or footer, it may not have fired, recorded a visit or any other event before the user would have left the page. It could also miss certain page events leading to missing and incorrect data in your reports.

Solution: Move your tracking code to the head section of your sites’ HTML and place it just a above the closing head tag
<head>
Place the code just above the closing head tag
</head>

Detected both dc.js and ga.js/urchin.js
Remove Depreciated method ‘XXXXX’

6. Missing JavaScript & Missing JavaScript closing tag

Without a closing tag, the JavaScript functions required to collect data from your page and transport it to Google’s servers would fail to execute.
When this happens, no data will be collected or reported in your account.

Solution: Ensure that your Google Analytics script contains the full request to google-analytics.com. Ensure that all functions are declared in full just as stated in the tracking code you were given. To be safe, just ensure that script on your page matches the script that is generated in your account.

7. Tag is included in an external script file

This message indicates that Google analytics isn’t present on the page source code but is firing from an external file. While data may still be reported, this sort of set up is fragile and could be responsible for data discrepancies. It might also make your site vulnerable to competitor spying or negative SEO attacks.

Solution: Check through the external file that your code is firing from and ensure that it is working properly. If you had prior problems before you discovered that an external file was hosting your tracking code, it may be best to install Google analytics in the source code of your website and remove it from the external file.

Conclusion

Data collection is extremely important in the optimization or day to day managing of a website. The data you collect can be analyzed to find what works, what doesn’t work, why it doesn’t work, when it doesn’t work and for whom it doesn’t work. This info can change the trajectory of your website for good only if the information your have is reliable. This is why Google analytics auditing is necessary and is something you should embark upon from time to time. If you have any further questions you would like to ask me, feel free to get in touch.

The SEO Implications of these HTTP status Codes

HTTP is an acronym which means hyper text transfer protocol. It is the defined framework for the communication between clients and servers. In the context of the internet, clients are request generators, while servers are request handlers. For example, if you go to a library and request a book, you are the client.. while the librarian who offers you the book is the server.

This same analogy applies to the internet. If you want a document, a video, a picture or any other resource, you would make a request via the browser on your phone, tablet or laptop. These devices are the clients. When the request reaches the server, it then communicates the status of the request back to the clients.

These server-client status responses are of SEO relevance because they impact search engines and human visitors to a site. Search engines use these status codes as indicators of the page quality of a website. These http status codes exist in 5 major groupings which are;

• 1xx status codes – informational responses with no SEO implications
• 2xx status codes – success codes with SEO implications
• 3xx status codes – Redirection responses
• 4xx status codes– Refer to client errors. These are server to client responses that do not meet the clients expectations
• 5xx status codes – These are server errors.

There are lots of status codes, but some occur so frequently that they necessitate a thorough understanding of their SEO effects on a website. Let’s start with eight specific types

200 status codes

These are the best possible codes that you can get. Whenever you don’t get a 200 response, this indicates that there was an issue either on the server or client end. When you get a 200 status code, all is well with the URL.

301 status codes

These refer to redirects that are of a permanent nature. This means that one URL is actually pointing to another URL usually of different anchor text. This response is of consequence for SEO because of the effect it can have on crawl budget and the transfer of PageRank. It can also have an effect on the user experience on a website due to the occurrence of an information mismatch between the requested URL and the page it is permanently redirecting to.

302 and 307 status codes

These usually indicate that a temporary redirect has taken place. These are of real SEO consequence because neither of these two redirect methods can pass PageRank to a new URL. This should only be used if the content missing under the old URL will be replaced at a later date.

400, 403 and 404 status codes

The 400 error indicates invalid syntax in the request sent from the client. This could happen if the client is sending a file that is too large, or if it’s request is malformed in some way (expired cookie, sending request via invalid URLs etc.).

The 403 error is a forbidden response from the server to the client. This indicates that the server is not going to allow the request to be fulfilled due to the unauthorized status of the client.

The 404 error on the other hand indicates that the requested resource is missing completely on that url or location.

Understanding the SEO impact 

These are all client side errors and their main impact is in the UX experience signals that they send to both humans and search engines. With humans, frequent errors of this nature will lead to bounce rate spikes, low time on page metrics, and drop offs along the conversion funnels of a site. For search engines, this can lead to the deindexing of URLs that were relevant for high value keywords.

What About Server Errors?

All 5XX errors are server related and point to issues with the web host. The implications are by far the most severe because it indicates that the requested resource cannot be offered by the server. Whenever Google encounters errors of this nature, ranking losses and deindexations of URLs are usually not far off.

In Summary

This was a brief overview of common SEO errors and the implications for organic traffic generation. Search engines are the conduit between web surfers and your website. This means that direct access to your audience and customers can be augmented or sabotaged based on the type of status codes that Google’s algorithms are getting. These algorithms are autonomous learning systems which is why negative signals must be avoided at all costs. To succeed at SEO, you must do your best to ensure that 200 status codes dominate on the most important sections of your website.

7 Ways To Increase your Crawl Budget For Better SEO Rankings

The web is a transfinite space. It is incredibly large and just like the universe, it is continually expanding. Search engine crawlers are constantly discovering and indexing content, but they can’t find every single content update or new post in every single crawling attempt. This places a limit on the amount of attention and crawling that can occur on a single website. This limit is what is referred to as a crawl budget. 

The crawl budget is the amount of resources that search engines like Google, Bing or Yandex have allocated to extracting information from a server at a given time period, but it is determined by three other components which are;

1. Crawl rate: The amount of bytes that the search engine crawlers is downloading per unit time
2. Crawl demand: The crawl necessity due to how frequently new information or updates appears on a website
3. Server resilience: The amount of crawler traffic that a server can respond to without a significant dip in its performance

Why did I list those three components above? I listed them because the crawl budget is not fixed. It can rise and fall for a website, and it’s rise and fall affect the ranking and visibility of all content that the website holds. 

So what are ranking the implications? you may wonder. The SEO implications of crawl budget changes are profound for many reasons, some of which are;

Large crawl budgets increase the ease with which your content can be found, indexed and ranked

The only content that can be indexed is content that can be found, hence the more quickly your content can be found, the more competitive you become in expanding your keyword relevance relative to your competitors.  It is only content that is found that can be ranked so when the news breaks, the site with a larger crawl budget is likely to be ranked higher than others because its content gets out there first.

Crawl budget increases lead to resilience against the impact of content theft

The more crawl budget a site possesses, the greater the likelihood of its being able to get away with content theft, content spinning, and the more immune it becomes to the harmful effects of content scraping. This is because a site with a large crawl budget can steal content, but may get this content discovered and indexed before the original website. 

Lastly, search engines compare websites based on their crawl budget rank

This is why related information is explicitly available in search console and Yandex SQI reports.  The crawl budget rank or CBR of a website is given as:

• IS – the number of indexed websites in the sitemap
• NIS – the number of websites sent in the sitemap
• IPOS – the number of indexed pages outside sitemap
• SNI – the number of pages scanned but not yet indexed

The closer the CBR is to zero, the more work needs to be done on the site, the farther it is from zero, the more crawling, visibility and traffic the site gets. 

How to increase your crawl budget

You can increase your crawl budget by increasing the distance that a web crawler can comfortably travel as it wriggles through your website. There are six major ways by which it can be accomplished and these are;

1. This can be achieved by eliminating duplicate pages
2. Eliminating 404 and other status code errors
3. Reducing the number of redirects and redirect chains
4. Improving the amount of internal linking between your pages and shrinking your site depth (number of clicks needed to reach any page in your site)
5. Improving your site speed
6. Improving your server uptime
7. Using robot.txt files to block crawler access to unimportant pages on your site

Conclusion

Crawl budget optimization is one of the surest paths to upgrading your rankings and website visibility, this is why special attention should be paid to your overall site health. Your site health is the most reliable indicator of the scale and location of your crawl budget leakages