TECHNICAL · SEO GLOSSARY
Crawl Graph
The network structure of internal links on a website as seen by a search engine crawler — determining which pages are discoverable, how far they are from the homepage by crawl depth, and how link equity distributes across the site\'s URL hierarchy.
Definition
The crawl graph is a directed graph representation of a website\'s internal link structure — with pages as nodes and internal hyperlinks as directed edges. Search engine crawlers (Googlebot) traverse this graph starting from known entry points (the homepage, sitemap URLs, external links) and discover new pages by following internal links. The crawl graph determines: (1) **Crawlability** — pages not reachable by any path through internal links from an indexed page (orphan pages) may not be crawled at all, even if listed in a sitemap. The sitemap provides hints, but crawl following internal links determines actual crawl coverage. (2) **Crawl depth** — the number of link hops required to reach a page from the homepage. Pages deeper in the crawl graph (5+ clicks from homepage) receive less crawl budget and may be crawled less frequently. Shallow crawl depth (1–3 clicks) is preferred for important pages. (3) **PageRank distribution** — PageRank flows through the crawl graph via internal links. Pages with many internal links pointing to them receive more PageRank; pages that link to many other pages distribute their PageRank across all linked destinations. A well-structured crawl graph concentrates PageRank on commercially important pages. (4) **Crawl efficiency** — a crawl graph with many short paths between pages (a "small world" graph structure) is more efficiently crawled than one where most pages are only reachable through long paths. Crawl graph analysis tools: Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, and Lumar can generate crawl graphs showing link relationships, crawl depth distributions, and orphan page detection. These visualisations identify pages that are too deep (poor crawl depth), orphaned (no internal links), or over-linked (too many links diluting PageRank per link).
Why it matters for SEO
The crawl graph is the structural foundation of organic search performance. Pages not reachable by the crawl graph cannot be indexed; pages too deep in the graph are crawled infrequently; pages with strong internal link positions receive more crawl attention and PageRank. Optimising the crawl graph through strategic internal linking is one of the most impactful technical SEO levers on large sites.
How DeepSEOAnalysis checks this
DeepSEOAnalysis audits individual page-level crawl signals: whether the audited URL is accessible by Googlebot, the canonical URL configuration, and broken outbound link detection (which identifies broken internal link edges in the crawl graph). Site-wide crawl graph analysis requires a full site crawler like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb.
GLOSSARY
Related terms
technical
Crawl Budget
The number of pages Googlebot will crawl on a site within a given timeframe — determined by crawl rate limit and crawl demand.
Read definition →technical
Crawl Efficiency
The ratio of useful page discoveries to total crawl requests — high crawl efficiency means Googlebot finds and indexes valuable new content with minimal wasted crawl budget on duplicate pages, parameter URLs, and low-value paths.
Read definition →links
Internal Linking
Links between pages on the same domain that distribute PageRank, establish site hierarchy, and guide crawlers to important content.
Read definition →technical
Click Depth
The number of clicks required to reach a page from the homepage — a crawl efficiency signal. Pages more than 3 clicks from the homepage may be crawled less frequently and can accumulate fewer internal links, weakening their ranking potential.
Read definition →See how your site scores on Crawl Graph.
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