Discussion Technical SEO AI Crawlers

How do AI crawlers actually decide which pages to prioritize? Our important pages seem ignored

TE
TechnicalSEO_Kevin · Technical SEO Manager
· · 138 upvotes · 10 comments
TK
TechnicalSEO_Kevin
Technical SEO Manager · January 5, 2026

Analyzing our AI crawler logs and some of our most important content pages aren’t being crawled frequently.

What I’m seeing:

  • AI bots hitting less important pages
  • Key content pages crawled rarely
  • Pattern doesn’t match what I’d expect

Questions:

  • How do AI crawlers decide what to prioritize?
  • How can we signal importance to AI crawlers?
  • What causes pages to be deprioritized?

Looking for insights on AI crawler prioritization.

10 comments

10 Comments

CS
CrawlerExpert_Sarah Expert Technical SEO Specialist · January 5, 2026

AI crawlers work differently than Googlebot. Here’s what influences prioritization:

Prioritization factors:

FactorImpactHow to Optimize
External linksHighBuild authority
Organic trafficMediumImprove SEO
Content freshnessMediumUpdate regularly
Internal linkingMediumLink from important pages
Sitemap inclusionLow-MediumInclude in XML sitemap
Server speedHighFast TTFB

How AI crawlers operate:

  • Bursts of activity (not continuous like Google)
  • Limited resources (can’t crawl everything)
  • Focus on known-authoritative content
  • Less sophisticated than Googlebot

Why pages get deprioritized:

  1. Low authority signals
  2. Slow server response
  3. Technical accessibility issues
  4. Poor internal linking
ST
ServerLogs_Tom DevOps Engineer · January 4, 2026

From log analysis perspective:

AI crawler patterns:

  • GPTBot: Sustained bursts, then quiet
  • PerplexityBot: More continuous
  • Both respect robots.txt

What we’ve observed:

  • Pages linked from homepage get crawled more
  • Fast-responding pages get crawled more
  • Updated content gets recrawled sooner

Technical fixes that helped:

  1. Ensure TTFB under 500ms
  2. Include in XML sitemap
  3. Internal links from high-traffic pages
  4. robots.txt allowing AI bots
TK
TechnicalSEO_Kevin OP Technical SEO Manager · January 4, 2026

This explains the pattern. Action items:

Technical fixes:

  • Improve server response time
  • Review internal linking to key pages
  • Verify sitemap includes priority content
  • Check robots.txt for AI crawlers

Content signals:

  • Update key content regularly
  • Build authority through external links
  • Strong internal linking structure

Thanks for the insights!

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do AI crawlers prioritize pages?
AI crawlers prioritize based on page authority (backlinks, traffic), content freshness, topic relevance, and technical accessibility. Unlike Googlebot, AI crawlers don’t have the same crawl budget or sophisticated prioritization - they operate in bursts and focus on accessible, authoritative content.
Why might important pages be ignored by AI crawlers?
Common reasons include: pages blocked by robots.txt or technical issues, slow server responses causing timeouts, JavaScript-rendered content they can’t access, or content not signaled as important through internal linking and sitemaps.
How can I help AI crawlers find important pages?
Ensure pages are accessible without JavaScript, include them in XML sitemaps, use strong internal linking from authoritative pages, maintain fast server response times, and create content worth crawling (comprehensive, authoritative).

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