Definition
Crawlability describes whether search engine and AI crawlers can discover your pages, request them successfully and read their content. It depends on internal links, sitemaps, robots.txt rules, server responses, page speed, firewall settings and whether important content needs JavaScript to appear. A problem at any one of these steps can stop a page from being used.
For example, Bizbloom's pricing page might look fine to visitors but return a 403 error to bots because a security service blocks unfamiliar user-agents. Or its feature comparison might load only after a script runs, leaving a crawler that does not execute JavaScript with an empty page.
Why it matters
Crawlability is the foundation under every other visibility effort. If a crawler cannot fetch or read a page, that page cannot be indexed, retrieved or cited, no matter how good the writing is. AI crawlers can also behave differently from Googlebot, so a page that works in Google Search may still be unreadable to some assistants. Checking crawlability first prevents wasted effort on content that no system can see.
What to do
- Fetch key pages with AI crawler user-agents and confirm they return a 200 status.
- Compare raw HTML with the rendered page to find content that depends on JavaScript.
- Review robots.txt, CDN and firewall rules for blocks on crawlers you want to allow.
Common questions
How do I check if AI crawlers can access my site?
Start with robots.txt and look for rules naming AI crawlers or blocking all bots. Then review server logs for requests from those crawlers and their response codes. You can also request pages with a crawler's user-agent, though firewalls may treat verified bot IP addresses differently.
Is crawlability different for AI crawlers than for Google?
It can be. Googlebot renders JavaScript, while some AI crawlers may fetch only the raw HTML. Firewalls and CDNs may also allow Googlebot but block less familiar bots. A page that is fully crawlable for Google should still be checked separately for the AI crawlers you care about.