website crawler

A website crawler is a software program that systematically explores the internet by visiting web pages, similar to how a human might click through links. Its main purpose is to gather information from these pages, such as content and structure, which search engines like Google use to index and rank websites. The crawler follows links from one page to another, creating a map of the web's content. This process helps search engines understand what websites are about, ensuring users can find relevant and up-to-date results when they search online.