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Spider web

Spider web concept

What is a web spider?

The spider web is just one of the different names that are given to web crawlers. Also known as indexers or indexers, it consists of computer programs that are responsible for inspecting the entire fabric of the network of networks fully automatically.

Its operation is simpler than it seems. These computer spiders begin by entering a specific list of web addresses to, once inside, detect all the hyperlinks they contain and, thus, add them to that list that they constantly access following a certain pattern and adhering to specific rules. The most frequent is a simple sequential method by which the spider enters, detects new links and registers them for later visit. After that, also access these new ones and see if more arrive to, little by little, swell the registry to enter.

They work, consequently, helping search engines to detect portals to position, as well as to know other aspects such as broken links or even carry out much simpler tasks that we will talk about in one of the following sections.

The spider web is, practically, the person in charge that every little we see the new pages that are appearing in Internet. Without it, the detection mechanism as we know it would be totally non-existent and, probably, things would be much more complicated in the network of networks.

What is a web spider for?

As we have already pointed out, the task of the web spider is to detect new pages and links in order to register them and notify them to different search engines and / or platforms. Despite everything, there are more specific uses that can be useful for different sectors of the public.

These spiders or indexers can be used to check the status of a page through its links or even find the best prices for one or more products through different online catalogs.

Examples of using a spider web

The clearest web spider that we can see is that of Google. Thanks to this, the search engine par excellence is capable of detecting any online portal and, incidentally, knowing at the moment each new update that it may have, even if it consists of new pages that are added to its network.

We tell you about it and its influence in terms of SEO in our of our publications:

What is search engine optimization? 37 steps to 1st place.

Despite everything, there are other examples such as Scrapy or Heritrix, which perform similar functions and are fully active.

 More information about Spider web

Given their importance, it is more than likely that you are wondering more about these well-known indexers as web spiders. To help you a little more, we are going to give you several reference links with more content and details about these programs that are so present and, at the same time, so hidden in the network of networks.