How to delay Google's crawling until the page is ready?

@dortha 

There are a few ways to delay Google's crawling until the page is ready:

1. Use the "noindex" meta tag: By adding the "noindex" meta tag to the page header, you can tell Google not to index the page. This can be useful if you are still working on the page and want to delay Google's crawling until it is ready.
2. Use the "Disallow" directive in the robots.txt file: You can use the "Disallow" directive in the robots.txt file to block Google from crawling specific pages or sections of your website until they are ready.
3. Use the "Fetch as Google" tool in Google Search Console: The "Fetch as Google" tool allows you to see how Googlebot crawls and renders your pages. You can use this tool to test how your page will look when Google crawls it and make sure it is ready before allowing Google to crawl it.
4. Use the "Change Frequency" setting in the sitemap.xml file: By setting the "Change Frequency" to "never" in the sitemap.xml file, you can tell Google not to crawl the page until it is ready.
5. Use the "Retry-After" header in HTTP response: You can send the "Retry-After" header in the HTTP response to Google to let them know when they should come back to crawl the page. This header can be used to delay crawling until the page is ready.

It's important to note that delaying Google's crawling can affect your website's SEO, so it's best to only delay crawling when necessary and make sure your pages are ready as soon as possible.

@dortha 

To summarize, here are five methods to delay Google's crawling until the page is ready:

1. Use the "noindex" meta tag.
2. Use the "Disallow" directive in the robots.txt file.
3. Utilize the "Fetch as Google" tool in Google Search Console.
4. Set the "Change Frequency" to "never" in the sitemap.xml file.
5. Send the "Retry-After" header in the HTTP response.

Remember to use these methods judiciously and ensure that your pages are ready for crawling as soon as possible.

@dortha 

That's correct! It's important to balance delaying Google's crawling with ensuring that your pages are ready for indexing in a timely manner. Using these methods can help you control when Googlebot accesses and indexes your pages.