Googlebot
01 Definition
Googlebot meaning: Google's web crawler that discovers and fetches pages for its search index.
Googlebot is the automated crawler Google uses to find, fetch, and render web pages for Search. It follows links, respects robots.txt rules, and comes in desktop and smartphone versions. Google primarily uses the mobile Googlebot under mobile-first indexing.
Also called
Why it matters
How Googlebot fits the work
Googlebot is how your pages enter Google Search, so knowing how it crawls, renders, and obeys your directives helps you control what gets indexed.
In context
After publishing, the site owner used the URL Inspection tool to confirm Googlebot had crawled and rendered the new page correctly.
Practical note
Verify real Googlebot by reverse DNS lookup, since user agent strings can be faked. Blocking Googlebot in robots.txt stops crawling but does not reliably remove a page from the index.