# Do search engine spiders count towards thread views? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [September 1, 2013, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-search-engine-spiders-count-towards-thread-views/667727 "2013-09-01T13:35:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-search-engine-spiders-count-towards-thread-views/667727/1 "2013-09-01T13:35:11Z")
If you have a thread with zero views and Google et al crawl the site and index the page, does the view ranking increase? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-search-engine-spiders-count-towards-thread-views/667727/2 "2013-09-02T02:10:03Z")
226 views, zero replies. Good question! ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-search-engine-spiders-count-towards-thread-views/667727/3 "2013-09-02T03:15:28Z")
I’m still trying to figure out the question. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-search-engine-spiders-count-towards-thread-views/667727/6 "2013-09-02T14:11:55Z")
Maybe the page views are all from Google? 🙂 > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I’m still trying to figure out the question. Search engines “crawl” the web and read pages. That’s how they know what’s on them, so they can respond to searches from users. When you look at a thread from one of the forum pages on SDMB, you can see how many “views” the thread has. The question is if the search engine reading the thread counts as a view. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-search-engine-spiders-count-towards-thread-views/667727/7 "2013-09-02T15:25:31Z")
I see. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-search-engine-spiders-count-towards-thread-views/667727/8 "2013-09-02T15:32:13Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > If you have a thread with zero views and Google et al crawl the site and index the page, does the view ranking increase? View “ranking”? Do you mean view “count” as shown on the board? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-search-engine-spiders-count-towards-thread-views/667727/9 "2013-09-02T15:56:06Z")
528 views, 6 replies, 0 answers. maybe email Messrs. Google? ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-search-engine-spiders-count-towards-thread-views/667727/10 "2013-09-02T20:12:54Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > 528 views, 6 replies, 0 answers. > > maybe email Messrs. Google? More like Messr. V and Messr B. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-search-engine-spiders-count-towards-thread-views/667727/11 "2013-09-02T20:16:13Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > More like Messr. V and Messr B. AGHHHHHH, oui. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-search-engine-spiders-count-towards-thread-views/667727/12 "2013-09-02T21:41:18Z")
I entered the string, “vBulletin search engine spider page view” into Duck Duck Go and Metacrawler. The results showed that vBulletin has options for tracking which search engines are scanning your website. I didn’t find any reference to an option that would cause it to not register a google-scan as a page view. So I tentatively conclude that search engine scans do count as a page views. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-search-engine-spiders-count-towards-thread-views/667727/13 "2013-09-03T02:43:52Z")
If they took the time/programming resources to be able to determine that it’s a crawler, then isn’t it possible that they could use that information to avoid incrementing the page view counter (oh, ‘view’, not rank)? Hmmm… ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-search-engine-spiders-count-towards-thread-views/667727/14 "2013-09-03T03:17:53Z")
I have no clue … but I would suspect a view is a view is a view, regardless of what that “view” might be. If anyone with more knowledge can verify or refute, my feelings won’t be hurt. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-search-engine-spiders-count-towards-thread-views/667727/15 "2013-09-03T11:03:27Z")
OK, this page now has 725 views. Everyone here who has viewed this thread post “I viewed this thread X times”, where “X” is the number of times you’ve viewed the thread. I’ll add up the numbers, and if different than 725 we’ll ha our our answer. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-search-engine-spiders-count-towards-thread-views/667727/16 "2013-09-03T11:36:47Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > I have no clue … but I would suspect a view is a view is a view, regardless of what that “view” might be. I used to run a board, and checked the logs in some detail (back when the Internet was young). I found more spiders and auto-scanners than anything. I doubt if this percentage has decreased. I have to remind my fellow Realtors that just because they had 500 views of their new property listing, 475 of those were probably not real buyers, but robots, and of the 10 inquiry emails they got, 8 of them were auto-generated and sales calls for real estate services that they want you to pay for. It’s a fact of life. ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-search-engine-spiders-count-towards-thread-views/667727/17 "2013-09-03T12:21:54Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > OK, this page now has 725 views. Everyone here who has viewed this thread post “I viewed this thread X times”, where “X” is the number of times you’ve viewed the thread. I’ll add up the numbers, and if different than 725 we’ll ha our our answer. “I viewed this thread X times” One.