What is the difference between index bloat and crawl bloat and how do they harm SEO performance?

Question

SEO Fundamentals — Hard

What is the difference between index bloat and crawl bloat and how do they harm SEO performance?

Accepted Answer

Index bloat and crawl bloat are distinct issues in SEO. Index bloat involves low-quality or duplicate URLs in Google's index, affecting site quality signals. Crawl bloat occurs when bots waste resources on unnecessary URLs, diverting attention from important pages.