Guys, I have received the following message in my google webmaster tool inbox. what is this?? I haven't sent any request to google. We've received a request from a site owner to change the rate at which Googlebot crawls this site: http://www.yourdomain.com/ New crawl rate: Custom rate - 0.0020 requests per second - 500.0 seconds per request Your request will take a day or two to come into effect. This new crawl rate will stay in effect for 90 days. We recommend that you set a custom crawl rate only if you're experiencing traffic problems with your server. To use Google's recommended crawl rate, follow these steps. 1. On the Dashboard, select the site you want. 2. Click Settings. 3. In the Crawl rate section, select "Let Google determine my crawl rate".
I would check your home page for <meta> verification elements and the root folder for your web for verification HTML files. If you had a previous webmaster who was verified to manage your site and you did not remove their verification meta element or HTML file when they ceased being your webmaster then they still have access to Google Webmaster Tools to act on your behalf. To revoke their access simply remove their verification <meta> element and/or HTML files. NOTE: Be sure NOT to remove yours. Each webmaster gets assigned a different verification <meta> element value and/or HTML file name. It sounds like someone who is verified as a webmaster on Google's WMT for your site selected a custom crawl rate. This is NOT good. You should ONLY set a custom crawl rate for your site if Google crawling your site is bringing it to its knees (i.e. if the server your site is running on is VERY slow and the crawling of the site is affecting your users' experience). If you have been through the Google site verification process for Webmaster Tools and have access, simply login, select your site, expand "Site Configuration" in the left navigation, click on "Settings" under "Site Configuration" in the left navigation, and select the "Let Google determine my crawl rate (Recommended)" option under the Crawl Rate subheading. I HIGHLY recommend you do NOT try to use a custom crawl rate.