One of the top tools to track and measure technical SEO, Screaming Frog SEO Spider helps businesses understand how their website is performing. It is a great tool that also allows your team to find technical faults on the web page and find strategies that can help you quickly regain your SERP ranking. Screaming Frog SEO is a tool that is widely used by SEO beginners and experts alike and can be quite instrumental in your SEO journey.
In the following article, we will provide you with a brief guide about the Screaming Frog SEO Spider tool and how to use it. So, what are you waiting for? Jump right into this article and get started with learning about the Screaming Frog SEO tool to better audit your website.
What Is Screaming Frog SEO Spider?
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is an SEO tool that was developed by a UK-based technical SEO consulting agency known as Screaming Frog. The tool was launched in 2010 and has gained a lot of popularity since then. Screaming Frog SEO Spider tool is widely used by marketers across the world to crawl the individual URLs present in a specific website.
The best part about this tool is that it replicates exactly how the spiders for popular search engines like Google and Bing work. All it does is analyze the HTML code of the website in question, starting with the landing page. Then, it identifies different elements like headings, images, page titles, meta descriptions, structured data, and other content present on the website. But, it does not stop there; instead, Screaming Frog SEO Spider then follows all internal links in the HTML code, crawls each of these pages, and reviews them in the same way.
When you audit your website with Screaming Frog SEO, you will get all the information in a detailed format. You can find a load of valuable information that can help you fix your website and boost its SERP rankings.
How To Use Screaming Frog For SEO?
Now that you know what the Screaming Frog SEO tool is all about, you must be asking – how to use Screaming Frog for SEO. Well, the following section details the different steps that you must follow to audit your website and ensure a better search engine ranking.
Installation To Get Started
Unlike most SEO tools available online, Screaming Frog’s tool is desktop-based and has a great interface that adds to the user experience. In this section, we will help you install the application on your desktop to get you started on your website’s SEO journey.
System Requirements
If you want to crawl large websites, Screaming Frog recommends having 16GB of RAM, but 8GB also works fine (for smaller sites). To install Screaming Frog, you must have a 64-bit operating system. But if you have a 32-bit OS, Screaming Frog will offer you alternative software.
1. Download Screaming Frog
Visit the official website of Screaming Frog SEO and click on the Download button (blue in color). The website will automatically suggest a software version based on your OS, but you can also choose any other you like.
2. Install Screaming Frog
Once the tool is downloaded, go to your downloads to run the recently downloaded .exe file. Click on Yes when your computer asks if you trust the app to make changes to your device. Follow the installation instructions that come up, click on Install, and wait for the installation to be done. Click on Finish and your Screaming Frog tool will be ready to launch.
Conduct Website Audits
Once the Screaming Frog SEO tool is installed, you can get started with your website audits right away! To conduct your first website audit using the tool, follow the steps detailed below:-
1. Input The Website URL
Once you open the Screaming Frog tool, you will see a gray box at the top of the tool that reads Enter URL to Spider. You can enter the website URL in the box and will see that the default option is all subdomains. This simply means that the tool will crawl the entire website that you have entered. But, you can change it to crawl a specific subdomain or a single URL. Once you are done changing these settings, click on the Start button (green in color).
2. Start With The Crawl
The tool automatically starts crawling the website and the URLs start appearing as soon as the crawl is done. With the free version, you can crawl up to 500 URLs which can be a hindrance if you are crawling a large website. In that case, we recommend you upgrade your plan to ensure you can crawl as many websites as needed. You will need to wait for the tool to finish the crawl and remember that the total time varies based on the number of pages.
4. Read The Generated Report
Once the tool has crawled all URLs, you will get a report that lists the data. To access the report, navigate to Reports and select the report you want to download. You can check out the available data and modify your website accordingly for better results.
Conclusion
It can be quite difficult to track technical SEO but Screaming Frog SEO Spider makes it easier. If you want to get a step closer to dominating SERPs, we recommend getting in touch with professional SEO company with years of experience.
Sandeep Goel is the founder and CEO of Obelisk Infotech. He is a 1st generation entrepreneur working for over a decade and providing digital marketing services worldwide helping startups and building visibility for businesses through content and digital marketing.
He started his career as an SEO Analyst with US clients, which helped him polish his search engine optimization skills and gain a better understanding of digital culture and enhance his sales and marketing skills.
He also loves to write and regularly shares his views on blog sections. He is instrumental in company growth by creating and implementing processes, platform partners, and technologies to streamline operations at the micro and macro levels.
Founder (Obelisk Infotech)