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Website crawlers, also known as spiders or bots, are crucial tools for any SEO professional. These programs scan through a website's pages, links, and content to analyze its structure and identify any technical issues that may be hindering its search engine performance. In this article, we will be comparing two popular website crawlers: Screaming Frog and SiteBulb.
About Screaming Frog
As an SEO working at a search marketing agency, let me tell you about the game-changing tool that is Screaming Frog. This powerful desktop program is the key to unlocking valuable data about any website you desire to crawl. And don't worry, whether you're a Mac or Windows user, Screaming Frog has got you covered.
With a free version that allows you to crawl up to 500 URLs, and an unlimited crawling option available with the paid version, Screaming Frog is not just limited to SEO purposes. It's also a valuable tool for website audits and competitor analysis.
Why settle for manual checks on every page of your website, when there's a high chance you might miss important details like redirects and duplicate content? Let Screaming Frog do the hard work for you and crawl small and large websites with ease. And when it's done, the SEO Spider will present you with a comprehensive list of on-page SEO elements, including URL, page title, meta description, and headings, which can then be exported to a spreadsheet for easy reference and used as the foundation for SEO recommendations.
Join the ranks of successful businesses like Dell, Virgin, and Apple, and upgrade your web scraping game with Screaming Frog.
Benefits of Using Screaming Frog for SEO
- Website crawling and data collection
- On-page SEO element analysis
- Identification of broken links and missing images
- Redirect analysis and management
- Duplicate content detection
- Competitor analysis
- Website audit and optimization
- Search engine optimization (SEO) reporting and analysis
- Easy identification of crawl errors (see screenshot below)
- Extraction of metadata and other on-page elements
- Mobile and desktop website optimization
- Analysis of page speed and load time
- Integration with Google Analytics and Google Search Console
- Extraction of structured data and schema markup
- Detection of broken internal links
- Identification of duplicate URLs and canonicalization issues
- Monitoring of website performance and tracking of changes
- Identification of orphaned pages and content
- Extraction of keyword data for content optimization
- Automatic generation of XML Sitemaps.
If you are new to Screaming Frog, they have an excellent user guide resource on their website explaining what each and every tab is reporting on and explaining the software features in detail so you can become a power user in no time. If your question remains unanswered after reviewing their extensive user resources, Screaming Frog happens to have the most responsive customer service team I've ever experienced.
Another benefit of Screaming Frog is that they are constantly adding new useful features and taking feature requests from users. Take a look at my favorite new feature in the image below: This additional tab does a great job of prioritizing the issues found while crawling our website.
About SiteBulb
Sitebulb is a one-stop shop for all your website auditing needs. As an SEO professional, you'll appreciate its ability to analyze data from an SEO perspective, making it easier for you to deliver insightful and actionable website audits to your clients.
With its evergreen Googlebot crawler and prioritized hints, Sitebulb helps you quickly identify and tackle website issues, providing you with a complete, efficient, and organized website audit. Its visualizations make it easier for you to understand deep-rooted issues and better communicate complex ideas with your clients or team members.
Their Pro version takes over 300 factors, also known as “hints”, into consideration and prioritizes them based on their level of criticality – from Critical to High, Medium, Low, and even an Insight hint that offers expert advice. The report not only highlights the potential issues but also provides a beginner-friendly explanation of why each hint is important and how it can impact your website’s SEO.
Sitebulb is packed with a range of key features including flexible PDF reports, audit comparison, data visualization, URL explorers, and the ability to crawl even the largest websites with ease. Its white-label reporting feature is an added bonus, allowing you to present the audit to your clients with your own branding. Say goodbye to manual auditing and hello to seamless, in-depth, and detailed website analysis with Sitebulb.
Benefits of Using SiteBulb For SEO
- Comprehensive website crawl analysis
- Prioritization of technical SEO issues with “hints”
- Explanation of each “hint” for beginner-friendly understanding (see screenshot below)
- In-depth and detailed technical SEO audit reports
- White-label reports for professional presentation to clients
- Intuitive data visualization for improved communication and understanding
- Googlebot crawler for up-to-date analysis
- Audit scores for easy evaluation of website performance
- Flexible PDF reports for easy sharing and storage
- Audit comparison to track progress and identify areas of improvement
- URL explorer for detailed analysis of individual pages
- Ability to crawl large websites
- Deep analysis of website bottlenecks and issues
- Identification of crawl errors
- Analysis of website performance and tracking of changes
- Monitoring of website security
- Optimization suggestions for better search engine performance
- Integration with Google Analytics and Google Search Console
- Automated XML Sitemap generation
- Identification of opportunities for website improvement and growth.
If you are new to using Sitebulb or working in SEO, Sitebulb is surprisingly user-friendly for beginners of both disciplines. I particularly like the explanatory resources provided with each opportunity the site crawler identifies after crawling a domain. These "Learn more about this" resources explain in plain English what is happening, why it's a problem, and then provide actionable steps to resolve the issue - perfect for a beginner SEO or an agency setting.
Screaming Frog vs SiteBulb: Pros & Cons
Now that we've taken a closer look at the individual features of Screaming Frog and SiteBulb, let's compare and contrast them to see how they stack up against each other.
One of the main differences between the two tools is their approach to identifying and prioritizing technical SEO issues. While both tools use a traffic light system to indicate the severity of each issue, SiteBulb also includes an interactive visual site audit that presents a clear and user-friendly representation of your website structure and issues. On the other hand, Screaming Frog has a built-in content audit feature and a comprehensive reporting feature that makes it easy to present data to clients or stakeholders.
Both tools have built-in mobile auditing features to identify any mobile-specific issues and have the capability to integrate with Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Ahrefs, making them great tools for agencies and businesses that want to combine data from different sources.
In terms of pricing, Screaming Frog has a free version with a 500 URLs limit, and a paid version that starts at $259 per year. SiteBulb, on the other hand, has a free trial version with a limited number of URLs that can be audited, and a paid version that starts at $35 per month.
| Screaming Frog | SiteBulb |
| Pros: | Pros: |
| - Offers a wide range of technical and content SEO analysis features | - Offers a wide range of features for technical and content SEO analysis |
| - Popular use cases include identifying technical SEO issues, analyzing website content, and identifying opportunities for improvement | - Identifies and prioritizes technical SEO issues with a traffic light system |
| - Comprehensive reporting feature for easy presentation to clients or stakeholders | - Built-in content audit feature and interactive visual site audit |
| - Identifies and prioritizes technical SEO issues with a traffic light system | - Includes Hreflang and mobile checkers |
| - Built-in content audit feature and interactive visual site audit | - Integrates with Google Analytics, Search Console, and Ahrefs for data analysis and combination |
| - Includes Hreflang and mobile checkers | - Comprehensive reporting feature for easy presentation to clients or stakeholders |
| - Integrates with Google Analytics, Search Console, and Ahrefs for data analysis and combination. | - Short learning curve compared to Screaming Frog |
| Cons: | Cons: |
| - Has a steeper learning curve for new users | - Has a higher cost compared to Screaming Frog |
| - Limited number of concurrent crawl threads, which can slow down larger crawls | - Limited export options for data analysis |
| - Limited data storage capacity for larger websites | - Not ideal for crawling JavaScript and AJAX websites |
| - The free version has a 500 URLs limit | - The free version has a limited number of URLs that can be audited |
| - Some users might find it complex to use, especially for small websites |
All-in-all, they are both great tools
As an SEO professional, I've had the opportunity to use both Screaming Frog and Sitebulb. Both tools are highly valuable for website crawler analysis and have their own unique strengths and weaknesses. Screaming Frog excels in its ability to crawl small and large websites with ease, while Sitebulb prioritizes technical SEO issues and provides beginner-friendly explanations for each.
At Uproer, we utilize both Screaming Frog and Sitebulb to assess our clients' websites and make informed recommendations for search engine optimization. Ultimately, the choice between the two comes down to personal preference and the specific needs of the website being analyzed. Both Screaming Frog and Sitebulb are powerful tools for any SEO professional and are essential for a comprehensive website audit.
