--- title: "Run a Screaming Frog audit without code and hand developers a ranked fix list" description: "Configure a Screaming Frog crawl, read the tabs that matter, rank fixes by traffic, and export a developer-ready list without code." canonical: "https://scalewithsearch.com/articles/screaming-frog-non-developers" date: "2026-03-20" modified: "2026-09-25" --- ## Site navigation - [Scale With Search](https://scalewithsearch.com/) - Real estate - Real estate - [Real estate](https://scalewithsearch.com/for/real-estate) - Work - Start here - [Send your brief](https://scalewithsearch.com/work#send-your-brief) - [Prepare your six-question brief](https://scalewithsearch.com/work#prepare-your-six-question-brief) - Build - [Site build, content library with SEO, signal desk](https://scalewithsearch.com/work) - For your business - Trades and home services - [Auto body and collision shops](https://scalewithsearch.com/for/auto-body-and-collision-shops) - [Foundation and home repair contractors](https://scalewithsearch.com/for/foundation-and-home-repair) - 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An SEO manager knows something is wrong with the site. Traffic to a product section fell, and the developers ask for specifics. The manager has Screaming Frog installed but has never opened it past the first screen: dense tables, unfamiliar column names, and hundreds of settings. Most of the value in Screaming Frog needs no code and little technical knowledge. The barrier is unfamiliarity. Learn which tabs matter, which filters show priority issues, and how to export the data. Screaming Frog then takes you from "something is wrong with our site" to "here are 23 specific fixes, ranked by impact." Cloud crawlers in Ahrefs and Semrush summarize their findings. Screaming Frog shows raw data for every crawled URL: headers, status codes, and on-page elements. That detail finds precise problems that summary tools can miss. This guide shows a non-developer how to run the crawl, read the common error patterns, rank fixes by SEO impact, and hand findings to developers. ## Know what Screaming Frog does Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a desktop application for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It crawls a website in a similar way to Googlebot. It follows links, can render pages, extracts on-page elements, and collects data on site structure, content, and technical health. The free version crawls up to 500 URLs. That covers a small site or a test. The paid license removes the URL limit and adds JavaScript rendering, custom extraction, crawl comparison, scheduling, and connections to Google Analytics and Search Console. For most small-business and agency work, the paid license is necessary. A free crawl of a 5,000-page site misses 90% of the pages, and an audit of part of a site gives incomplete findings. When this article was first published (March 2026), the annual license cost little next to consulting fees or the subscription for a cloud SEO platform. A crawl finds these issues: - broken links (4xx and 5xx errors); - redirect chains and loops; - missing or duplicate title tags and meta descriptions; - thin pages, for example under 200 words; - slow pages; - images without alt text; - pages without an H1; - canonical tag problems; - pages blocked by `robots.txt`; - XML sitemap errors. ## Set up the first crawl Download the application from `screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/`, install it, and open it. The menu paths in this guide match the Screaming Frog user guide as checked in September 2026. 1. Enter the site address, such as `https://yoursite.com`, in the bar at the top. 2. Click `Start`. 3. Watch the URL counter rise as the crawler finds pages. Before a real audit, check five settings. **robots.txt.** The crawler respects `robots.txt` by default, as Google does. Keep that default for a normal audit. **Speed.** Under `Configuration > Speed`, the crawler uses a small number of parallel threads by default. That is safe for most servers. Raise it only if you control the site and the server can take the load. Lower it when the server is fragile or belongs to someone else. You can also set a maximum number of URLs per second. **Depth.** Crawl depth is unlimited by default. On a very large site, set a maximum depth, for example 5 levels, under `Configuration > Spider > Limits`. That keeps the crawl on the pages nearest the homepage. **User agent.** By default the crawler identifies itself as Screaming Frog SEO Spider. To see what Googlebot sees, change it under `Configuration > User-Agent`. Some servers answer different user agents differently, so compare the two if the results look strange. **JavaScript rendering.** If the site uses React, Vue, or Angular, enable rendering at `Configuration > Spider > Rendering` and select `JavaScript`. This is a paid feature. It slows the crawl a lot, but without it the crawler can see empty pages where Google sees content. If you are not sure whether the site needs it, crawl a sample both ways and compare word counts. ## Read the interface The top tabs group the findings: | Tab | What it shows | |---|---| | `Internal` | Every page on your domain. The main view for an audit. | | `External` | Links to other domains. Use it to find broken outbound links. | | `Response Codes` | Pages by status: 200, 3xx redirects, 4xx client errors, 5xx server errors. | | `URL` | Long URLs, parameters, and special characters. | | `Page Titles` | Missing, duplicate, too long, and too short titles. | | `Meta Description` | Missing, duplicate, and wrong-length descriptions. | | `H1` and `H2` | Missing or multiple H1 tags and heading order problems. | | `Images` | Missing alt text and large files. | | `Directives` | Canonical tags, `noindex`, hreflang, and pagination. | The bottom pane shows detail for the selected URL: response time, word count, status code, redirects, and inbound and outbound links. The right-hand panel gives filters and further analysis, such as link score and indexability. ## Find and fix six common issues ### Broken links Open the `Response Codes` tab and filter by `Client Error (4xx)`. Most results are 404 Not Found: links to pages that no longer exist. The fix depends on the cause. If the page moved, add a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. If the page was deleted and has backlinks, redirect it to the closest relevant page. If an internal link is wrong, update the link to the correct URL. To hand the list to developers, select the broken URLs, right-click, and choose `Export`. Keep the URL, status code, and inlinks columns. ### Redirect chains Open `Response Codes` and filter by `Redirection (3xx)`. Check the redirect target column. If a URL redirects to another URL that also redirects, you have a chain. The redirect chains report under the `Reports` menu lists every chain in one export. A chain means URL A goes to B, and B goes to C. Each hop slows the page and wastes crawl effort. The fix is to point A directly at C. The [redirect chain guide for developers](/articles/redirect-chains-301-developers) explains the server-side fix in detail. ### Missing or duplicate titles Open `Page Titles`. The `Missing` filter lists pages without a title. The `Duplicate` filter lists pages that share one title. A missing title loses a ranking opportunity and makes a weak search result. Duplicate titles make it hard for search engines to tell the pages apart. Write a unique, descriptive title of about 50 to 60 characters for each missing one. Rewrite duplicates with the detail that makes each page different, such as the product name, location, or other descriptor. ### Thin pages Open the `Internal` tab and sort the `Word Count` column from low to high. If the column is hidden, right-click a column header and add it. Pages under about 200 words often give too little value. They rank poorly and can pull down the site's overall quality signals. You have three options. Expand the page with detail, examples, or comparisons. Merge several thin pages into one complete guide. Add `noindex` to pages that must exist but cannot improve, such as thank-you and form confirmation pages. ### Images without alt text Open the `Images` tab and filter by `Missing Alt Text`. Alt text helps users with visual impairments and gives search engines context. A missing alt attribute is both an accessibility gap and an SEO gap. Write alt text that says what each image shows. For a decorative image, use an empty attribute: `alt=""`. ### Slow pages Open `Internal` and sort `Response Time` from high to low. Pages that take more than 2 seconds to respond point to a server problem or a heavy page. The usual fixes are compressed images in modern formats such as WebP, caching, less server-side processing, and a CDN for static assets. ### Pages blocked by robots.txt Open `Response Codes` and filter by `Blocked by Robots.txt`. The `Indexability` column in the `Internal` tab gives the same signal per page. A block can be deliberate, as on an admin page, or an accident, as on a product section. Review the `robots.txt` file and remove any rule that blocks an important page. The [robots.txt and crawl budget guide](/articles/robots-txt-crawl-budget-developers) covers the rules in detail. ## Rank the fixes with traffic data A technical error on a page with no traffic can wait. The same error on a top landing page cannot. Connect Screaming Frog to your analytics data so the fix list follows traffic. To connect Google Analytics 4: 1. Open `Configuration > API Access > Google Analytics 4`. 2. Sign in with the Google account that has access. 3. Select the GA4 property. 4. Run the crawl. 5. Add the sessions and users columns to the `Internal` tab. 6. Sort by traffic. To connect Search Console: 1. Open `Configuration > API Access > Google Search Console`. 2. Sign in and select the property. 3. Run the crawl. 4. Add the clicks, impressions, and average position columns. 5. Find pages with high impressions and low clicks, and improve their titles and descriptions. The most useful combined view shows 404 pages that still get search traffic. These are indexed pages that now return errors. Users land on them every day, so fix them first. ## Export a report developers can act on Follow these steps for each issue category: 1. Pick the category, such as 404s or missing titles. 2. Select the affected URLs. 3. Right-click and choose `Export`. 4. Export the current tab, or choose only the columns that matter for the issue. 5. Save the file as CSV or Excel. 6. Sort by priority: inbound links, traffic, or business importance. 7. Send the file to the development team with a clear fix instruction. For broken links, use four columns. Give the source URL that holds the broken link and the destination URL that fails. Add the status code and the number of inbound links to the broken page. Sort by inbound links, highest first, so the developers fix the broken pages with the widest effect first. Do not send 500 issues without context. That list gets no fixes. Send the top 20 by business impact, describe each in plain words, and group similar issues. Some issues need a specialist, such as a canonical conflict or a redirect loop. Export the data and ask a developer or technical SEO specialist to read it. The obvious issues, such as broken links, missing titles, missing alt text, and thin pages, need little technical knowledge. ## Avoid five common mistakes | Mistake | Result | Correction | |---|---|---| | No JavaScript rendering on a JavaScript site | The crawler sees empty pages | Enable rendering, or compare a sample crawl both ways | | No filter for URL parameters | Thousands of near-duplicate URLs bury the real issues | Exclude parameters with `Configuration > Exclude`, or remove them with `Configuration > URL Rewriting` | | A raw export of every issue | Developers fix nothing | Send a ranked top 20 with plain descriptions | | No limits on a very large site | A 500,000-page crawl runs for hours | Set a maximum URL count under `Configuration > Spider > Limits`, or crawl one subdirectory | | No saved crawl | A multi-hour crawl is lost when the application closes | In memory storage mode, use `File > Save`; in database storage mode, reopen crawls from `File > Crawls` | Crawl time depends on site size, speed settings, and rendering. As a rough guide, 100 pages take 2 to 5 minutes and 1,000 pages take 15 to 30 minutes. A site with 10,000 or more pages takes 1 to 3 hours. JavaScript rendering adds 50 to 100% to those times. ## Use four advanced features **Custom extraction.** Pull specific data from each page, such as prices, dates, or author names, with CSS selectors or XPath. Set it up at `Configuration > Custom > Extraction`. It needs basic HTML knowledge, and it widens what an audit can check. **Crawl comparison.** Crawl the site, make changes, and crawl again. Compare mode in the `Mode` menu shows what improved and what regressed: new broken links, fixed titles, and changed content. **Visualisations.** The `Visualisations` menu draws the site architecture as a crawl tree or a force-directed diagram. Stakeholders understand these diagrams faster than a table. **Scheduled crawls.** The paid version can run crawls on a schedule from `File > Scheduling`. A weekly crawl catches new issues before they grow. You can also crawl a site you do not own, such as a competitor. Respect its `robots.txt` and keep the speed low so you do not overload its server. Some sites block crawlers aggressively. ## Pair Screaming Frog with a cloud platform Screaming Frog and the site audits in Ahrefs or Semrush answer different questions. Screaming Frog gives deeper, more precise control and fast crawls of large sites. Ahrefs and Semrush give competitive analysis, backlink data, and keyword tracking. Use Screaming Frog for the technical audit and the cloud platform for competitor and keyword research. For the full list of checks a technical audit covers beyond the crawl, see the [technical SEO audit guide](/articles/technical-seo-audit). For the wider technical picture from a marketing manager's seat, see the [technical SEO guide for marketing managers](/articles/marketing-managers-technical-seo-guide). ---- ```text .|########||. .|########||. .|########||. |##||. .||##|. |##||. .||##|. |##||. .||##|. |#|. .|#|. |#|. .|#|. |#|. .|#|. |#| |#| |#| |#| |#| |#| .#| |#. .#| |#. .#| |#. .#. .#| .#. .#| .#. .#| |#. .#| |#. .#| |#. .#| |# ...... #| |# ...... #| |# ...... #| .# ||#########| #| .# ||#########| #| .# ||#########| #| .#. |######||######|. .#. .#. |######||######|. .#. .#. |######||######|. .#. #. .##|###|##|#|######| .# #. .##|###|##|#|######| .# #. .##|###|##|#|######| .# || |##|#||||||||||||#||#| || || |##|#||||||||||||#||#| || || |##|#||||||||||||#||#| || # |#||||||||||||||||||||#| #. # |#||||||||||||||||||||#| #. # |#||||||||||||||||||||#| #. || |#||||||||||||||||||||||#| || || |#||||||||||||||||||||||#| || || |#||||||||||||||||||||||#| || # .#||||||||||||||||||||||||#| # # .#||||||||||||||||||||||||#| # # .#||||||||||||||||||||||||#| # || ....|||#||||||##|#|||#|#||##||||....|. || || ....|||#||||||##|#|||#|#||##||||....|. || || ....|||#||||||##|#|||#|#||##||||....|. || #. . ....|# ....#||| ||| .#||| ....#. .# #. . ....|# ....#||| ||| .#||| ....#. .# #. . ....|# ....#||| ||| .#||| ....#. .# # . ||||#| .#####|| . .#| .#||| ||||# #. # . ||||#| .#####|| . .#| .#||| ||||# #. # . ||||#| .#####|| . .#| .#||| ||||# #. .| ||||| #. |#|||||. || #. |#||. .||||| || .| ||||| #. |#|||||. || #. |#||. .||||| || .| ||||| #. |#|||||. || #. |#||. .||||| || || |.... #. ....|#. |. ...|. ....|| || || |.... #. ....|#. |. ...|. ....|| || || |.... #. ....|#. |. ...|. ....|| || #. .||||||##||||||##||####|||||||#||||||#| .# #. .||||||##||||||##||####|||||||#||||||#| .# #. .||||||##||||||##||####|||||||#||||||#| .# # .||####|###########################|. # # .||####|###########################|. # # .||####|###########################|. # # .#||||||.#.|| # |. ..# #| #|||||#| # # .#||||||.#.|| # |. ..# #| #|||||#| # # .#||||||.#.|| # |. ..# #| #|||||#| # # .#|||||| .. |# ## |#| ...#|#|||#| # # .#|||||| .. |# ## |#| ...#|#|||#| # # .#|||||| .. |# ## |#| ...#|#|||#| # # .#|||#|# .# .#| #| ##|.#..#|||||#| # # .#|||#|# .# .#| #| ##|.#..#|||||#| # # .#|||#|# .# .#| #| ##|.#..#|||||#| # # .#||||||############|######|||||#| # # .#||||||############|######|||||#| # # .#||||||############|######|||||#| # # |...||#||||||#||||#|#||||||#|||||#||| |.| # # |...||#||||||#||||#|#||||||#|||||#||| |.| # # |...||#||||||#||||#|#||||||#|||||#||| |.| # #. .. ||||# .|||##|. |#| .|| || .|||#. #| # .# #. .. ||||# .|||##|. |#| .|| || .|||#. #| # .# #. .. ||||# .|||##|. |#| .|| || .|||#. #| # .# || | ...|| ...##| | #| .|. |. ##### .. .| || || | ...|| ...##| | #| .|. |. ##### .. .| || || | ...|| ...##| | #| .|. |. ##### .. .| || || ||||| || ||||#| . |. |. |#. ||||| |#| || || || ||||| || ||||#| . |. |. |#. ||||| |#| || || || ||||| || ||||#| . |. |. |#. ||||| |#| || || .# |.....#|....|#.||||.|||##.|#|....||.#||.#. #. .# |.....#|....|#.||||.|||##.|#|....||.#||.#. #. .# |.....#|....|#.||||.|||##.|#|....||.#||.#. #. #.|||||||#############################| ||| .# #.|||||||#############################| ||| .# #.|||||||#############################| ||| .# || ##||#||#||||||#||#||#||#||##. || || ##||#||#||||||#||#||#||#||##. || || ##||#||#||||||#||#||#||#||##. || # .#|||||||||#||#|||||||||||#| # # .#|||||||||#||#|||||||||||#| # # .#|||||||||#||#|||||||||||#| # || |#||||||||||||||||||||||#| || || |#||||||||||||||||||||||#| || || |#||||||||||||||||||||||#| || .# |#||||||||||||||||||||#| #. .# |#||||||||||||||||||||#| #. .# |#||||||||||||||||||||#| #. || |#||||||||||||||||||#| || || |#||||||||||||||||||#| || || |#||||||||||||||||||#| || #. .######|#|#########| .# #. .######|#|#########| .# #. .######|#|#########| .# .#. |#####||||#####| .#. .#. |#####||||#####| .#. .#. |#####||||#####| .#. |# ||########|| #. |# ||########|| #. |# ||########|| #. |# ...... #| |# ...... #| |# ...... #| |#. .#| |#. .#| |#. .#| |#. .#. |#. .#. |#. .#. .#| |#. .#| |#. .#| |#. |#| |#| |#| |#| |#| |#| .|#|. .|#|. .|#|. .|#|. .|#|. .|#|. |##||. .||##| |##||. .||##| |##||. .||##| .||########||. .||########||. .||########||. Scale With Search 2026 [scalewithsearch.com](https://scalewithsearch.com) ```