If you own a website, it's important to understand how search engines see and navigate your site. Crawling is the first step in how search engines discover and index your website's pages. By learning how to crawl your own site, you can find broken links, duplicate content, SEO issues, and opportunities for improvement. In this article, we’ll explain what crawling is, why it matters, and how to crawl your website easily using various tools.

📌 What is Website Crawling?

Crawling is the process where search engine bots (like Googlebot) or specialized software visit and scan the pages of your website by following links. These crawlers collect information about your site’s content, structure, and links, which helps search engines index your pages in their databases.

You can also perform your own website crawl using SEO tools to check:

Site errors

Broken links

Redirect chains

Missing meta tags

Page titles

Duplicate content

Page load issues

📌 Why Should You Crawl Your Website?

Crawling your website regularly helps you:

Improve SEO performance

Find and fix errors before search engines do

Ensure all important pages are discoverable

Identify slow-loading or non-indexed pages

Detect security issues like broken SSL certificates

📌 How to Crawl Your Website (Step-by-Step)

Let’s break this down into simple, actionable steps.

1️⃣ Choose a Website Crawler Tool

There are several free and paid tools available to crawl your website. Some of the best tools include:

Tool Type Free Option Features

Screaming Frog SEO Spider Desktop Free up to 500 URLs SEO auditing, error detection, page titles, metadata

Ahrefs Site Audit Cloud-based Paid Detailed SEO audit, crawl logs, issue tracking

Semrush Site Audit Cloud-based Limited Free Crawl depth, broken links, SEO health score

Google Search Console Web-based Free Crawl stats, index coverage reports, error alerts

Sitebulb Desktop Paid Visual reports, SEO insights

2️⃣ Install and Set Up the Crawler

For this guide, we’ll use Screaming Frog SEO Spider (popular and beginner-friendly).

Go to https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

Download the free version (up to 500 URLs)

Install thesoftware on your computer

3️⃣ Start Crawling Your Website

Once installed:

Open the Screaming Frog app

Enter your website URL in the search bar (example: https://www.mywebsite.com)

Click the Start button

The tool will begin scanning your site’s pages, links, images, CSS, JavaScript, and meta data.

4️⃣ Review Crawl Results

After the crawl completes, you can explore different tabs in Screaming Frog:

Internal: List of all internal URLs crawled

External: Links to external sites

Response Codes: Find 404 errors, redirects, server errors

Page Titles & Meta Descriptions: Check for duplicates, missing, or long titles

H1/H2 Tags: Identify missing or multiple headings

Images: See large or missing alt-tag images

Canonical Links: Detect duplicate content problems

5️⃣ Fix Identified Issues

Use the crawl report to:

Correct broken links

Optimize page titles and meta descriptions

Update missing or duplicate headings

Remove or compress large images

Set proper redirects for moved pages https://simplecrawl.amebaownd.com/

Improve slow-loading pages

📌 How to Use Google Search Console for Crawling

Google Search Console (GSC) is another free and official tool to check how Google crawls your website.

Steps:

Go to https://search.google.com/search-console

Add and verify your website

Use the URL Inspection Tool to check individual URLs

Go to Coverage Reports to see crawl errors and warnings

Check Sitemaps to submit your XML sitemap and help Google find your pages

📌 How Often Should You Crawl Your Website?

New Websites: Every 1-2 weeks

Active Blogs or E-commerce Sites: Weekly

Corporate or Static Sites: Monthly

After Major Changes (Redesign, Migration): Immediately after updates

📌 Best Practices While Crawling Your Website

Always crawl during off-peak hours to avoid slowing down your live site

Update your XML sitemap regularly

Check and set up robots.txt to control what bots can and can’t crawl

Limit crawl depth if your website is large to prioritize important pages

Monitor crawl stats in Google Search Console regularly

📌 Common Issues Found During a Website Crawl

404 Not Found Errors

Redirect loops

Duplicate content

Missing title or description tags

Overly long page titles

Broken internal or outbound links

Slow-loading pages

Missing H1 tags

Incorrect canonical tags

Orphaned pages (no internal links pointing to them)

📌 How to Fix Crawl Errors

404 Pages:

Redirect or recreate missing pages.

Redirect Chains:

Simplify redirects to minimize chain length.

Duplicate Meta Tags:

Make each page’s title and meta description unique.

Missing H1 Tags:

Add clear, relevant H1 headings to pages.

Slow Pages:

Compress images, use caching, and upgrade hosting.

Blocked Pages:

Check robots.txt and noindex tags if pages shouldn’t be blocked.

📌 Conclusion

Crawling your website is essential for maintaining a healthy, search-engine-friendly site. By regularly scanning your pages using tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or Google Search Console, you can identify errors, improve SEO, and enhance your website’s performance.

Make crawling a routine part of your website management. Fix problems early, optimize your content, and ensure search engines — and users — can easily navigate your site.

📌 Final Tip:

Pro Tip:

Schedule regular website audits and crawl checks, especially before major marketing campaigns or website updates, to catch and resolve SEO issues proactively.