Screaming Frog Website Crawling Guide

Updated: January 17, 2025

A high-performing website is the key to success for pest control businesses. It improves search rankings, pulls in more leads, and ensures a seamless user experience. Achieving top performance requires dedication, and tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider make it possible.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider identifies technical SEO issues, optimizes content, and audits website health. It also reveals hidden errors, boosts Google visibility, and maximizes page performance. Whether you go DIY or partner with Pesty Marketing, you can turn your website into a lead-generating machine.

Here’s what we cover:

  • Installing Screaming Frog: Step-by-step instructions for setting up the tool on Windows or macOS.
  • Configuring for Pest Control Websites: Tailoring settings to focus on key areas like service pages, blogs, and SEO fixes. 
  • Using the Tool Effectively: Crawling your website, navigating the interface, and exporting reports for improvement.

Why Website Crawling Matters for Pest Control Businesses

Website crawling scans and analyzes your website’s structure, links, and content to identify potential issues hindering its performance. For pest control businesses, this is critical for a few reasons:

  1. Fixing SEO Issues: Screaming Frog helps identify broken links, duplicate content, missing meta tags, and other common SEO problems that can negatively impact your search engine rankings. Fixing these issues aligns your website with Google’s standards, helping your business stand out.
  2. Auditing Content: Crawling your site lets you evaluate the performance of your service pages, blog posts, and other content. It provides insights on optimizing every page with keywords, meta descriptions, and headers to attract local customers.
  3. Improving User Experience:  Fixing slow-loading pages, broken links, and redirect issues creates a smoother journey for potential customers to navigate your site.

This guide covers installing and configuring Screaming Frog SEO Spider, so your pest control website can dominate search results and generate more leads.

Installing Screaming Frog

Getting started with Screaming Frog SEO Spider is simple and requires just a few steps. Here’s how you can install the tool on Windows or macOS, followed by guidance on activating a paid license:

screaming frog installation

Installation for Windows

  1. Download the Installer: Visit the Screaming Frog website and download the installer for Windows.
  2. Run the Installer: Locate the .exe file in your Downloads folder. Double-click to open it.
  3. Follow the Prompts: The installation wizard will guide you through the process. Click “Next” on each screen, accept the terms, and confirm the installation location.
  4. Finish Installation: Once complete, click “Finish” to exit the wizard. Screaming Frog is now ready to use.

Installation for macOS

  1. Download the .dmg File: Head to the Screaming Frog website and download the macOS version of the tool.
  2. Drag to Applications Folder: Open the .dmg file and drag the Screaming Frog application icon into your Applications folder.
  3. Launch Screaming Frog: Navigate to your Applications folder, find the Screaming Frog app, and double-click to open it. You’re now ready to start crawling your website.

Free Version vs. Paid License

The free version of Screaming Frog SEO Spider allows users to crawl up to 500 URLs per crawl. It includes basic features such as finding broken links, analyzing meta tags, and generating valuable reports. However, advanced features are only available in the paid version.

FeatureFree VersionPaid Version
URL LimitLimited to 500 URLs per crawlUnlimited URLs per crawl
Saving and Re-Opening CrawlsNot availableSave and re-open crawls for ongoing analysis
Advanced ConfigurationsLimitedFull access, including custom crawl settings
IntegrationsNot availableGoogle Analytics and Search Console integrations
JavaScript RenderingNot availableCrawl dynamic content rendered by JavaScript
Custom ExtractionsNot availableExtract specific data using advanced filters
Scheduling CrawlsNot availableAutomate crawl scheduling
Price per licenceFree$ 259 per year

For larger websites and detailed audits, the paid version is more practical.

Activating a License

screaming frog license

Screaming Frog offers both free and paid versions. The free version allows you to crawl up to 500 URLs, which is great for smaller websites. However, you must upgrade to the paid version to unlock unlimited crawling and advanced features.

Here are steps to activate the paid license:

  1. Open the Application: Launch Screaming Frog on your computer.
  2. Navigate to the License Menu: Go to License > Enter License Key in the top menu.
  3. Enter Your Credentials: Input the username and license key provided upon purchase.
  4. Restart the Application: After entering your license details, restart Screaming Frog to unlock all paid features.

Now, you are ready to begin crawling your pest control website and uncovering valuable SEO insights.

Configuring Screaming Frog for Your Website

Once Screaming Frog SEO Spider is installed and ready to use, configuring it for your pest control website will help you get the most accurate and relevant results. Follow these steps to customize the tool for your needs.

Basic Configuration for Pest Control Websites

While default settings work well for general website crawls, making specific adjustments can improve accuracy and efficiency.

Crawl HTML Only:

  • Limit the crawl to HTML to focus on valuable content for SEO. This skips unnecessary resources like CSS and JavaScript unless critical to your site’s performance.
  • Navigate to Configuration > Spider and uncheck unnecessary file types.
screaming frog basic configuration

Exclude Certain Pages:

  • Use the “Exclude” tool to prevent crawling irrelevant sections, such as:
    • Admin panels (/wp-admin/ or similar paths).
    • Duplicate or staging environments.
  • Go to Configuration > Exclude and add URL patterns for the pages you want to skip.
screaming frog exclude pages

Include Specific URLs:

  • Focus your crawl on important pages like your services section or blog.
  • Under Configuration > Include, input targeted URL patterns (e.g., /services/ or /blog/) to narrow the scope of the crawl.
screaming frog include pages

Enabling JavaScript Rendering

If your pest control website uses JavaScript for dynamic content like modern frameworks or interactive elements, configure Screaming Frog to render the content fully:

  1. Access Rendering Settings: Go to Configuration > Spider > Rendering.
  2. Enable JavaScript Rendering: Select “JavaScript Rendering” from the options to load and include dynamic content in the crawl results.
screaming frog rendering js

Adjusting Crawl Scope

To save time and focus on the most critical parts of your pest control website, adjust the crawl scope to limit the depth and target specific areas.

Set Crawl Depth:

  • Limit the crawl’s depth by specifying a maximum depth (e.g., stop after 3 levels of navigation) to prevent wasting resources on deeply nested, less critical pages.
  • Configure this under Configuration > Spider > Limits > Crawl Depth.
screaming frog crawl depth

Target Specific Subfolders:

  • For example, crawl only your service pages or blog by adding /services/ or /blog/ as start points.
  • Enter these directly in the main URL field or use include/exclude settings.
screaming frog crawl subfolders

Avoid Crawling Unnecessary Subdomains:

  • Keep the crawl focused on your primary domain.
  • Go to Configuration > Spider > Crawl > Crawl All Subdomains and uncheck this option if not needed.
screaming frog crawl subdomains

Analyzing XML Sitemaps

Auditing your XML Sitemap helps search engines crawl and index your site. Use Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider to identify potential issues and maintain a high-performing sitemap.

Adding Your Sitemap

Analyzing XML Sitemaps

Ensure the XML Sitemap is integrated into your crawl for accurate analysis:

  1. Locate Your Sitemap: Navigate to Configuration > Spider > Crawl, and enable the “Crawl Linked XML Sitemaps” option. Screaming Frog will detect your sitemap from the robots.txt file or a provided URL (e.g., https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml).
  2. Enter Sitemap URL Directly: For direct analysis, paste the sitemap URL into the search bar on Screaming Frog’s dashboard.

Perform a Detailed Crawl Analysis

Enhance your findings with additional calculations:

  1. Enable Sitemap Crawl Analysis: Go to Crawl Analysis > Configure, ensure the “Sitemaps” option is selected, then click Start.
  2. Populate Advanced Filters: After analysis completes, filters like “Non-Indexable URLs” and “Orphan URLs” will be fully populated for review.

Spelling and Grammar Errors Analysis

Guaranteeing that your website content is free from spelling and grammar mistakes is crucial for maintaining professionalism and building trust with visitors. Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider allows you to audit your site for spelling and grammar errors at scale, detecting issues across pages and even in multiple languages.

Spelling and Grammar Errors Analysis

Enable Spelling and Grammar Checks

To begin, activate the spelling and grammar check feature:

  1. Navigate to Config > Content > Spelling & Grammar.
  2. Choose between enabling only the spell check or both spelling and grammar checks for a detailed review.

This ensures that all HTML content, including titles, meta descriptions, and on-page text, is checked for accuracy. Screaming Frog can also check PDFs if needed.

Configure Language Settings

By default, the SEO Spider uses the HTML lang attribute to detect the language for checks. However, if your site lacks specific language tags or uses generic settings (e.g., en), adjust the settings:

  1. Go to Config > Content > Spelling & Grammar.
  2. Set the default language manually (e.g., English (United States) or English (United Kingdom)).
  • Auto Mode: Automatically matches content to the correct dictionary based on the HTML lang attribute.
  • Manual Override: Forces the selected language for all pages, regardless of HTML attributes, useful for sites with inconsistent language tags.

Customize the Dictionary

Optimize the checks to suit your website’s specific needs:

  1. Add frequently used terms, brand names, or unique jargon to the custom dictionary.
  2. Ignore specific rules or terms that aren’t relevant, reducing false positives.

Content Near Duplicates Analysis

Duplicate or near-duplicate content can dilute your site’s SEO effectiveness, causing crawl inefficiencies and potential ranking confusion. Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider identifies exact and near-duplicate content to help optimize and consolidate your pages.

screaming frog content duplicates

Enable Duplicate Content Checks

  1. Go to Config > Content > Duplicates and enable the “Near Duplicates” option.
  2. Adjust the similarity threshold to your needs (default is 90% similarity). Lower thresholds will catch less obvious matches.

By default, only indexable pages are analyzed. To review all pages, including canonicalized or non-indexable ones, uncheck the “Only Check Indexable Pages For Duplicates” option.

Customize the Content Area

Refine which parts of your page are analyzed for duplicate detection:

  1. Navigate to Config > Content > Area.
  2. Exclude irrelevant sections (e.g., headers, navigation menus, or footers) by specifying their tags, classes, or IDs.

For instance, if your website includes menus outside standard <nav> elements, you can exclude their class names (e.g., mobile-menu__dropdown) to focus on the main body text.

How Screaming Frog Works

Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a straightforward yet powerful tool for analyzing your pest control website. Here’s a breakdown of how it works and how you can use it to improve your site’s SEO and user experience.

Start Crawling Your Website

  1. Enter Your Homepage URL: In the “Enter URL to spider” field at the top of the Screaming Frog interface, type your website’s homepage URL (e.g., https://yourpestcontrolwebsite.com).
  2. Start the Crawl: Click the green “Start” button to begin. The tool will start crawling your website, following internal links to discover additional pages.
  3. Monitor Progress in Real-Time, The lower pane of the interface displays real-time updates, including:
    • Total URLs Crawled: Tracks the number of pages processed.
    • Status Codes: Indicates the HTTP response codes for each page (e.g., 200 for OK, 404 for Not Found).
Start Crawling Your Website

Understanding the Interface

Screaming Frog organizes crawl data into tabs, each designed to focus on specific elements of your website. Here’s an overview of the most essential tabs for pest control marketers:

TabFocus AreaPurpose
InternalList of all internal URLsIdentify issues like broken links, duplicate content, or missing meta data.
ExternalOutbound links to other websitesAudit external links for errors or non-functioning URLs.
Response CodesHTTP status codes (e.g., 200, 404, 301)Fix broken pages, redirects, and server errors.
Page TitlesTitles for each pageCheck for missing, duplicate, or overly long titles; optimize for keywords.
Meta DescriptionMeta descriptions for each pageReview for missing, duplicate, or overly short/long descriptions; ensure alignment with page content.
H1Primary headers for each pageIdentify missing, duplicate, or non-descriptive H1 tags.
ContentWord count, text-to-code ratio, and duplicate contentEnsure sufficient, unique, and SEO-friendly content.
ImagesImage file information, alt text, and sizesOptimize image file names, alt attributes, and reduce large image sizes for faster loading.
CanonicalsCanonical tags for pagesVerify canonical tags to avoid duplicate content issues.
DirectivesRobots.txt and meta robots directivesEnsure proper indexing and crawling instructions for search engines.

Exporting Reports

After completing the crawl, you can save the results to share with your team or web developers:

Export Data:

  • Click the “Export” button located in the interface.
  • Choose a format, such as Excel or CSV.

Organize Insights:

Use the exported data to prioritize fixes, such as updating meta descriptions, resolving broken links, or addressing missing page titles.

screaming frog export data

How to Use a Screaming Frog in Your SEO Strategy?

Regular website audits are essential for maintaining a competitive edge in the pest control industry. Screaming Frog SEO Spider can quickly identify and fix technical SEO issues, optimize site content, and create a seamless user experience. These steps help improve your search engine rankings, attract local customers, and drive business growth.

However, auditing and optimizing your website is only part of the equation. To truly dominate local SEO, you need a comprehensive strategy tailored to your pest control business. That’s where Pesty Marketing comes in.

Why Choose Pesty Marketing for Your SEO Needs?

We help pest control businesses stand out in a competitive market. With our proven SEO strategies for pest control businesses, we focus on what matters most—getting you more qualified leads and driving revenue growth. Whether it’s developing a custom SEO plan, managing paid ad campaigns, or improving your website design, we’ve got you covered.

Let us handle your digital marketing so you can focus on providing exceptional pest control services. Contact Pesty Marketing today to see how we can help you dominate local search and become your area’s go-to pest control company.

Ready to grow your business?

Schedule a consultation and claim your city before your competitors do!

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