How to Use Screaming Frog to Improve On-Page SEO

Once your crawl data is available, use these checks to uncover and fix the site issues most likely to damage your rankings and user engagement.

1. Finding and Fixing Page Title Issues

Why it Matters:
Page titles are critical touchpoints between your content, search engines, and potential visitors. The title appears in browsers, on SERPs, and in external shares, shaping how your site is understood and clicked.

How to Audit:

• Go to the Page Titles tab.
• Use filters to identify pages with:
  • Missing: No title tag is present—a missed opportunity for contextual signals.
  • Duplicate: More than one page with the same title confuses search engines.
  • Too Long (typically over 60 characters): These get truncated in results, hiding information.
  • Too Short: May lack sufficient detail or keyword focus.

Action Example:
Suppose you sell custom planners. If multiple pages say, “Custom Planner,” create unique, descriptive titles like, “Weekly Custom Planner – Refillable & Personalized.”

Addressing these issues improves your click-through rates and helps engines better categorize your site’s pages.

2. Optimizing Your Meta Descriptions

Why it Matters:
While meta descriptions don’t directly affect rankings, they work as organic ad copy, heavily influencing click-through from search results.

How to Audit:

• Navigate to the Meta Description tab.
• Find entries that are:
  • Missing: No summary provided.
  • Duplicate: Several pages share identical text, which can reduce relevance.
  • Too Long (over 155 characters): Will be cut off in results.
  • Too Short: May fail to excite or inform the user.

Action Example:
If a product page’s meta reads, “Buy planners online,” expand to “Shop personalized weekly planners—customize covers, layouts, and more. Free shipping on all orders.”

Test different descriptions over time to optimize for clicks—the outcome is often measurable with Google Search Console.

3. Auditing Your Heading Tags (H1 and H2)

Why it Matters:
Headings set the structure for both human readers and bots. The H1 serves as the primary topic indicator. Subheadings (H2, H3) help users scan and digest page content, and allow search engines to better parse thematic relevance.

How to Audit:

• Use the H1 tab to check for missing or multiple H1s on a single page.
  • Best Practice: Each page needs a single, keyword-relevant H1 aligned with its title.
• Use the H2 tab to ensure subtopics are clearly defined and not missing.

Action Example:
A homepage with no H1 could confuse both engines and users. Add a clear H1, such as “Personalized Planner Solutions for Every Schedule.”

Structured headings also increase accessibility, making content easier to navigate for those using assistive technology.

4. Uncovering Broken Links (404s)

Why it Matters:
Broken links damage user trust and site credibility. They also waste crawl budget and may signal neglect to search engines.

How to Audit:

• Visit the Response Codes tab and filter by “Client Error (4xx).”
• For each 404, use the “Inlinks” tab to see all internal sources linking to the broken page.

Action Example:
If you updated a blog URL but forgot to change links in old articles, site visitors (and crawlers) will hit a dead end. Fix by updating links or applying 301 redirects to guide users to the correct content.

A broken link audit should be done during every crawl—sites evolve, and even minor changes create breakage over time.

5. Checking for Missing Image Alt Text

Why it Matters:
Alt text ensures everyone, including visually impaired users and search engines, understands what an image represents. It may also contribute to image search rankings.

How to Audit:

• Use the Images tab and filter for “Missing Alt Text.”

Action Example:
Replace blank or generic alt attributes. For a product image previously labeled as “image.jpg,” use:
“Alt: Custom leather-bound weekly planner, brown.”

Not only does this help crawlability, but it also supports accessibility compliance (important for many industries).

6. Analyzing Your Internal Linking Structure

Why it Matters:
Internal links distribute authority (“link juice”) and direct users to related content, increasing time-on-site and pageviews. Strategic linking supports topic clusters and improves crawl efficiency.

How to Audit:

• Examine the Internal tab.
• Pay attention to:
  • Crawl Depth: Key pages should be reachable within 2–3 clicks from the homepage.
  • Inlinks: Important pages with low inlinks might be isolated, making them harder to rank.

Action Example:
An in-depth guide buried five clicks deep may never be found by users or bots. Add internal links from popular blog posts or the homepage to surface this resource.

Pro tip:
Linking contextually (“Learn more about planner customization in our guide”) is more SEO valuable than lists of unrelated links.

7. Identifying Thin or Duplicate Content

Why it Matters:
Quality, unique content is essential for strong rankings. Thin pages (very little content) appear unhelpful, while duplicate content can confuse search engines and split ranking signals.

How to Audit:

• Sort the Internal tab by “Word Count” to spot short pages.
• In the Content tab, filter by “Exact Duplicates.”

Action Example:
If your FAQ section exists on both the main site and product pages with no changes, consolidate by linking to a canonical version. For thin content (e.g., “Contact Us” pages with just an address), consider merging with a related page, or adding a detailed company overview.

Canonical tags, 301 redirects, or rewriting/consolidation often solve these issues.