Mastering Website Crawls: A Step-by-Step Guide with JetOctopus

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Mastering Website Crawls: A Step-by-Step Guide with JetOctopus

Ever wish you could see your website through the eyes of Google? With JetOctopus, you can. This powerful SEO crawler acts as your website’s personal detective, uncovering hidden technical issues and revealing how search engines really see your site.

Key Takeaways

  • JetOctopus makes technical SEO easy. This user-friendly crawler integrates with your log files and Google Search Console to give you a complete picture of your website’s health.
  • Smart URL selection saves time and resources. Use sitemaps and filters to focus your crawls on the pages that matter most, especially if you have a large website.
  • Turn data into action. Regularly review your JetOctopus crawl results to find and fix SEO issues, track your progress, and make smart decisions about your website’s strategy.

What is JetOctopus?

JetOctopus is a relatively new SEO crawler, but it’s already making waves. Unlike some tools that feel clunky, JetOctopus feels fresh and modern. It’s known for its user-friendly interface and powerful features, especially its ability to integrate with your website’s log files and Google Search Console. This integration allows for a deeper understanding of how search engines crawl and index your site.

Key Features and Benefits

What makes JetOctopus stand out? Here’s a quick rundown:

  • Robust On-Page SEO Analysis: JetOctopus excels at dissecting your on-page SEO. It provides a clear picture of your website’s structure, highlighting areas for improvement.
  • Flexible Crawling Options: You have the control to crawl your entire website or focus on specific sections. This is helpful for larger websites or when you want to zero in on a particular area of concern.
  • Log File Integration: By connecting JetOctopus to your website’s log files, you can see exactly how search engine bots interact with your site. This reveals crawl budget issues, broken links, and other technical SEO problems that might be holding you back.
  • Seamless Google Search Console Integration: JetOctopus pulls data directly from your Google Search Console account, providing a holistic view of your website’s performance in search results. This integration helps you connect the dots between technical SEO issues and their impact on your rankings.

How JetOctopus Solves Common Crawling Challenges

Crawling websites can be tricky. Websites change constantly, and keeping up with these changes can be a challenge for SEO crawlers. JetOctopus tackles these challenges head-on:

  • Website Changes: JetOctopus is built to handle the dynamic nature of websites. It adapts to changes in HTML elements, ensuring that the data it collects remains accurate even after website updates.
  • Crawl Blocking: Some websites use a robots.txt file to prevent crawlers from accessing certain pages. JetOctopus respects these directives while still providing valuable insights into your website’s overall structure and potential issues.

If you’re looking for a powerful and intuitive SEO crawler that can help you uncover hidden technical SEO issues and improve your website’s overall search performance, JetOctopus is worth exploring.

Set Up Your First Crawl in JetOctopus

Ready to dive into the world of website crawling with JetOctopus? Let’s get started by setting up your very first crawl. Don’t worry, it’s surprisingly straightforward.

Access the Crawl Configuration Panel

Once you’re in your JetOctopus dashboard, start by creating a new project. You’ll find all the crawl settings you need right there in the project. Think of this as your control center for how JetOctopus explores your site. You’ll be able to fine-tune things like:

  • Crawl Mode: Decide whether you want JetOctopus to crawl your entire site or focus on specific sections.
  • User Agent: Choose which browser JetOctopus should mimic while crawling. This is important for seeing your site as your users do.
  • JavaScript Rendering: Make sure JetOctopus can properly process JavaScript elements on your site for the most accurate view.

Choose Your Crawl Frequency

Next, you’ll need to tell JetOctopus how often to crawl your site. You have options here: a one-time crawl to get a snapshot of your site’s current state or recurring crawls to monitor changes over time.

This guide offers helpful instructions on setting up recurring crawls.

Determine Optimal Crawl Frequency

How often should you be crawling your site? Well, it depends. If your site is constantly being updated with new content or if you’re actively working on SEO improvements, a more frequent crawl schedule is beneficial.

Regular crawls are crucial for catching issues early on. This proactive approach can save you a lot of headaches down the road. This video offers a deeper dive into finding the perfect crawl frequency for your needs.

Master URL Selection for Effective Crawling

Knowing which pages to crawl and how to manage them is key to getting the most out of JetOctopus. Let’s look at some best practices for smart URL selection.

Crawl Your Entire Website or Use Sitemaps

When you start a crawl, you can choose to crawl your entire website or use sitemaps for a more focused approach. JetOctopus lets you enter the URL of your sitemap index file, and the crawler will automatically crawl all the URLs listed there. This way, you can be sure you’re capturing all the important pages without manually entering each URL, which saves you a ton of time.

Implement Filters for Targeted Crawling

Want to make your crawls even more efficient? Use filters. JetOctopus gives you the flexibility to crawl only specific URLs or sections of your site. For example, you can choose to crawl just the sitemap or use the default settings to explore everything. This targeted approach not only saves time but also helps you zero in on the most important areas of your website.

How Smart URL Selection Impacts Data Quality

Choosing the right URLs to crawl is essential for getting high-quality data. Regularly running crawls is a good habit, especially if you see changes in your rankings or updates on your site (or your client’s site). By being proactive, you can quickly spot and fix issues.

If you’re working with a large site, consider avoiding crawling URLs with GET parameters. Crawling these can lead to a massive amount of data that’s difficult to manage and might not give you much useful information.

Optimize Crawls for Large Websites

Why Avoid Crawling GET Parameters?

When you’re dealing with a website that has thousands or even millions of pages, crawling every single URL can quickly become overwhelming. Crawling URLs with GET parameters, in particular, can create a massive amount of data that might not offer much value.

Think of it this way: you want your crawls to act like a focused spotlight, illuminating the most important areas of your site. Crawling every GET parameter is like turning on a floodlight; you’ll see everything, but it won’t be easy to pick out the important details.

As the JetOctopus crawler guide points out, “If you are crawling a huge site, you may not want to crawl URLs with GET parameters, because the crawl may become very, very large and basically useless.” By narrowing your focus, you can make sure your crawls stay manageable and provide useful information.

Focus on Essential Pages for Meaningful Insights

To get the most out of your crawls, prioritize the pages that really matter for your website’s performance. Instead of trying to crawl everything at once, consider running targeted crawls more frequently. This approach helps you stay on top of any changes that could affect your search rankings or user experience.

In JetOctopus’s training video, “How to Get Started with JetOctopus and Set Up Your First Crawl (Correctly),” the instructor emphasizes the importance of regular crawls: “In some cases, this is a very good idea to run it regularly because if something happens, there are some changes. rankings dropped some things on your site change or on your client site change you will be notified.”

By focusing on essential pages and crawling regularly, you can catch issues early on and make informed decisions about your SEO strategy.

Handle Dynamic Content and JavaScript Execution

Many websites today rely heavily on JavaScript to load content dynamically. If you’re not accounting for this in your crawls, you’re missing a crucial piece of the puzzle.

JetOctopus allows you to execute JavaScript during crawls, giving you a complete picture of how your site is rendered for users. This is essential because the rendered version of your site (what users actually see) might be significantly different from the static HTML code.

As JetOctopus’s training highlights, “You can also execute JavaScript with websites which have JavaScript. It is usually a good idea to do it because you can compare the differences between having the site with JavaScript, like without JavaScript, if the content changes what’s going on after rendering.” By comparing the rendered and static versions of your site, you can identify any discrepancies that might be affecting your SEO performance.

Enhance Data Insights: Integrate Google Search Console

Want to get even more out of your website data? Integrating JetOctopus with Google Search Console (GSC) gives you a clearer picture of your site’s SEO performance. Think of it as combining the strengths of two powerful tools.

Connect JetOctopus to GSC: Step-by-Step Guide

Connecting JetOctopus and GSC is surprisingly straightforward. When you start a new project in your JetOctopus dashboard, you’ll see the option to connect your GSC account. This links your website’s search performance data directly within JetOctopus.

Leverage Combined Data for Comprehensive SEO Analysis

Once connected, JetOctopus unlocks a treasure trove of data visualization tools that complement your GSC insights. Imagine seeing your click-through rates from GSC alongside JetOctopus’s detailed crawl data. This combined view helps you pinpoint exactly which pages need attention.

For example, you might notice a page with high impressions in GSC but a low click-through rate. A quick look at the same page in JetOctopus might reveal that the page loads slowly or has broken internal links – issues you can then prioritize fixing. Plus, using JetOctopus to automate your bulk URL inspection process frees up time to focus on developing data-driven SEO strategies.

Configure and Use Crawl Notifications

Once you’ve mastered setting up crawls in JetOctopus, ensure you’re promptly notified about potential issues. This is where crawl notifications become essential.

Set Up Email and Slack Alerts

JetOctopus makes it easy to stay informed by offering notifications through email and Slack. You can choose to receive these alerts directly in your inbox or a designated Slack channel, keeping you in the loop no matter where you’re working. This feature ensures you’re alerted about your website’s crawl status and any problems that might arise, so you can address them quickly.

Customize Notification Preferences for Timely Updates

Don’t let notification overload distract you from what’s important. JetOctopus allows you to customize your notification preferences to align with your priorities. Fine-tune your settings to receive alerts for specific crawl errors, like broken links or a sudden drop in indexable pages. You can also choose to be notified about changes in crucial performance metrics, such as page load time or issues discovered during JavaScript rendering.

This level of customization helps you stay focused on the most critical issues affecting your website’s SEO. By tailoring your notifications, you can avoid unnecessary distractions and concentrate on what truly matters for your website’s performance.

Analyze Crawl Results for SEO Improvements

Once you’ve crawled your site with JetOctopus, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and dig into the data. This is where we make SEO insights work for us.

Interpret Key Metrics and Identify Critical Issues

Think of your crawl results as a website health report. JetOctopus gives you a clear picture of your site’s on-page SEO, flagging potential issues that could be hurting your performance in search results. You can quickly see crawl errors, pages blocked by robots.txt, and other technical SEO issues. TechRadar’s review of JetOctopus highlights the platform’s strength in this area, noting its “range of flexible options for crawling, analyzing logs, and GSC integration.”

Translate Insights into Actionable SEO Strategies

JetOctopus goes beyond just identifying problems—it helps you prioritize and fix them. The platform analyzes your crawl data and offers concrete suggestions. For example, it might recommend fixing broken pages with high business impact or suggest internal links you can create to improve site structure. This feature, as highlighted in JetOctopus reviews on G2, helps you focus on SEO tasks with the biggest potential impact.

Use Data Visualization for Effective Analysis

Let’s be real, data is much easier to understand when it’s visually appealing. JetOctopus gets this. The platform offers robust data visualization tools, including charts and graphs, to help you make sense of your crawl results. You can easily spot trends, identify patterns, and communicate insights to your team. This is particularly useful when analyzing data from Google Search Console. JetOctopus offers a powerful GSC integration that pulls in tons of data and presents it in a visually digestible format, making it easier to draw actionable conclusions. CodingMall points out that this feature “enhances the decision-making process by presenting data in an easily digestible format.”

Advanced JetOctopus Features for SEO Pros

Once you’ve got the basics of JetOctopus down, you can explore its advanced features. These tools unlock deeper insights into your website’s performance and help you troubleshoot technical SEO issues with more precision.

Bulk URL Inspection Capabilities

Manually checking the index status of hundreds (or even thousands) of URLs in Google Search Console can take forever. JetOctopus offers a solution with its bulk URL inspection feature.

Here’s why this feature is so useful:

  • Speed: No more manual drudgery. You can inspect up to 600 URLs per minute, which is way faster than checking manually.
  • High Daily Limit: JetOctopus lets you inspect up to 2000 URLs per day, exceeding the limits of the Google Search Console interface.
  • Seamless Integration: The direct integration with the Google Search Console API means you can view inspection results and take action without ever leaving the JetOctopus platform.

This level of automation frees up your time to focus on actually using data to improve your SEO strategy.

JavaScript Rendering and Comparison Tools

These days, websites rely on JavaScript to deliver dynamic content. But this can sometimes make it hard for search engine crawlers to understand and index your pages.

JetOctopus offers robust JavaScript rendering capabilities, so you can see your website as Googlebot does. You can easily compare non-JS and JS-rendered versions of your pages to identify any issues that might be hurting your SEO performance.

This feature is crucial for:

  • Identifying Rendering Issues: Find hidden elements or content discrepancies that could be affecting whether or not you show up in search.
  • Improving User Experience: Make sure everyone who visits your site has a smooth and consistent experience, no matter what browser or device they’re using.
  • Optimizing Crawl Budget: Help search engines efficiently crawl and index your website by getting rid of rendering roadblocks.

Log File Analysis Integration

Log files are full of data about how search engines interact with your website. JetOctopus simplifies log file analysis by integrating this data directly into its platform.

Here’s how this integration can improve your SEO:

  • Identify Crawl Budget Issues: See which pages are crawled most often and find any crawl budget waste.
  • Uncover Crawl Errors: Quickly find and address crawl errors that are preventing search engines from accessing important pages.
  • Optimize Internal Linking: Analyze internal linking patterns to make sure search engines can easily discover and index your content.

By combining log file data with crawl data, you get a complete understanding of how search engines navigate your website and identify areas for improvement.

Get the Most Out of Your JetOctopus Crawls

Once you’ve mastered the basics of JetOctopus, it’s time to unlock its full potential. Think of JetOctopus as more than just a crawling tool—it’s a powerful ally in your SEO journey. Here’s how to make it work even harder for you:

Integrate JetOctopus into Your SEO Workflow

Instead of treating JetOctopus as a standalone tool, weave it into your daily SEO tasks. For example, visualize data from Google Search Console within JetOctopus to gain a clearer, more actionable understanding of your website’s performance. This integration lets you connect the dots between technical SEO issues and their impact on your search visibility.

JetOctopus offers a robust Google Search Console integration with tons of data sets and visualization charts. This means you can move beyond basic GSC data and access deeper insights to inform your SEO strategy.

Continuous Optimization: Use JetOctopus for Ongoing Site Improvements

Don’t just crawl your website once and forget it. Set up recurring crawls in JetOctopus to monitor changes and improvements over time. This helps you stay on top of any new issues that arise and track the impact of your SEO efforts.

Let’s say JetOctopus uncovers crawl errors or pages blocked by your robots.txt file. You can immediately see how these issues affect your website’s performance in Google search results—all within the JetOctopus platform. Plus, automating tasks like bulk URL inspection with JetOctopus saves you time and gives you a bird’s-eye view of your website’s health.

Troubleshooting and Best Practices

Even with a powerful tool like JetOctopus, you might encounter bumps in the road. Let’s look at some common crawl errors and how to address them. Plus, we’ll cover some pro tips for getting the most out of JetOctopus.

Address Common Crawl Errors

  • Website Changes Impacting Data Extraction: Websites are constantly evolving. If you’ve recently made changes to your site’s HTML structure, JetOctopus might need a little help understanding those updates. AIMultiple research confirms that when HTML elements change, adjustments to the crawler’s code may be needed. Double-check that your crawl configurations align with any recent website changes to ensure accurate data extraction.
  • Robots.txt Blocking Access: Think of your robots.txt file as the bouncer for your website. It tells search engines and crawlers which pages they can and can’t access. If JetOctopus is having trouble accessing certain pages, make sure your robots.txt file isn’t unintentionally blocking it.

Tips for Efficient and Effective Use of JetOctopus

  • Leverage On-Page SEO Analytics: TechRadar highlights JetOctopus’s strength as an on-page SEO analytics platform. Take advantage of its features to gain deep insights into your website’s structure, content, and technical SEO health.
  • Explore Advanced Features: Don’t be afraid to dive into JetOctopus’s advanced features. From bulk URL inspection to JavaScript rendering comparisons, these tools can take your SEO audits to the next level.
  • Prioritize Internal Linking Analysis: A strong internal linking structure is crucial for both user experience and SEO. JetOctopus provides detailed reports on your internal links, allowing you to identify and fix broken links, improve navigation, and boost your site’s overall crawlability.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the main advantage of integrating JetOctopus with Google Search Console?

Connecting JetOctopus to your Google Search Console account gives you a more complete view of your website’s performance. Instead of switching between platforms, you can see your GSC data alongside JetOctopus’s detailed crawl data. This helps you connect the dots between technical SEO issues and their impact on your rankings and click-through rates.

I have a large website. How can I make my JetOctopus crawls more efficient?

For large websites, crawling every single URL, especially those with GET parameters, can be overwhelming and might not provide much useful information. Focus your crawls on the most important sections of your site or use sitemaps to guide the crawler. You can also use filters to exclude specific URLs or sections.

Why is it important to execute JavaScript during crawls?

Many websites use JavaScript to load content dynamically. If you don’t execute JavaScript during your crawls, you’re only seeing a partial picture of your website. JetOctopus’s JavaScript rendering capabilities ensure you see your website as your users and search engines see it, helping you identify and fix any rendering issues that might be affecting your SEO.

How can JetOctopus help me with log file analysis?

Log files contain valuable information about how search engines crawl your website. JetOctopus simplifies log file analysis by integrating this data directly into its platform. This allows you to identify crawl budget issues, uncover crawl errors, and optimize your internal linking structure based on actual bot behavior.

What should I do if JetOctopus detects crawl errors on my website?

Don’t panic! Crawl errors are common, and JetOctopus helps you find and fix them. Start by understanding the type of error. Is it a broken link, a server error, or something else? Once you’ve identified the cause, you can take steps to fix the issue and improve your website’s crawlability.

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