What is Xenu Link Sleuth?
Xenu’s Link Sleuth checks Web sites for broken links along with returning some valuable SEO data such as header code, title tag, page size. Xenu checks html links, image links, frames, plug-ins, backgrounds, local image maps, style sheets, scripts and java applets for broken links and returns the above mentioned data for each.
A webmaster can output a report that can be used to fix site issues or export the list of URLs file that can be used to create an xml sitemap file that can be uploaded to Google Webmaster Tools.
Benefits of Xenu Link Sleuth
- It is free
- Simple user-interface
- Better error reports
- “Save” works also while the software is busy
- The “broken links view” shows only broken links
- It has a “recheck broken links” function that works fine.
- The report can be viewed easily, even when you have long URLs.
- Loading of saved files much faster
- Supports SSL websites
- Partial testing of ftp and gopher sites
- Special handling of redirected URLs
- Site Map creation
- Partial randomization of checking order, means less concurrent requests on a single server
The primary issue with Xenu Link Sleuth is that the developers will not create a Mac friendly version and so SEO’s that don’t have a windows based machine can not use Xenu Link Sleuth. This is where Screaming From SEO Spider comes in.
What is Screaming Frog SEO Spider
As the mac market grows with more SEO’s using Macs to analyze sites and create reports programs that fail to recognize the need for Mac based analytics tools will slowly lose market share. Screaming Frog SEO Spider recognized this and came out with their own version of a Xenu-like SEO spider for the Mac user.
The Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a small desktop program you can install on your PC or Mac which spiders websites’ links, images, CSS, script and apps from an SEO perspective.
Benefits of Screaming Frog SEO Spider
It fetches key onsite page elements for SEO, presents them in tabs by type and allows you to filter for common SEO issues, or slice and dice the data how you see fit by exporting into Excel. It is also available on the PC and Mac so both platforms can utilize this powerful SEO spider it.
What Data Does Screaming Frog SEO Spider Report On
- Errors
- Redirects
- Followed External Links
- URI Issues including Non ASCII characters, underscores, uppercase characters, dynamic urls, URLs over 115 characters
- Duplicate Pages
- Missing Page Title
- Duplicate Page Title
- Long Page Titles Over 70 Characters
- Page Title Same as H1
- Multiple Pages Titles
- Missing Meta Description
- Duplicate Meta Description
- Long Meta Descriptions over 156 Characters
- Meta Keywords
- Missing H1
- Duplicate H1 Tags
- Long H1 Tags over 70 Characters
- Multiple H1 Tags
- Missing H2
- Duplicate H2 Tags
- Long H2 Tags over 70 Characters
- Multiple H2 Tags
- Meta Robots
- Meta Refresh
- Canonical link element
- File Size
- Page depth level
- Inlinks
- Outlinks
- Anchor Text
- Follow & Nofollow
- Images
- Custom Source Code Search which gives you the ability to find anything you want in the source code of a website.
The primary downfall of the program, and the only thing that keeps it from being far superior is the fact that it cost money. Is Screaming Frog SEO Spider worth the money, I think it is, and it’s one of the only SEO spiders for the Mac
Bill is the Lead Linchpin at the company and focuses on SEO and content strategy. Bill’s ten-year background in digital marketing, SEO, and building online companies has helped him rise to strategic lead for some of the largest online brands and content websites in the world. Bill believes that at the core of a website's success sits the value that website provides it users.
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