Sitebulb: A Deep-Dive Website Crawling and Audit Tool

A website may look complete to users while still having technical issues that make it difficult for search engines to crawl, understand, or index its content. Sitebulb is an in-depth website crawling and audit tool that helps SEO teams identify these issues, assess their impact, and make the data easier to understand through visualizations.

This guide explains how to set up a crawl, read technical issue reports, and use visualizations to explore a website’s structure. Whether you manage a small business site or a system with thousands of URLs, a clear process can turn audit data into an actionable task list. Sitebulb gives you a structured way to investigate and prioritize SEO issues.

What is Sitebulb, and who is it for?

Sitebulb is SEO software designed to crawl websites and check a range of technical factors, including internal links, HTTP response status, indexability, structured data, and on-page elements. After a crawl, the tool groups its findings into reports that include explanations, priority levels, and visualizations. This helps users understand not only where an issue occurs, but why it matters.

The tool is suitable for SEO specialists, agencies, website administrators, and development teams that need to check technical health regularly. Beginners can also get started with its issue descriptions and suggested fixes, but they still need a grasp of basic SEO principles to distinguish genuine problems from alerts with little impact. Sitebulb does not fully replace Google Search Console, traffic analytics tools, or manual reviews; it adds a systematic crawling perspective.

The value of an audit is not measured by the number of alerts it generates. What matters is identifying which URLs are affected, which users or pages are at risk, and whether fixing an issue supports business goals. Treat the results as a basis for investigation and prioritization, rather than a list of tasks to follow blindly.

Prepare for and set up a crawl

Before you begin, define the scope of the audit. You can crawl an entire domain, a specific directory, or a group of important pages, such as product and category pages. For larger websites, splitting the scope into sections can shorten analysis time and make the report easier to act on. Also check access permissions, which environments are approved for crawling, and any operational limits to avoid placing unnecessary load on the server.

Configure data sources and crawl limits

Create a new project, enter the website address, and choose settings that fit your audit goals. Depending on the version and configuration, you can select a crawl method, set a URL limit and request speed, define rules for including or excluding paths, and provide credentials for areas that require sign-in. To check a JavaScript website, choose an appropriate rendering option and keep in mind that rendered crawls usually require more resources and time.

• Choose an appropriate user agent: Use a setting similar to how search bots access the site when evaluating crawlability, or choose a different one when conducting a specific test.
• Set reasonable limits: Monitor crawl speed, URL limits, and server capacity, especially for ecommerce sites or websites with many filters.
• Define the URL scope: Consider how to handle parameters, internal search pages, paginated pages, and duplicate URLs so the data focuses on valuable pages.
• Save the configuration: Record the crawl date, scope, and settings so future audits can be compared consistently.

Before crawling the entire website, test a smaller scope to catch configuration issues, such as blocked URLs, unexpected redirects, or an excessive number of pages generated by parameters. Once the crawl is complete, do not rush to fix every alert. First, confirm that the crawl covered the pages you intended to check.

Analyze technical issues and prioritize fixes

Sitebulb reports typically group issues by topic and severity. Names, counts, and classifications may vary by version or crawl configuration, but it is best to start with the overall picture and then drill down to individual URLs. For each finding, review the description, example URLs, possible causes, and the conditions you should check to confirm the issue.

Key issue categories to review

• Crawlability and indexability: Check response codes, robots directives, noindex directives, canonicals, and important URLs that cannot be accessed. A page may be intentionally excluded from the index, so check it against the page’s purpose.
• Redirects and broken links: Find internal links that lead to error pages, redirect chains, or redirect loops. Prioritize links on high-traffic pages and pages that matter to the conversion journey.
• Internal links: Look for orphan pages, pages that are many clicks deep, and important URLs with too few incoming links. A well-planned linking structure helps users and bots find the content they need.
• Content and on-page signals: Review page titles, descriptions, headings, duplicate content, and pages with very little information. Evaluate them based on search intent and content quality, not just an automated alert.
• Structured data and technical experience: Check for markup errors, essential resources, and performance signals supported by the report. Use specialized tools as well when you need to verify the cause.

To decide what to fix first, consider four factors: severity, the number of affected URLs, the SEO or business value of the pages, and implementation cost. For example, an indexing block affecting all product pages will usually take priority over an unoptimized title on a few low-priority pages. Log each issue in a tracking sheet, assign an owner, and set criteria for confirming the fix.

For an audit project, LilyTech can combine crawl data with business goals, content structure, and the site’s technical status to help a company determine what to address first. This approach helps prevent teams from spending too much time fixing minor alerts while overlooking bottlenecks that directly affect access to important pages.

Use visualizations to understand website structure

Visualizations are especially useful for explaining crawl data to SEO specialists and non-technical colleagues alike. Rather than reading a long table of URLs, you can see how pages link together, how they are organized, and where they are concentrated within the website structure. A diagram will not draw conclusions for you, but it can help you ask the right questions: Which content is buried too deep? Which areas are isolated? Are important pages connected effectively?

How to get the most from visualizations

• Start with the big picture, then review page groups: Begin with the full-site diagram, then filter by directory, page type, or status to avoid being overwhelmed by too many data points.
• Look for isolated clusters: Groups of URLs with few connections to the rest of the site may contain content that is difficult to discover or lacks appropriate internal links.
• Check crawl depth: Review how many steps it takes to reach important pages. If a conversion page is too deep, consider adding links from a category page or related content.
• Compare against the intended architecture: Compare the diagram with the sitemap, navigation, and user journey to identify gaps between the planned and actual structure.

Visualizations are also useful when presenting findings to leadership or development teams. Instead of simply saying, “the linking structure needs work,” point to the specific area, identify the affected pages, and propose a change. After implementation, crawl again to confirm that the structure has improved and no new issues have appeared.

Run recurring audits and keep key considerations in mind

Technical audits are most effective when performed regularly and integrated into the website release process. An initial crawl establishes a baseline; subsequent crawls confirm that issues have been fixed, catch regressions, and track changes as the website grows. For major changes such as a platform migration, redesign, or domain move, plan crawls before and after implementation.

1. Define the goal: Choose the question you need to answer, such as checking indexability, link structure, or post-release risks.
2. Keep settings consistent: Use comparable scopes, user agents, and limits when you want to compare results between crawls.
3. Categorize issues and assign tasks: Group issues by impact, website area, and responsible team.
4. Check after fixes: Run another crawl or test a sample of URLs, then compare the results with the original report.
5. Record the impact: Track relevant metrics such as indexability, search traffic, and conversions, but do not assume that every technical change will produce immediate results.

Some alerts may result from intentional design decisions, robots rules, or system-specific behavior. Also remember that a crawl simulates how a tool accesses the site at the time of the audit; it does not guarantee that Google has crawled or indexed a URL. Before changing important rules, compare the findings with Google Search Console, server logs, analytics data, and manual checks.

Conclusion

Sitebulb helps businesses get a clearer view of their website’s technical health through crawling, issue reports, and visualizations. To get the most from the tool, choose an appropriate scope, verify each finding, prioritize by impact, and check again after making fixes. When audit data is connected to business goals, an audit becomes an ongoing website improvement process instead of a report that simply gets filed away.

If your business needs help assessing technical SEO, improving website structure, or creating an improvement plan after an audit, contact LilyTech for advice tailored to your current situation and goals. The team can help turn technical data into clear implementation steps that fit your business’s resources.