SEO can feel like a never-ending maze. You fix one issue today, and five more pop up tomorrow. But don’t panic—Reddit’s army of SEO pros has your back. If you’re dealing with crawl issues, technical bugs, or just want to optimize your site for Google, these trusted tools can help.
TL;DR:
Reddit users love tools like Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, and Ahrefs for technical SEO audits. These tools help find crawl errors, broken links, duplicate content, and more. If you’re serious about fixing the stuff that confuses search engines, these are your best shot. Most are beginner-friendly and packed with features.
1. Screaming Frog: The King of Crawls
If Reddit threads on r/SEO are your go-to, you’ve seen Screaming Frog mentioned more times than memes about Google updates. And there’s a reason—it works like a charm.
Screaming Frog is a desktop crawler. It imitates Googlebot going through your site. In just minutes, it finds:
- Broken links (404s)
- Redirect loops
- Missing meta tags
- Duplicate content
- Too-long URLs
What makes it fun is how fast and customizable it is. You can filter by nearly anything. Want to see only pages missing H1 tags? Boom. Just click the filter.
Reddit users especially love it for JS-rendered sites—something many crawlers struggle with.
Image not found in postmetaPros:
- Fast and accurate
- Free up to 500 URLs
- Huge customization options
Cons:
- Desktop only (no cloud version)
- Interface looks old-school
2. Sitebulb: Elegant, Detailed, and Loved by Redditors
If Screaming Frog had a stylish cousin, it would be Sitebulb. This crawler is known for being thorough—and pretty. It combines scary-smart audits with colorful visual reports.
Where Sitebulb shines is in explaining issues in plain English. Instead of just saying “5xx error,” it tells you what it means, why it matters, and how to fix it.
Redditors rave about Sitebulb’s crawl maps. These interactive visuals show your entire website structure. If your internal linking is a mess, you’ll see it instantly.
Cool Features:
- Javascript rendering
- Visual crawl maps
- Audit prioritization
Why Reddit Loves It:
- Great UX and visuals
- Explanations a newbie can understand
- At-a-glance suggestions
3. Ahrefs: Not Just for Backlinks
We all know Ahrefs for backlinks, but Reddit power users know it’s great for site audits too. The Ahrefs Site Audit tool is packed with features that dig into crawlability issues.
It lives in the cloud, so no downloading. You can monitor:
- Broken internal/external links
- Content quality
- Mobile usability
- Security issues (HTTPS + mixed content)
What’s cool is the detailed scoring system. It gives your site a health score and tells you how to improve it. If your score is low, Ahrefs breaks down what’s wrong page-by-page.
Bonus: The interface is cleaner than your mom’s sock drawer.
What Redditors Say:
- “I can fix tech SEO with zero coding now.”
- “Ahrefs tells me what’s urgent and what’s cosmetic.”
- “It’s like Google Search Console, but way easier.”
4. JetOctopus: The Hidden Gem
This one doesn’t get as much hype as others, but ask the right Reddit thread and someone will mention JetOctopus.
JetOctopus is a cloud-based crawler that’s fast. Like, really fast. Redditors claim it can crawl millions of pages in minutes. Perfect for huge e-commerce sites.
It also has built-in log file analysis. That’s rare—even Screaming Frog needs a plugin for that. With JetOctopus, you can see what pages Googlebot actually visits vs what you think they’re visiting.
Standout Tools:
- Log file integration
- Core Web Vitals analysis
- Orphaned page detection
Perfect For: Massive sites with crawl budget issues.
5. Google Search Console: The Free MVP
Last but never least, we’ve got the OG—Google Search Console (GSC). Redditors agree it’s the only free tool you can’t ignore. Why? Because it shows you exactly what Google sees (and hates).
With GSC, you can find out:
- Which URLs are being indexed
- Which ones are being dropped
- Which crawls led to errors
- Why your mobile version is underperforming
The Coverage Report alone is SEO gold. You’ll see errors like “Submitted URL marked ‘noindex'” or “Crawl anomaly”—and you can test the fix in real-time.
Why Reddit Users Use It First:
- It’s free
- It speaks Google’s language
- It verifies your changes directly with search engines
Bonus Mentions (Because Reddit Can’t Pick Just 5)
We couldn’t ignore these honorable shout-outs from Reddit:
- Oncrawl: Great for data nerds who want log files + crawl insights.
- Crawling Mondays (YouTube): Not a tool, but Aleyda Solis’s breakdowns are often suggested when users ask “how do I fix this?”
- Deepcrawl (now Lumar): Big enterprise love this one for scale and integrations.
Final Thoughts
You don’t need a dozen tools to fix crawl issues. Start with one or two of these Reddit-approved SEO tools, and you’ll be ahead of 90% of site owners. Each tool brings something unique to your toolkit.
Need speed and simplicity? Start with Screaming Frog.
Like pretty visuals and helpful tips? Go for Sitebulb.
Want to see what Google sees? Don’t skip Search Console.
The best part? Many have free versions. So test, explore, and get those crawl errors off your site today.
