By Kate Gross 19 days ago, Apps and Software
To help you choose the best SEO audit tool that suits your needs, I’ve compared the most widely-used dedicated programs, Website Auditor vs Netpeak Spider. Whether you are conducting an audit for technical, internal or external SEO, these programs are excellent solutions for your SEO improvement.
Website Auditor is an auditing program that tells you how search engines see your website. It has been available for a long time on the market and has become an integral part of the SEO audit world. Website Auditor has been leading software a few years ago, but rare updates and intermittent crashes turned away even loyal fans. Moreover, a relatively complex interface makes the program difficult to learn for beginners.
Netpeak Spider is a technical auditing program for desktop computers. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the entire website and reports about SEO errors. Although Netpeak Spider is relatively new software, it stands out from the rivals thanks to constant updates. The developers complement Netpeak Spider with brand-new features that competing companies include later.
Use TF-IDF (term frequency — inverse document frequency) to do effective on-page optimization. This report shows the specific words or phrases that top-ranking pages use to give target keywords context. If you apply these keywords and phrases to your content, you can considerably enhance your “content topic”, thus strengthening your rank in the search engines.
Creating SEO reports using templates. There is no need to use third-party data visualization tools since they are already integrated into the program. Generate first-class SEO reports for digital marketing, take advantage of custom templates and white-label and send them to your clients using email or cloud-based services.
Real-time Content Editor. This tool allows you to optimize your content and move the copy to your site. However, this feature won’t be useful for those who perform all the necessary edits right on the website.
Includes too many options. It seems to be a good problem, but it is still an issue for most novice users. After you install the software, you will need to check out Preferences to customize it according to your needs. This is a huge benefit for programmers and developers, but it will be confusing for regular users who aim to optimize a business or non-profit website. So, you may waste time learning the features you don’t really need in your work.
Lacks monthly subscription. If you want to test the program, then you can try its free version. However, in case you plan to do an audit as an outsourced party, then you may face some difficulties. There is no option to pay for those months you will use the program. It is necessary to make an annual payment no matter how long you are going to use the software.
Isn’t suitable for large projects. Website Auditor isn’t powerful enough to audit a large amount of data. The software works great with small or medium-sized businesses, but it doesn’t have enough capabilities to handle large projects.
Focuses on fixing SEO issues. Netpeak Spider detects twice more errors than its competitors. Also, the program allows you to focus only on those SEO issues it has found during the site audit. It doesn’t distract your attention on the number of “not found errors”.
When you click on an error in the sidebar, you will see the filtered results. The table displays columns that are selected specifically for this error.
Ability to control scan settings. You can enable or disable the analysis of certain parameters, such as a title, description, canonical or links. Thus, you can speed up scanning, reduce RAM and CPU usage. If the site is very large, then you can scan it by selecting only the most necessary parameters.
Loading search queries from Google Search Console. With this feature, you can analyze data from GSC in the format "URL — search query — main indicators (impressions, clicks, CTR, position)". Quickly load absolutely all requests targeting for URLs rankings. Look for missed optimization opportunities and find the prospects for developing your project. Optimize meta tags and upload data for one period and export data to a file.
Unique data segmentation tool. This tool can be a strong argument in favor of the former software. After scanning is finished, you can change the presentation of data in the program, limiting it to a specific segment (similar to segmentation in Google Analytics). You can configure a segment individually or apply any filter available in the program as a segment.
Special status codes. The program can detect special status codes by default. For example, 200 OK & Disallowed means that the request has succeeded but the page is closed off via robots.txt. Thus, you will see all the instructions set for the page in one of the Status Code column. There is no need to check them in other columns or reports again.
No support for macOS. Although the majority of companies use both iMacs and Windows-based computers, it would be great if Netpeak Spider was cross-platform software. Since the program isn’t available for macOS, you will need to have a PC that runs Windows to work with it.
The WebSite Auditor Free version will be a perfect choice in case you want to scan your own site with several hundred URLs. For larger sites, you will need to use the paid version. You can choose between two options, Professional for $149/year and Enterprise for $349/year. This is an excellent price and is more affordable compared to similar dedicated SEO audit products.
You can use Netpeak Spider Free Version, which incorporates almost all basic features of the program, including built-in tools. However, it has some limitations. Only paid users can export reports, copy and filter data, save projects and use Pro functionality.
Unlike Website Auditor, it can analyze the website regardless of the size. The software offers Standard ($15.20/month), Pro ($31.20/month) and Premium ($119.20/month) versions.
Netpeak Spider is a novelty in the world of SEO audit. The company constantly improves and develops its product. Each update comes with new features, fixed errors and more convenient functionality. This is not just a complex search robot that finds the necessary data, it is a real assistant. Aside from conducting a technical SEO audit, Netpeak Spider provides first-class website optimization.
WebSite Auditor is cheaper and familiar to those who have been engaged in SEO audit for several years. It is also very fast and efficient, but it will be rather challenging to figure out its functionality. It is also resource-intensive software, so you will need to have enough RAM to ensure smooth operation.
Both programs have unique features, that might be decisive when choosing the best SEO software for you. If value constant updates and adding new features, then consider Netpeak Spider. In case you want to use a proven program with a large audience, then Website Auditor will be a perfect choice for you.