How to import a Screaming Frog crawl into SEO Ops

Plan: Included in both Free and Premium.

The Screaming Frog import is the one integration that needs no account or key. You export a CSV from Screaming Frog, upload it to a client’s website in SEO Ops, and turn what it found into work. Nothing is fetched from anywhere: the file you upload is all SEO Ops uses.

Before you start

• The client needs the website the crawl belongs to. Add it first if it is missing.
• You need permission to manage tasks.
• You need Screaming Frog installed and a finished crawl of the site.

Step 1: Switch on the import

1. Go to Settings › Integrations.
2. On the Screaming Frog exports card, choose Configure import.
3. Tick Enable the CSV import and choose Save. The card shows Connected.

Until this is on, the import tells you to enable it first.

Step 2: Export the right file

SEO Ops understands two kinds of Screaming Frog CSV and works out which one you have from the first row.

The Issues Overview report (best for tasks)

In Screaming Frog, export the Issues Overview report as a CSV. Each row is one type of issue, with its priority, the number of URLs affected, and Screaming Frog’s own explanation of the problem and the fix. SEO Ops needs these columns: Issue Name, Issue Type, Issue Priority and URLs.

The Internal: All export (best for opportunities)

On the Internal tab, filter by All and export. SEO Ops reads it and groups the findings into seven kinds: broken pages (4xx), server errors (5xx), redirected URLs (3xx), non-indexable pages, pages missing a title, pages missing a meta description, and pages missing an H1.

Step 3: Upload it to the website

1. Open the client, and start the crawl import for the website.
2. If the client has more than one website, choose the right one.
3. Choose the CSV file. SEO Ops checks it first, and an unreadable or unrelated file is rejected before anything is stored.

The file is kept with the website as an internal file, so you can find it later.

Step 4: Review what was found

You see the findings grouped by category. For an Issues Overview, the issues and warnings with high or medium priority are ticked for you. For an Internal: All export, every finding is ticked. Issues that already have a task are not ticked, so you do not create duplicates. Untick anything you do not want, or use the select options to change the lot.

Step 5: Create the work

• From an Issues Overview: SEO Ops creates tasks, with one parent task for each category and one subtask for each issue you chose.
• From an Internal: All export: SEO Ops creates opportunities, with a sample of example URLs, which you can plan and convert into tasks when you are ready.

Tips

• Do not create a task for everything. Decide what matters for this client first, then tick only that.
• Assign owners and due dates straight away, and link the tasks to the strategy so the reason is clear.
• After a fix goes live, crawl again and import the new file to see what changed.

If something goes wrong

• “Enable the Screaming Frog import first”: switch it on in Settings › Integrations.
• “No file was received”: choose a file before uploading.
• The file is rejected: check it is a CSV export from Screaming Frog, and that it is the Issues Overview report or the Internal: All export.
• The upload is too large: the maximum upload size is set in Settings › General. Raise it, or split the export.

For the bigger picture, read Turning a Screaming Frog crawl into a task list.