"Issue Name","Issue Type","Issue Priority","URLs","% of Total","Description","How To Fix","Help URL" "Security: Protocol-Relative Resource Links","Warning","Low","7396","49.380","URLs that load resources such as images, JavaScript and CSS using protocol-relative links. A protocol-relative link is simply a link to a URL without specifying the scheme (for example, //screamingfrog.co.uk). It helps save developers time from having to specify the protocol and lets the browser determine it based upon the current connection to the resource. However, this technique is now an anti-pattern with HTTPS everywhere, and can expose some sites to 'man in the middle' compromises and performance issues","Update any resource links to be absolute links including the scheme (HTTPS) to avoid security and performance issues.","" "Response Codes: Internal Client Error (4xx)","Issue","High","10","0.050","Internal URLs with a client-side error. This indicates a problem occurred with the URL request and can include responses such as 400 bad request, 403 Forbidden, 404 Page Not Found, 410 Removed, 429 Too Many Requests and more. A 404 'Page Not Found' is the most common, and often referred to as a broken link. View URLs that link to errors using the lower 'inlinks' tab and export them in bulk via 'Bulk Export > Response Codes > Internal > Client Error (4xx) inlinks'.","All links on a website should ideally resolve to 200 'OK' URLs. Errors such as a 404 or 410 should be updated to their correct locations, removed and redirected where appropriate. A 403 forbidden error occurs when a web server denies access to the SEO Spider's request and can often be resolved by switching the user-agent to Chrome via 'Config > User-Agent' and crawling again.","" "Meta Description: Below 70 Characters","Opportunity","Low","264","3.570","Pages which have meta descriptions below the configured limit. This isn't strictly an issue, but an opportunity. There is additional room to communicate benefits, USPs or call to actions.","Consider updating the meta description to take advantage of the space left to include additional benefits, USPs or call to actions to improve click through rates (CTR).","" "URL: GA Tracking Parameters","Warning","Low","5","0.030","URLs that contain Google Analytics tracking parameters. In addition to creating duplicate pages that must be crawled, using tracking parameters on links internally can overwrite the original session data. utm= parameters strip the original source of traffic and starts a new session with the specified attributes. _ga= and _gl= parameters are used for cross-domain linking and identify a specific user, including this on links prevents a unique user ID from being assigned.","Remove the tracking parameters from links. Event Tracking is recommended in place of utm parameters for tracking additional interactions on a page such as downloads, link clicks, form submissions, and video plays.","" "Canonicals: Non-Indexable Canonical","Issue","High","554","7.490","Pages with a canonical URL that is non-indexable. This will include canonicals which are blocked by robots.txt, no response, redirect (3XX), client error (4XX), server error (5XX), are 'noindex' or 'canonicalised' themselves. This means the search engines are being instructed to consolidate indexing and link signals to a non-indexable page, which often leads to them ignoring the canonical, but may also lead to unpredictability in indexing and ranking. Export pages, their canonicals and status codes via 'Reports > Canonicals > Non-Indexable Canonicals'.","Ensure canonical URLs are to accurate indexable pages to avoid them being ignored by search engines, and any potential indexing or ranking unpredictability.","" "Response Codes: External No Response","Warning","Low","70","0.360","External URLs with no response returned from the server. Usually due to a malformed URL, connection timeout, connection error, or connection refused. View URLs that link to no responses using the lower 'inlinks' tab and export them in bulk via 'Bulk Export > Response Codes > External > No Response inlinks'.","Malformed URLs should be updated to the correct location and other connection issues can often be resolved by using different user-agents ('Config > User-Agent'), adjusting the crawl speed ('Config > Speed') or disabling firewalls & proxies. If they can be viewed in a browser, then it's often not an issue.","" "JavaScript: Contains JavaScript Content","Warning","Medium","7109","96.120","Pages that contain body text that's only discovered in the rendered HTML after JavaScript execution.","While Google is able to render pages and see client-side only content, consider including important content server side in the raw HTML.","" "Security: Missing X-Frame-Options Header","Warning","Low","7230","48.270","URLs missing an X-Frame-Options response header with a 'DENY' or 'SAMEORIGIN' value. This instructs the browser not to render a page within a frame, iframe, embed or object. This helps avoid 'clickjacking' attacks, where your content is displayed on another web page that is controlled by an attacker.","To minimise security issues, the X-Frame-Options response header should be supplied with a 'DENY' or 'SAMEORIGIN' value.","" "Page Titles: Same as H1","Opportunity","Low","5516","74.580","Page titles which match the h1 on the page exactly. This is not necessarily an issue, but may point to a potential opportunity to target alternative keywords, synonyms, or related key phrases.","This is not necessarily an issue, but may point to a potential opportunity to target alternative keywords, synonyms, or related key phrases.","" "JavaScript: Contains JavaScript Links","Warning","Medium","2327","31.460","Pages that contain hyperlinks that are only discovered in the rendered HTML after JavaScript execution. These hyperlinks are not in the raw HTML.","While Google is able to render pages and see client-side only links, consider including important links server side in the raw HTML.","" "Security: Missing X-Content-Type-Options Header","Warning","Low","7192","48.020","URLs that are missing the 'X-Content-Type-Options' response header with a 'nosniff' value. In the absence of a MIME type, browsers may 'sniff' to guess the content type to interpret it correctly for users. However, this can be exploited by attackers who can try and load malicious code, such as JavaScript via an image they have compromised.","To minimise security issues, the X-Content-Type-Options response header should be supplied and set to 'nosniff'. This instructs browsers to rely only on the Content-Type header and block anything that does not match accurately. This also means the content-type set needs to be accurate.","" "Meta Description: Over 155 Characters","Opportunity","Low","585","7.910","Pages which have meta descriptions over the configured limit. Characters over this limit might be truncated in Google's search results.","Write concise meta descriptions to ensure important words are not truncated in the search results, and not visible to users.","" "Response Codes: Internal Redirection (3xx)","Warning","Low","679","3.450","Internal URLs which redirect to another URL. These will include server-side redirects, such as 301 or 302 redirects (and more). View URLs that link to redirects using the lower 'inlinks' tab and export them in bulk via 'Bulk Export > Response Codes > Internal > Redirection (3xx) inlinks'.","Ideally all internal links would be to canonical resolving URLs, and avoid linking to URLs that redirect. This reduces latency of redirect hops for users, and enhanced efficiency for search engines.","" "Page Titles: Below 30 Characters","Opportunity","Medium","1547","20.920","Pages which have page titles under the configured limit. This isn't necessarily an issue, but it does indicate there might be room to target additional keywords or communicate your USPs.","Consider updating the page title to take advantage of the space left to include additional target keywords or USPs.","" "URL: Parameters","Warning","Low","22","0.150","URLs that include parameters such as '?' or '&'. This isn't an issue for Google or other search engines to crawl unless at significant scale, but it's recommended to limit the number of parameters in a URL which can be complicated for users, and can be a sign of low value-add URLs.","Where possible use a static URL structure without parameters for key indexable URLs. However, changing URLs is a big decision, and often it's not worth changing them for SEO purposes alone. If URLs are changed, then appropriate 301 redirects must be implemented.","" "Directives: Noindex","Warning","High","517","6.790","URLs containing a 'noindex' directive in either a robots meta tag or X-Robots-Tag in the HTTP header. This instructs the search engines not to index the page. The page will still be crawled (to see the directive), but it will then be dropped from the index.","URLs with a 'noindex' should be reviewed carefully to ensure they are correct and shouldn't be indexed. If these pages should be indexed, then the 'noindex' directive should be removed.","" "Links: Internal Outlinks With No Anchor Text","Opportunity","Low","7020","94.920","Pages that have internal links without anchor text or images that are hyperlinked without alt text. Anchor text is the visible text and words used in hyperlinks that provide users and search engines context about the content of the target page. Internal outlinks without anchor text can be seen in the 'Outlinks' tab, with the 'All Link Types' filter set to 'Hyperlinks', where the 'Anchor Text' column is blank, or if an image, the 'Alt Text' column is also blank. Export in bulk via 'Bulk Export > Links > Internal Outlinks With No Anchor Text'.","Review the missing anchor text outlinks and where appropriate include useful and descriptive anchor text to help users and search engines.","" "JavaScript: Meta Description Updated by JavaScript","Warning","Medium","2","0.030","Pages that have meta descriptions that are modified by JavaScript. This means the meta description in the raw HTML is different to the meta description in the rendered HTML.","While Google is able to render pages and see client-side only content, consider including important content server side in the raw HTML.","" "Page Titles: Below 200 Pixels","Opportunity","Medium","613","8.290","Pages which have page titles much shorter than Google's estimated pixel length limit. This isn't necessarily an issue, but it does indicate there might be room to target additional keywords or communicate your USPs.","Consider updating the page title to take advantage of the space left to include additional target keywords or USPs.","" "Meta Description: Over 985 Pixels","Opportunity","Low","554","7.490","Pages which have meta descriptions over Google's estimated pixel length limit for snippets. Google snippet length is actually based upon pixels limits, rather than a character length. The SEO Spider tries to match the latest pixel truncation points in the SERPs, but it is an approximation and Google adjusts them frequently.","Write concise meta descriptions to ensure important words are not truncated in the search results, and not visible to users.","" "Security: Missing HSTS Header","Warning","Low","1","0.010","URLs that are missing the HSTS response header. The HTTP Strict-Transport-Security response header (HSTS) instructs browsers that it should only be accessed using HTTPS, rather than HTTP. If a website accepts a connection to HTTP, before being redirected to HTTPS, visitors will initially still communicate over HTTP. The HSTS header instructs the browser to never load over HTTP and to automatically convert all requests to HTTPS.","The HSTS header should be used across all pages to instruct the browser that it should always request pages via HTTPS, rather than HTTP.","" "Response Codes: External Server Error (5xx)","Warning","Low","22","0.110","External URLs where the server failed to fulfill an apparently valid request. This can include common responses such as 500 Internal Server Errors and 503 Service Unavailable. View URLs that link to errors using the lower 'inlinks' tab and export them in bulk via 'Bulk Export > Response Codes > External > Server Error (5xx) inlinks'.","All URLs should respond with a 200 'OK' status and this might indicate a server that struggles under load, or a misconfiguration that requires investigation. If they can be viewed in a browser, then it's often not an issue.","" "H2: Missing","Warning","Low","62","0.840","Pages which have a missing