How can I set a specific range of URLs to log in Screaming Frog?

In Screaming Frog, specifying a range of URLs to log involves using the tool’s configuration and filtering options effectively. Here’s a detailed guide to help you set it up:
Initial Setup: First, ensure you have Screaming Frog SEO Spider installed and open. Begin a new project for the website you’re interested in by entering its URL in the “Enter URL to Spider” field.
Configuration Settings: Before starting the crawl, go to ‘Configuration’ in the top menu. Here, you can tweak various settings such as the number of threads for the crawl, user-agent strings, and more, depending on your particular requirements.
Include/Exclude Filters: To target a specific range of URLs, you can use the ‘Include’ and ‘Exclude’ filter settings. Navigate to ‘Configuration’ > ‘Spider’ > ‘Include’ tab. Here, you can add regular expressions (regex) or specific patterns to target a particular range of URLs. For example, to log only URLs that start with a specific path, you might enter something like ^/section/.*$. Conversely, you can use the ‘Exclude’ tab to remove unwanted URLs from your crawl.
Custom Extraction and Logging: If you need to log specific data from these URLs, visit ‘Configuration’ > ‘Custom’ > ‘Extraction’. Here, you can set up custom extractions using XPath, CSSPath, or regex if there are particular data points you want to extract from these URLs.
Executing the Crawl: Once your filters and settings are configured, run the crawler. Screaming Frog will adhere to your configurations and only log data for the URLs that match your specified criteria.
Exporting the Data: After the crawl, you can export the data by navigating to the top menu and selecting ‘File’ > ‘Export’. You can customize which data to include in the export file according to your needs.

By using these steps, you can efficiently manage and log only the specific range of URLs you’re interested in with Screaming Frog, optimizing the crawl for your particular SEO analysis needs.


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