What is Screaming Frog SEO Spider?
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is an SEO crawler operated by Screaming Frog. You can set up Agent Analytics to see when Screaming Frog SEO Spider visits your website.
Overview
| Operated By | Screaming Frog |
| Source | Official Website |
| Expected To Follow Robots.txt | Yes |
| Insights Last Updated | September 14, 2026 |
Do you operate this agent? Contact us to suggest an update.
Category
Expected Behavior
Screaming Frog SEO Spider usually performs comprehensive, link-following crawls rather than spot checks. Visit frequency may rise while a customer actively monitors your site or a related market.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider's User Agent
| User Agent | Screaming Frog SEO Spider/24.3 |
How To Block Screaming Frog SEO Spider With Robots.txt
Add this rule to your robots.txt file to block Screaming Frog SEO Spider from accessing your website, or use Automatic Robots.txt to block all SEO crawlers at once. You can customize which pages are blocked by swapping out / for a different path.
User-agent: Screaming Frog SEO Spider # https://knownagents.com/agents/screaming-frog-seo-spider
Disallow: /Insights for Screaming Frog SEO Spider
As of September 14, 2026, this data reflects agent visits measured across thousands of websites using Agent Analytics, combined with daily scans of the top 1000 websites and their robots.txt files.
Robots.txt Blocked Percentage
Country of Origin
Robots.txt Blocking Trend
5% of top websites block Screaming Frog SEO Spider in their robots.txts.
Overall SEO Crawler Traffic
1.7% of all web traffic came from SEO crawlers.
Top Visited Website Categories
The types of websites most frequently visited by Screaming Frog SEO Spider.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I Block Screaming Frog SEO Spider?
Consider blocking Screaming Frog SEO Spider only if you do not want your pages included in SEO databases. It does not influence how search engines rank you, and blocking it will not hide backlinks to your site because those are discovered on the linking sites. For context, 5% of the top websites we track currently have robots.txt rules for Screaming Frog SEO Spider.
Does Screaming Frog SEO Spider Follow Robots.txt Rules?
Yes. Screaming Frog SEO Spider is expected to follow robots.txt rules, so a disallow rule is the appropriate first step. Automatic Robots.txt can add and maintain that rule, while Agent Analytics lets you verify whether Screaming Frog SEO Spider respects it.
Does Screaming Frog SEO Spider Access Private Content?
No. Screaming Frog SEO Spider can reach only public pages, and authentication prevents it from accessing private content.
How Can I Tell if Screaming Frog SEO Spider Is Visiting My Website?
Agent Analytics tracks Screaming Frog SEO Spider visits in real time. You can also check your server logs for requests whose user-agent string contains "Screaming Frog SEO Spider". Look for comprehensive site crawls that follow internal links. Because Screaming Frog SEO Spider does not publish a verification method, any client can claim its identity and a log match is only a clue.
Why Is Screaming Frog SEO Spider Visiting My Website?
Your domain appears in the ranking, backlink, or competitor data maintained by Screaming Frog SEO Spider's operator. A customer may be tracking your site, one of your competitors, or a backlink that connects another site to yours.