OnCrawl has evolved into one of the most powerful enterprise-grade platforms for Technical SEO and data-driven website optimization. Built for scale, it helps teams audit and understand massive, complex sites by unifying crawl data, server logs, and search performance signals into a single, actionable framework.

In 2022, BrightEdge acquired OnCrawl, integrating it as the technical SEO data layer within its AI-powered platform. Today, OnCrawl fuels BrightEdge’s Content Lens — an AI system that provides content quality and crawlability insights for enterprise SEOs.

But what exactly does OnCrawl do — and why do advanced SEO teams rely on it? Let’s dive deep.

Why SEOs Use OnCrawl?

1. Scale and Depth

OnCrawl is a cloud crawler designed for extremely large websites — think e-commerce, classifieds, and publishing networks. It provides hundreds of metrics around indexing, crawlability, and internal linking.
Its scalable infrastructure runs on Google Cloud BigQuery, supporting data lakes exceeding 500 TB, ensuring even the biggest enterprise domains can be analyzed in full.

2. Reality Check with Logs

The SEO Log Analyzer component merges server log data with crawl insights to show exactly how Googlebot and other search engine bots interact with your site. You can track crawl frequency, bot hit distribution, and detect crawl budget waste on non-essential URLs — no sampling, full transparency.

3. Cross-Analysis Capabilities

What makes OnCrawl exceptional is its cross-data analysis. You can overlay crawl data with Google Search Console, analytics, or even BI metrics to correlate technical errors with real-world traffic and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). This helps prioritize fixes that actually impact Organic Traffic and conversions.

Core Capabilities of OnCrawl

1. Technical SEO Crawler

The crawler audits site-wide issues affecting indexability, canonicalization, status codes, click depth, and duplicate or thin content.
By segmenting pages, SEOs can identify problems at the template, subdomain, or category level — perfect for SEO Site Audits.

2. SEO Log Analyzer

The log analyzer visualizes real-time bot behavior. You can upload server logs to find inactive pages, track orphan pages, and measure how releases or redirects change crawl distribution. The platform’s “Live Logs” alert system allows monitoring crawl health dynamically.

3. Cross-Data Integrations

OnCrawl integrates deeply with Google Search Console, GA4, and custom BI systems for multi-layered SEO insight.
It also features an open REST API and BigQuery export functionality, allowing analysts to merge crawl and log data with business KPIs for advanced reporting or automation.

4. OnCrawl-Specific Metrics & Tooling

  • Inrank: A proprietary PageRank-like score (0–10) modeling link equity and internal popularity.

  • OQL (OnCrawl Query Language): Enables data segmentation and filtering based on URL patterns or metadata.

  • Custom Scraping: Extracts custom fields (e.g., schema attributes, publication dates) during crawls for deeper analysis.

  • JavaScript SEO Testing: Validates client-side rendering (CSR) and prerendered HTML versions at scale.

How OnCrawl Fits into BrightEdge?

Since the 2022 BrightEdge acquisition, OnCrawl has become the analytical and technical heart of the BrightEdge ecosystem.
This fusion combines enterprise data science with crawl and log-level precision, bridging the gap between content optimization and technical SEO performance.

In short, BrightEdge handles content intelligence and strategy, while OnCrawl powers the technical and data infrastructure behind it — giving enterprises full visibility from crawl errors to revenue outcomes.

Who Gets the Most Value from OnCrawl?

  • Enterprise-level sites: Especially e-commerce, media, or classifieds with millions of URLs.

  • SEO & BI teams: That depend on automation, BigQuery integration, and advanced API pipelines.

  • Technical SEOs: Seeking granular log and crawl rate analysis tied to business KPIs.

Plans & Pricing Overview

OnCrawl’s pricing model scales based on crawl volume, integration needs, and log analysis requirements.
The Basic tier suits regular audits, while higher tiers unlock log management, data scraping, and cross-analysis with analytics or content performance systems.

Enterprise users can also customize data storage and access limits through BrightEdge licensing.

What You Can Actually Do With OnCrawl?

  1. Reclaim Crawl Budget — Identify and fix redirect chains, deep URLs, and crawl traps, then verify changes in logs.

  2. Boost Key URLs — Use Inrank data to distribute internal link equity toward revenue-generating pages.

  3. Content & SEO Quality — Pair Content Lens insights with crawl metrics to surface underperforming but high-impression pages.

  4. JS SEO Validation — Confirm that essential structured data, content, and links appear in the rendered HTML version crawled by bots.

Getting Started with OnCrawl (Step-by-Step Workflow)

Setting up a project in OnCrawl follows a structured process designed for data accuracy and crawl efficiency. Here’s how to begin:

1. Create a Project and Configure Crawl Settings

Start by setting up a new project with your domain name.
Choose between desktop or mobile user agent, enable JavaScript rendering, and decide whether to include subdomains or parameters. You can even set crawl frequency based on your crawl demand.

2. Enable Scraping and Data Extraction

Activate OnCrawl’s custom data scraping functionality to collect additional metadata like schema attributes or publication dates.
This is especially useful when analyzing structured data, schema markup, or publication freshness.

3. Connect External Data Sources

Integrate your Google Search Console and GA4 (Google Analytics 4) accounts.
This cross-connection allows OnCrawl to overlay impression and click data with crawl issues, creating actionable correlations between search visibility and crawl performance.

4. Upload and Schedule Log Files

Feed server logs regularly into the Log Analyzer.
This process helps you detect anomalies in bot behavior, wasted crawl budget, and sudden changes in crawl distribution following new status codes or site deployments.

5. Segment Your Site

Use OQL (OnCrawl Query Language) or automated templates to categorize pages by URL structure, content type, or business line.
Segmentation helps in isolating issues for different subdirectories — for instance, your blog vs. product pages — making it easier to apply focused technical fixes.

6. Prioritize Using Inrank and KPIs

Combine the Inrank metric with key performance indicators (KPIs) to find pages that are technically underlinked but show strong impression potential.
This is an efficient way to improve internal linking and surface content that’s one optimization away from improved organic rankings.

7. Automate with API and BI Tools

OnCrawl’s REST API and BigQuery exports let teams push crawl and log data into existing business intelligence stacks, create dashboards, and trigger alerts automatically.
Automation ensures that SEO teams can scale technical analysis without manual repetition.

Advanced Use Cases for OnCrawl!

1. Reclaim Crawl Budget Waste

By combining crawl data with log files, OnCrawl can identify orphaned pages, redirect loops, and crawl traps.
This insight allows SEOs to optimize internal linking, simplify website structure, and focus crawl demand where it matters most.

2. Enhance Content Discovery

Leverage Inrank to assess how link equity flows through your site.
By redirecting internal links from low-value to high-priority pages, OnCrawl helps improve discoverability and search engine rankings naturally.

3. Validate JavaScript and Dynamic Rendering

Modern frameworks like React or Vue rely on client-side rendering. OnCrawl’s JavaScript testing verifies whether rendered HTML matches the server-side output, ensuring critical content isn’t hidden from search engine crawlers.

4. Analyze Technical Debt Across Deployments

Integrating OnCrawl data into a Continuous Integration (CI) process allows teams to track SEO regressions caused by code updates.
This helps development and SEO teams align technical health with new website releases.

5. Audit Log Insights Over Time

By visualizing long-term access log patterns, OnCrawl provides clarity on crawl consistency and response times. This is crucial for diagnosing server bottlenecks and ensuring page speed remains optimal.

Pros and Considerations

Strengths

  • Scalable for millions of URLs.

  • Unified view of crawl, logs, and business metrics.

  • Strong integrations with Google Cloud, Search Console, and GA4.

  • AI-driven content recommendations through BrightEdge Content Lens.

  • Deep API and automation flexibility for enterprise SEO workflows.

Considerations

  • Requires structured log data and a team skilled in OQL or data segmentation.

  • Best value realized when paired with mature analytics and BI pipelines.

  • May be overkill for small sites; ideal for enterprise SEO operations.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Does OnCrawl use AI?

Yes. Through BrightEdge’s Content Lens, OnCrawl uses AI-driven SEO models to surface content quality issues, detect duplicate content, and provide data-backed improvement suggestions.

How does OnCrawl ensure privacy and compliance?

OnCrawl supports GDPR-compliant data processing and offers Data Processing Agreements (DPAs) for enterprise clients.

How frequently is OnCrawl updated?

OnCrawl continuously deploys new features; in August 2025, updates included instant filters, enhanced log alerts, and expanded OQL dashboard features.

Can OnCrawl detect rendering errors in JavaScript frameworks?

Absolutely. Its JavaScript SEO capabilities can validate how dynamic URLs and rendered HTML appear to search engines versus users.

What differentiates OnCrawl from tools like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb?**

While those tools specialize in smaller-scale audits, OnCrawl is built for cloud-scale data correlation, advanced log file analysis, and cross-data automation.

Final Thoughts on OnCrawl

In the evolving landscape of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), OnCrawl stands out as a data-first and AI-augmented platform that bridges the gap between technical audits and business performance.

By unifying crawl data, log files, and search query insights, OnCrawl empowers SEOs to make decisions grounded in measurable outcomes — from indexing efficiency to revenue correlation.

Ultimately, if your enterprise demands data integrity, automation, and search performance accountability, OnCrawl is not just a crawler — it’s the technical brain behind intelligent SEO decision-making.

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