---
title: "SEO crawl comparison | SEO Skill"
description: "Compare two saved SEO crawls to find new, fixed and changed technical issues. Check the crawl scope before treating the difference as real or complete."
canonical: "https://seoskill.dev/docs/reports/compare-crawls"
language: "en"
---

# SEO crawl comparison

See what changed between two saved crawl snapshots without fetching the site again. Check that both crawls covered a comparable part of the site before celebrating a fix or reporting a regression.

## Install and run the report

Install the CLI once, then run `seo start` to connect your site and Google data. After setup you can run this report yourself or ask your agent to run it.

Install the SEO CLI globally.

```
npm i -g seo
```

Run setup after installation.

```
seo start
```

Compare two saved crawl snapshots.

```
seo crawl-reports --compare latest --against previous
```

## What you get from this report

Compare two saved SEO crawls to find new, fixed and changed technical issues. Check the crawl scope before treating the difference as real or complete.

Best for

You need to verify a deployment, migration, or technical cleanup.

Needs

Earlier saved crawl report

You get

Compare two saved SEO crawls to find new, fixed and changed technical issues. Check the crawl scope before treating the difference as real or complete.

Use next

Find URLs affected by a crawl issue

Every report follows the same rules for missing data and outside estimates.[See how report data works](https://seoskill.dev/docs/reports#how-report-data-works).

## What you need before you run it

The report uses the information below. Optional sources are only used when you ask for them.

### Earlier saved crawl report

Provides the baseline pages, issues, config, limits, and source status.

### Later saved crawl report

Provides the current snapshot and its own scope, caps, failures, and evidence.

## Use a different report for these jobs

These jobs need a different report or a manual review.

[

### You have one saved baseline but still need to fetch the current site before comparing it.

Run crawl diff. It fetches the current limited scope, compares it with the compatible monitoring snapshot, and keeps failures or scope changes separate from real regressions.

SEO crawl diff

](https://seoskill.dev/docs/reports/crawl-diff)

### You need to know which release, edit, or external event caused a crawl change.

No automated report can prove the cause from two crawl snapshots. Compare deployment records, source changes, server logs, and the affected page templates. This report can still identify when the evidence changed and which URLs or rules need that investigation.

Needs more evidence

## Use the report with an agent or in code

The command above is enough for most work. These options let an agent, script or application run the same report with explicit input and structured output.

### CLI

Use the report catalog when an agent, script or CI job needs predictable JSON instead of the normal terminal output. Check the current input first, then run the report with the validated parameters.

Check the current input before the agent or script runs the report.

```
seo reports describe compare-crawls --json
```

Once the input is valid, run the report through the report catalog.

```
seo reports run compare-crawls --params '{"after":"latest","before":"previous","site":"sc-domain:example.com"}' --json
```

### MCP

An MCP agent follows the same two-step flow. It inspects the current schema, fills the required fields and only then runs the report.

Ask the MCP server for the current report input.

```
{
  "id": "compare-crawls"
}
```

Run the report after the agent has checked and filled the input.

```
{
  "id": "compare-crawls",
  "params": {
    "after": "latest",
    "before": "previous",
    "site": "sc-domain:example.com"
  }
}
```

### TypeScript

Install the package in a Node 22 project when your application needs to run the report directly. The result includes the same evidence, warnings and limits returned through the CLI and MCP server.

Add the SEO package to your project.

```
npm install seo
```

Run the report from your TypeScript application.

```
import { executeReport } from 'seo/mcp'

const result = await executeReport(
  'compare-crawls',
  {
  "after": "latest",
  "before": "previous",
  "site": "sc-domain:example.com"
},
)

console.log(result)
```

## What to do next

Confirm that both crawls covered comparable pages before calling a difference a regression or recovery. Audit representative changes directly, then use affected URLs when the same rule spans a larger group.

1.  01Audit representative regressions directly.
2.  02Run affected URLs when a changed rule spans many pages.

## Related reports

[

Find every URL affected by a technical SEO issue, inspect the crawl evidence on each page and turn one broad finding into a practical fix list.

Technical SEO affected URLs

](https://seoskill.dev/docs/reports/affected-urls)[

Audit one URL for technical SEO, metadata, canonicals, schema, links and Search Console queries. See the live evidence before changing the page.

SEO page audit

](https://seoskill.dev/docs/reports/audit-page)[

Repeat a limited crawl and compare it with the previous run to find technical SEO issues that appeared, changed or disappeared after a release.

SEO crawl diff

](https://seoskill.dev/docs/reports/crawl-diff)