Webpages and Assets
When you drill into a search result, you are presented with resource details, linked references, and navigation options specific to that page/asset. In the context of InterroBot, "resource" is shorthand for either a page or an asset.
Understanding how pages connect to each other is fundamental to your site architecture. Google's crawler, and every other major search engine crawler will discover content by following links. Your internal link structure affects which pages get indexed and the authority they receive.
References Visualization
The main content is a graphical representation of the page relative to incoming/outgoing links, and page media (images, CSS, JavaScript, etc.). Errors are color-coded, and the nodes are all clickable. These pull up the referenced page/asset in the right margin, revealing additional information.
The reference map serves as a fast way to understand how the current page or asset is interacting with the rest of the website. This visualization makes it easy to spot orphaned pages (pages with no inlinks) or identify pages that are heavily referenced, which often correlate with important content that search engines prioritize.
Details Tab
The details tab is where InterroBot presents everything it has on the current resource. Here you'll find the HTTP status, timings, download size, redirect status, and headers. Status codes follow the HTTP specification, and headers provide metadata about how the resource should be cached, rendered, and indexed.
There are two buttons:
View in Browser. This button will open the current resource in your default browser. When investigating an issue, this is a common move to validate the situation.
Mark as Fixed. This button is only enabled when the current resource has an HTTP error code. When clicked (and enabled), it sets the current resource to an HTTP 200, and updates linked resources. This is useful when fixing a result set, one by one. It removes the resource from error results so that you stop bumping into it. It's a workflow thing, which may or may not be useful to you.
For more on what different HTTP status codes mean and how they affect crawlability, see Finding Broken Links.
Assets, Outlinks, and Inlinks Tabs
InterroBot organizes references into one of three categories. Each of these categories lists references connected to the current page/asset.
- Assets are all of the CSS, images, etc., that make up the document. If the current resource is not HTML, this will contain no items.
- Outlinks contain all indexed pages/assets linked from the current resource. If the current resource is not HTML, this will contain no items.
- Inlinks contain all indexed pages that are referencing the current resource.
The Inlinks tab is particularly valuable for SEO work. Pages with more inlinks from authoritative pages tend to rank better because they accumulate more link equity. By identifying which pages have strong internal link profiles, you can understand which content search engines are likely to prioritize. Conversely, important pages with few inlinks may need more internal links added to boost their visibility.
It is possible to navigate from these lists. Each item contains a jump button to navigate to that resource. You can jump around resources indefinitely. Fortunately, you can also use the back button in the main navigation to get back to the original once you've seen enough.
Practical Applications
Auditing orphaned pages. If a page has no inlinks, search engines may struggle to find it. Use the Inlinks tab to identify these orphans, then add contextual links from related content.
Tracing asset dependencies. Before removing an old CSS or JavaScript file, check its Inlinks to see which pages still reference it. This prevents breaking functionality when cleaning up deprecated assets.
Understanding link flow. The reference visualization helps you see how link equity flows is distributed through your website. Pages that are isolated may need better internal linking to improve their crawlability.
For advanced queries that combine link analysis with other filters, see Advanced Search. New to site crawling? Start with Getting Started to index your first project.
InterroBot is a web crawler and developer tool for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.
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