Documentation

Scan modes

Every crawl runs in one of two modes. Both score all three lenses for every URL — the difference is whether GEOBee reads the raw HTML or fully renders each page.

Quick scan

A fast static crawl. GEOBee fetches each page's HTML and scores it directly — no browser, no rendering. It is the default and the right first pass for almost any site: point it at a URL, press Start, and rows fill in as pages are scored. Quick scan needs nothing installed beyond GEOBee itself.

Deep scan

A rendered crawl. In addition to everything the quick scan does, GEOBee runs each page through the Lighthouse CLI, which adds two things a static read cannot see:

  • Lighthouse category scores — real performance and quality signals from a rendered page.
  • JavaScript-discovered links — URLs that only appear after scripts run, so client-rendered sites get crawled properly.

Deep scan is heavier: rendering every page takes more time and memory, so 8 GB of RAM is recommended. It requires the Lighthouse CLI on your PATH — see Getting started for the one-time setup. Deep scan is part of the Pro plan.

Quick vs. deep at a glance

 Quick scanDeep scan
SEO / AEO / GEO scoringYesYes
Reads static HTMLYesYes
Renders the pageNoYes (Lighthouse)
Lighthouse performance scoresYes
JavaScript-discovered linksYes
Needs Lighthouse CLINoYes
SpeedFastSlower

Which should I use?

  • Quick scan for fast, broad passes — first audits, large sites, and static or server-rendered pages.
  • Deep scan when you need rendered performance scores, or when the site is client-rendered and important links only appear after JavaScript runs.
Keep comparisons like-for-like. When you diff two crawls, compare quick with quick and deep with deep — GEOBee flags mismatched pairs because Lighthouse data from a deep scan is not comparable to a static quick scan. See Projects & compare.