This page explains what the Sitebulb MCP can read, and what it can and can't do. It also covers the times you're better off in the Sitebulb app or working from an export instead.
How Sitebulb data is organized
Before we start, here's a quick mental model, because it explains most of what follows. In Sitebulb, a project is a website you've set up to crawl. Each time it crawls, that's an audit. Every audit contains reports (grouped views like On Page or Indexability), Hints (things worth your attention, from issues to opportunities) and the individual URLs those Hints apply to.
The MCP reads down that chain: project, then audit, then the reports and Hints inside it, then the URLs. Almost every question you'll ask maps onto one of those levels.
Not connected yet? Everything on this page assumes the Sitebulb MCP is already hooked up to Claude or ChatGPT. If it isn't, Sitebulb MCP: Start Here gets you connected in a couple of minutes, then Getting Started with the Sitebulb MCP covers your first prompts.
What it can do
Everything the MCP does works off a crawl that's already finished.
Find your projects and audits. List what's in your account, and see when each was last crawled.
Summarise an audit. The site score out of 100, how many URLs were crawled, and the breakdown of issues by severity.
Surface issues by category. Hints grouped the way Sitebulb groups them, on-page, indexability, links, security, performance and the rest. For each one you get how severe it is, how many URLs it affects, and whether that count has gone up or down since the last crawl. For example: "images missing alt text, 3,548 URLs, up 98 since last time."
Pull informational insights. Alongside issues, Sitebulb surfaces insights, the contextual findings that aren't problems as such but are worth knowing (e.g. Indexable URLs count is 654).
Show example URLs for an issue. Ask which pages are missing an H1 and it'll give you a sample to eyeball.
Look up a single URL. The full detail Sitebulb holds on one page: status, word count, titles, and so on.
Tell you what changed. Between an audit and the one before it, what's new, what's gone, and which issues moved.
Show trends over time. Site score and key counts across past crawls, so you can see the direction of travel rather than a single snapshot.
What it can't do
Sitebulb MCP is intentionally read-only. Set up or schedule your crawls in the app, then use the MCP to pull data or build reports.
It can't run, schedule or change a crawl. Set those up in Sitebulb as you always have. The MCP reads the results once they're done.
It can't give you every affected URL. For any single issue it returns a sample of up to 50 example URLs, to keep answers fast and readable. When you need the complete list, use the export in the Sitebulb app.
It can't read a crawl that hasn't finished. If an audit is still running, wait for it to complete, then ask.
It won't invent data. It works only from what's in your account. If it can't find a project or an audit, it'll tell you rather than guess.
It can't change your settings or your data. Nothing you ask it will alter a project, an audit or your account.
When to use the MCP, the app, or an export
SEOs have been successfully using the Sitebulb application and its associated exports for years, and the MCP availability does not suddenly change that. The MCP is just another tool, and it helps to know when it's the right tool.
Use the MCP when
You want a fast answer or a summary, you want to reason across issues ("what should I fix first?"), you want to visually compare two crawls, you want to combine Sitebulb data with your other connected tools, you want to automate repetitive tasks, or you want to draft a report or a dashboard in the flow of conversation.
Use the Sitebulb app when
You need to run or configure a crawl, view or filter big URL lists, click through every affected URL, explore the data visually, or dig into the detail behind a report. The app is where you get the full picture.
Use a Sitebulb export when
You need the complete dataset to work on somewhere else: a spreadsheet, a client hand-off, or another tool. The MCP hands you the shape of the data and the headline number, but an export hands you every row.
Next steps
Read through any or all of the following:
Sitebulb MCP prompt library - copy-paste prompts by category, ready to adapt.
What you can build with Sitebulb MCP - reports, dashboards, and combining Sitebulb with your other tools.
Sitebulb Skills for Claude and ChatGPT - run a whole SEO job in one command with Sitebulb Skills. What they are, how they work, and how to install them in Claude or ChatGPT.