Broken link checker

RankKit SEO Pro This feature is part of RankKit SEO Pro. Start a 14-day free trial or see plans.

Broken links send visitors to error pages and waste the crawl time search engines give your site. The broken link checker finds every link in your published content, checks each one in the background, and lets you fix broken ones in one click: remove the link, replace the URL or redirect it.

It is gentle on other sites and on your server: it checks a few links at a time and never sends more than one request to the same site every few seconds.

Turn it on

1. Go to RankKit SEO → Site Audit. The Broken links card is at the bottom of the Site audit tab.
2. Switch it to On. It is off by default.

RankKit SEO first collects the links from your published content ("Collecting links…"), then checks them ("Checking links… N done"). Scan progress shows how far it is. You can leave the page: the scan carries on in the background with WP-Cron.

Control	What it does
Scan now	Starts a new scan straight away.
Stop	Stops the running scan.
Last scan	When the last scan ran.

The counters show how many links are broken, to check, redirecting and OK.

How links are checked

RankKit SEO requests each linked URL with a HEAD request, then a GET request when needed, and follows up to five redirects.

Status	Meaning
Broken	The link returns an error such as 404 or 410, or the domain does not resolve or refuses the connection.
Check	Probably fine but worth a look: the site answered 401, 403, 429 or 503 (login walls, bot blocking, rate limits), still redirects after five hops, or the request timed out.
Redirects	The link works but goes through a redirect. The final address is shown ("ends at …"). Update the link to point straight there.
OK	The link works.
Not checked	Found but not checked yet.
Ignored	You chose to ignore it.

Use the filters Broken, Check, Redirects, OK, Not checked, Ignored and All links to switch lists. Each row shows the Link (with its anchor text, whether it is internal or external, and how many other posts contain it), the post it was Found in, and its Status with the HTTP code.

Fix a broken link

Next to a link that is not OK:

• Unlink ("Remove the link"): removes the link but keeps the link text in the post.
• Replace ("Replace the URL"): enter a New URL. When the same URL appears in other posts, Also fix it in the N other posts with this URL fixes them all at once.
• Redirect ("Redirect the broken URL"), internal links only: adds a 301 redirect from the broken path to the address you enter in Send visitors to. The links in your posts keep working without editing them. The redirect appears in Redirects.
• Re-check: checks the link again now.
• Ignore: hides the link from the broken list, for example a site that blocks bots but works in a browser.

Unlink and replace edit your post content through the Change Log, so you can undo them there ("Link fixed. Undo it from the Change Log.").

Checker settings

Setting	Default	What it does
Check links to other sites	On	When off, only links to your own site are checked, and no requests go to other sites.
Seconds between requests to the same site	2	The minimum wait between two requests to one host. Raise it if a site rate-limits you.
Re-check every (days)	7	How often links that were already checked are checked again.

FAQ

Will the checker slow down my site?

It works in small steps in the background, a few links at a time, so visitors should not notice it. Each step runs from WP-Cron, or from the admin screen while you have it open.

Why is a link marked Check when it works in my browser?

Some sites block automated requests or ask for a login (401, 403) or slow you down (429, 503). The page probably exists. Open it to confirm, then click Ignore if it is fine.

Who can use the broken link checker?

Users with the Site audit permission, which is administrators by default. See Role manager.

Can an AI agent see broken links?

Yes. Connected agents can use the list_broken_links tool on RankKit SEO Pro.