The same link often gets stored more than once with tiny differences – http:// versus https://, with or without www., a trailing slash or not. Block Editor External Links Pro’s Bulk Tools tab finds these near-duplicates for you and lets you merge them into one entry with a combined usage count.
What You’ll Learn
- What counts as a “near-duplicate” link
- How to merge duplicates from the Bulk Tools tab
- How to bulk delete links you don’t want merged
What Counts as a Near-Duplicate
Two stored links are treated as near-duplicates when they resolve to the same host and path, differing only by:
- Protocol –
http://vs.https:// - The
www.subdomain being present or missing - A trailing slash being present or missing
Links that differ in any other way – a different path, query string, or fragment – are left alone, since those genuinely point to different content.
Merging Duplicates
- Go to Block Editor External Links > Bulk Tools.
- Check the Duplicate Links section at the top. If any near-duplicates exist, they’re listed in groups.
- Review each group and merge it into a single entry. The merged link keeps the combined usage count of every entry in the group, so its ranking in autocomplete reflects its real, combined popularity.
If the section reads “No near-duplicate links found,” your list is already clean – this is common on sites where every link was added through extraction rather than pasted in by hand with inconsistent formatting.
Bulk Deleting Links
Below Import/Export, the Manage Links table lists every stored link with its domain, usage count, and last-used date. Check the boxes next to any links you want gone and click Delete Selected – useful for clearing out links to content you’ve since removed, without waiting for the automatic cleanup window to catch up.
Bulk Tools is available in Block Editor External Links Pro.