Broken Link Fixer finds broken links and images by opening your published pages the way a visitor sees them – including the links your theme, menus, and widgets print, which checkers that only read the database miss. Click Scan Site, review what is broken, and fix it right from the results table.

Key Features

Scans what visitors see – the rendered pages are read, so links from your theme, menus, and widgets are found along with the ones in your posts
Links and images – including lazy-loaded images and responsive image sizes, with each address checked once even when it appears on many pages
Clear statuses – Broken (404, 410, server errors, and DNS failures), Warning (blocked, rate-limited, or timed out, so you can check by hand), and Redirect (permanent redirects worth updating)
Edit or unlink in the results table – change a URL or remove a link and keep its text, and every post that uses it is updated at once
Dismiss and recheck – ignore the links you do not care about, and check any link again after you fix it
Exclude and filter – leave out domains or paths, and choose whether external links are checked
Health at a glance – a dashboard widget shows whether you have more or fewer broken links than at the last scan, and every link keeps its first-seen date
Light on your server – the scan runs in small steps from the admin screen, so visitors are never slowed down
Private – the scan only reads your own pages and the addresses on them, and nothing is sent to an outside service

How It Works

Install and activate the plugin
Open Broken Links in your WordPress dashboard (or Tools > Broken Links when Compact Mode is on)
Click Scan Site and wait for the progress bar to finish
Review the Broken, Warning, and Redirect tabs
Edit the URL or unlink it, or dismiss the links you want to ignore

Who It’s For

Bloggers and small business owners who want to find the dead links that frighten visitors and search engines away
Site owners who changed their permalinks, moved pages, or deleted content and want to know what now points nowhere
SEO specialists who need a list of broken and redirecting links with the pages that contain them
Agencies that need a light, no-configuration link checker for client sites

Free vs. Pro

The free version finds broken links and images on posts and pages and lets you fix them one at a time. Broken Link Fixer Pro adds:

Redirects – 301, 302, 307, and 308 rules that match an exact address, a path prefix, or a regular expression, with hit counts and CSV import and export
404 Monitor – the missing addresses visitors ask for, how often, and where they came from, with a suggested page to redirect each one to
Bulk fix – edit, redirect, unlink, recheck, or dismiss many links at once, and use the redirect target or a web archive copy for a dead link
Analytics – a link health score and trend, the pages and websites with the most broken links, and how long links have been broken
Scheduled scans and email reports – scan in the background every day, week, or month and get a summary of the new broken links
Deeper checks – stylesheets, scripts, iframes, and media, soft 404 pages, mixed content on https sites, custom post types, and links in custom fields
Editor panel, WP-CLI, CSV export, and Multisite – check a post while you write it, run the scanner from the terminal or CI, export the results, and scan a whole network

Installation

Download the plugin ZIP from this page, then go to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin, choose the ZIP, and click Install Now, then Activate
Open Broken Links in your dashboard and click Scan Site

Frequently Asked Questions

Which links does it find?

The links and images on your published posts and pages, read from the page the way a visitor sees it. That includes links printed by your theme, menus, and widgets, not only the ones saved in the post content. Links to email addresses, phone numbers, and anchors on the same page are left out.

Why does a link show as a Warning?

Some websites block automated requests or limit how many you can make, and answer with 401, 403, or 429. The link usually works in a browser, so check it by hand. Slow servers that time out are warnings too.

Why can’t I change a link from the results table?

The plugin edits the content of posts and pages. A link printed by your theme, a menu, or a widget is not in the post content, so change it there. The results tell you where the link was found.

Will this slow down my site?

No – the scan only runs when you start it, in small steps from the admin screen, and visitors are never affected. Nothing is added to your pages.

Does it delete anything?

Edit URL and Unlink change the content of your posts, so make a backup first. Clear Results only removes the scan results, and your content is not touched.

Does it send my data to an outside service?

No – the plugin reads your own pages and checks the addresses they contain. It does not use a third-party service.

Ready to find what is broken? Download Broken Link Fixer free, or see everything Broken Link Fixer Pro adds.