Fixing a site with hundreds of dead links one row at a time takes days. Bulk actions let you tick links, or take every link in a filter, and fix them together with a progress bar. This guide covers each action and the safe way to use them.
What You’ll Learn
- How to select links, including every link in a filter
- What each bulk action does
- How progress and results are reported
- How to stay safe with changes to your content
Selecting Links
Tick the box at the start of a row, or the box in the table header to take the whole page. To take everything in the open filter, click Select all N links in this filter. Combine the status and type filters first, for example Redirects and Links, so you only select what you mean to.
The Actions
Choose an action from Bulk actions and click Apply.
- Use the redirect target – for redirect links and mixed content links: change each link to the address it already redirects to, so the post points straight at the final page. See Fixing mixed content.
- Change the URL to… – type one new address and use it for every selected link.
- Use a web archive copy – for broken links to other websites: look up a saved copy and use it. See Replacing a dead link with a web archive copy.
- Redirect to… – for links to pages on your own site: create a 301 redirect from each old address to the new one you type, so visitors and search engines land on the right page. See Redirecting a broken link to a new page.
- Unlink – remove the links and keep their text. Only links, not images or files.
- Recheck – check the selected addresses again.
- Dismiss – hide them from the results.
Progress and Results
The links are sent in batches, and a bar shows how far it has gone. Each post is read and saved once however many of the selected links it holds, so a bulk fix does not leave a revision for every link. When it ends you see how many links were fixed and how many were skipped, with the reasons: for example a link that is not in post content, or a page you are not allowed to edit.
Staying Safe
- Make a backup first. Change URL, Use the redirect target, Unlink, and the web archive copy change the content of your posts.
- Start with a small filter, check the result, and then take the rest.
- Run Recheck on a few links afterwards to confirm the new addresses work.
This feature is available in Broken Link Fixer Pro.