Broken Link Checker for WordPress
Notice: This plugin has been transferred to ManageWP. I am no longer working on it. Please direct any feedback to the new developer. See the plugin homepage for more information.
Sometimes, links get broken. A page is deleted, a subdirectory forgotten, a site moved to a different domain. Most likely many of your blog posts contain links. It is almost inevitable that over time some of them will lead to a “404 Not Found” error page. Obviously you don’t want your readers to be annoyed by clicking a link that leads nowhere. You can check the links yourself but that might be quite a task if you have a lot of posts. You could use your webserver’s stats but that only works for local links.
So I’ve made a plugin for WordPress that will check your posts (and pages), looking for broken links, and let you know if any are found.
Features
- Detects links that don’t work, missing images, deleted YouTube videos and other problems.
- Periodically checks links in posts, pages, comments, custom fields and the blogroll.
- New and modified entries are checked ASAP.
- Notifies you on the Dashboard if any problems are found.
- Lets you edit all instances of a specific link at once.
- Gives you a list of all links ever posted on your site, with the ability to search and filter it.
- Lets you apply custom CSS styles to broken and removed links.
- Highly configurable.
The broken links show up in the Tools -> Broken Links tab along. If any invalid URLs are found a notification will also show up on the Dashboard widget. To save screen real-estate, the widget can be configured to stay closed most of the time and automatically expand when broken links are detected.
Download
broken-link-checker.zip (412 KB)
Requirements
- WordPress 3.0 or later
- MySQL 4.1 or later
The current version of this plugin is only compatible with WordPress 3.0 and up. If you have an older version of WP, try one of the older releases. Specifically, version 0.8.1 is the last one that’s still compatible with the WP 2.8 branch, and version 0.4.14 is the last one compatible with WP 2.1 – 2.6.x.
Installation
Install “Broken Link Checker” just like any other WordPress plugin :
- Download the .zip file (see below).
- Unzip.
- Upload the
broken-link-checkerfolder to you/wp-content/pluginsdirectory. - Activate the plugin in the Plugins tab.
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Thanx for the quick reply.
Do you think that if I try it and then deactivate it again (if there was to be a problem) BLC would still function properly?
Marikamitsos
Yes, I believe it would.
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Is it possible to check for broken Youtube videoes on my site or do you know any other plugins which does? 🙂
It’s not currently possible, but it is a planned feature for a (distant) future release. I’m not currently aware of any plugins that could check Youtube videos.
I suggest beware the delete broken link / modify link option, i am using 0.81, default, it checked the option who modify the broken link.
[…] リンク切れ（デッドリンク）をチェック出来るプラグイン。 画像や外部サイトへのリンクが切れていると、リンクが切れてますよと表示してくれる。HTTPステータスコードが404の場合をリンク切れと判断しているため、ウェブサイトが表示されていてもリンク切れと判断されることに注意。 例えば、『14の面白いデザインの404エラーページ』 のページから貼ったリンクは、ほとんどリンク切れと判断されています。 Broken Link Checker for WordPress […]
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I LOVE this plugin — thank you!!
But, I’ve found that the most recent update is calling some links broken, when they’re perfectly fine. In fact, it lists 63 broken links and images!
I’ve deactivated and reactivated the plugin, but the problem remains. How can I fix this problem? Maybe I could have the old file back, before it was updated?
Thanks,
Laurie
Also — maybe I caused the problem by not deactivating the plugin before I upgraded it? I didn’t realize I was supposed to do that…..but my other blog now shows 295 broken links, which can’t be right….
When you use the WP built-in upgrade function it will automatically deactivate and reactivate the plugin as it upgrades it. So that shouldn’t be a problem.
As for those incorrectly detected links, check their “Details” section, especially the “Log” therein. If you post the details for one or two here, I might be able to figure out why the plugin thinks they’re broken.
You can always download older versions here :
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/broken-link-checker/download/
Thanks for your help! When I click “details”, nothing at all happens….same when I click “Not Broken” or any of the other options…
I’ll try downloading the previous version.
That sounds like it could be a JavaScript problem. Check your browser’s error console for error messages (it’s Tools -> Error Console in FF, other browsers have something similar).
I normally use IE, but couldn’t find the error console there.
So I checked the Error Console in FF. The “Errors” box is blank.
But under “All”, I get many, many warnings. The ones that relate to my blog look like this:
Warning: Error in parsing value for ‘filter’. Declaration dropped.
Source File: http://theadventurouswriter.com/blogwriting/wp-admin/load-styles.php?c=1&dir=ltr&load=dashboard,plugin-install,global,wp-admin&ver=17aa35fdf22036c3f75256fc16b16184
Line: 4
Warning: Unknown pseudo-class or pseudo-element ‘first’.
Source File: http://theadventurouswriter.com/blogwriting/wp-admin/
Line: 0
Warning: Expected ‘]’ to terminate attribute selector but found ‘:’.
Source File: http://theadventurouswriter.com/blogwriting/wp-admin/
Line: 0
Warning: Unknown property ‘border-bottom-left-radius’. Declaration dropped.
Source File: http://theadventurouswriter.com/blogwriting/wp-admin/load-styles.php?c=1&dir=ltr&load=global,wp-admin&ver=4198bec071152ccaf39ba26fd81dcd63
Line: 2
Can you help me get rid of them the errors? I want Link Checker to work again!
Also, can you delete these error messages after you look at them? I don’t want people to see that info…
Thanks for your help,
Laurie
Those are all CSS warnings, which usually only affect how something looks, not how it works. CSS errors wouldn’t prevent the link checker from working.
Maybe you could give me access to your blog’s dashboard so that I can investigate the problem directly? (This is just a suggestion. I know most people would be reluctant to give anyone that kind of access, so I’ll understand if you refuse.)
Hello,
I ‘ve just found a small bug.
If an url contains a dot, it is detected as broken, even if the url is good. An example : http://www.viadeo.com/fr/profile/daniel.roch1
Yes, I’d be fine with giving you access to my WP Dashboard. This is one of my favorite plugins, and I’d do almost anything to get it going again 🙂
Maybe Seomix’s bug is part of the problem? Or maybe it’s the whole problem?
Please email me, and I’ll send you my WP Dashboard info…
Thanks,
Laurie
@ Seomix : That false positive has nothing to do with dots. The problem is that the server in question (www.vidaeo.com) implements the HTTP protocol incorrectly. I’ll add a work-around for such buggy servers in the next version (sigh).