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 :

    1. Download the .zip file (see below).
    2. Unzip.
    3. Upload the broken-link-checker folder to you /wp-content/plugins directory.
    4. Activate the plugin in the Plugins tab.
    Related posts :
    This entry was posted on Sunday, August 5th, 2007 at 22:59 and is filed under WordPress Plugins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

    2,584 Responses to “Broken Link Checker for WordPress”

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    1. 要不要链 | Inning In Chaos says:
      May 25, 2010 at 11:34

      […] 前些日子闲极无聊，在浩瀚的WP插件列表中找到了这个叫失效链接检查器的插件。试用下来，嚯嚯，发现了400+的无效链接地址和300+的重定向…… 仔细瞅一下，基本上两年以上的链接都找不到了。 也就是说，读者在浏览这些帖子的时候获得了非常糟糕的用户体验。并且浏览器在读取这些页面的时候也会非常困难。而且，据说也不利于网站排名什么的。 […]

    2. Meme: Mis plugins de Wordpress | Save The Geek says:
      May 26, 2010 at 09:03

      […] Broken Link Checker: Plugin que detecta enlaces erróneos o rotos en nuestro blog, muy útil para ver si tenemos enlaces que ya no sirven o están mal escritos. […]

    3. A few good WordPress plugins | Local Internet Marketing | Brian Alaway Consulting says:
      May 26, 2010 at 17:30

      […] Broken Link Checker Checks your blog for broken links and missing images and notifies you on the dashboard if any are found. […]

    4. Sara says:
      May 29, 2010 at 23:52

      Great wordpress plugin, used it today on one of my blogs. It found only 1, 404 page out of 1600 pages. I hope it’s working like supposed to or im already taking good care of my blog hehe.

    5. White Shadow says:
      May 30, 2010 at 00:32

      Maybe it hasn’t finished checking all of your links yet. You can see the progress in Settings -> Link Checker (look for a line similar to “X links in work queue”).

    6. Rob Reale says:
      May 30, 2010 at 04:20

      Hi there, the plugin was declaring a link broken when it was not, this was the link: http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/

      Any idea why, or what I might do differently? I had to disable the plugin temporarily.

    7. White Shadow says:
      May 30, 2010 at 11:40

      The link does not show up as broken when I test it on my dev. blog. What does the link’s log show in your case? (you can see the log by clicking on “Details” in the link row).

      Also, you can selectively mark links at not broken by clicking the “Not broken” link that shows up when you mouse over the link’s row in Tools -> Broken Links. You don’t need to completely disable the plugin if it gets a single false positive.

    8. 15 Plugins That I Currently Use On My Blog | TutorialZip | TutorialZip says:
      June 1, 2010 at 21:04

      […] Broken Link Checker – Search engines do not like broken links. Your visitors do not like them either. This plugin scans your posts automatically, shows you broken links in WordPress dashboard and lets you easily unlink them. […]

    9. Deborah's food and something says:
      June 2, 2010 at 00:27

      […] så gå ind og finde dem alle i maskinhuset. Det er da smart. Du finder plugin’et lige her : Broken link checker. [Translate] Tags: Bloggen, Links, Plugins Arkiveret i Bloggen Leave a […]

    10. Plugins to Expert WordPress SEO « A DotNet Intellectualism says:
      June 2, 2010 at 17:15

      […] Broken Link Checker – monitors and notifies you for broken links on your blog. […]

    11. Håller på att ta bort icke fungerande länkar | ScrappaNu says:
      June 3, 2010 at 07:36

      […] Jag håller på att ta bort icke fungerande länkar i bloggen med hjälp av Broken Link Checker. […]

    12. ACME Challenge says:
      June 6, 2010 at 08:56

      […] with by the webmaster to inform visitors that the links are not working. The Broken Link Checker plugin is an excellent way of finding and removing broken links from a WordPress […]

    13. 極楽ひだまり保育園・・・猫になりたい - diamnd city kennel（ダイアモンドシティケネル）さんのサイト作成に導入したプラグイン覚 says:
      June 7, 2010 at 06:44

      […] Stop Comment Spam and Trackback Spam « Akismet スパム対策 Broken Link Checker for WordPress | W-Shadow.com ダッシュボードでリンク切れをチェック Breadcrumb Navigation XT — Software Guide […]

    14. Wordpress Plugin Blogparade 2010 | Janasworld says:
      June 7, 2010 at 08:02

      […] Ich hatte nämlich auch mal geschaut, welche Software-Programme es dazu gibt. Wäre es eine klassische HTML-Seite, könnte Dreamweaver die Datenbank bereinigen. Doch dazu müssen die gesamten Seiten auf meinem Rechner liegen. Andere ähnliche Programme haben das selbe Problem, sprich, die Daten müssen als Kopie auf der Festplatte liegen. Eine Art Online Programm habe ich nicht gefunden bzw. wenn es Online war, dann wurden nur tote Links etc. kontrolliert. Dafür gibt es aber ein hervorragendes Plugin: Broken Link Checker […]

    15. Encontrar Links Partidos No Vosso Blog Wordpress - 54Bytes says:
      June 7, 2010 at 18:58

      […] Broken Link Checker é um plugin para o WordPress que detecta e mostra os links “partidos” existentes nas páginas e posts dos nossos blogs. […]

    16. Nick says:
      June 7, 2010 at 20:57

      After I try to check my WP blog for broken links, I get this message again: Error: The plugin’s database tables are not up to date! (Current version : 0, expected : 4)

      This happens for second time. Do I need any update of the plugin or something?

      I appreciate your help!

    17. White Shadow says:
      June 7, 2010 at 21:36

      If you have the latest version of the plugin, try deactivating and reactivating it. Otherwise, try installing the development version.

    18. WordPress Plugins That WE Can't Live Without | Junkiee.Net says:
      June 9, 2010 at 21:01

      […] 4. Brokenn Link Checker […]

    19. Credits | Clar.me says:
      June 10, 2010 at 16:56

      […] SEO Pack Templates: Article Templates Breadcrumb Navigation: Breadcrumb NavXT Broken Link Checking: Broken Link Checker Archives: Clean Archives Reloaded Post Number Per Page: Custom Post Limits Recent Posts: Post […]

    20. HelloNingbo says:
      June 11, 2010 at 17:35

      Very useful plugin!

      Nothing looks more unprofessional than a website with “URL not found” error message.
      I used before an online checker but from now on will use this plugin.

      Keep up the good work!
      Debbie

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