How to use
01
Point it at your site
Enter the starting URL and click Check links. The crawler works breadth-first through your internal pages, gathering every link it encounters along with its anchor text.
02
Review broken versus blocked
Read the summary tiles for pages crawled, links checked, broken, and blocked, then expand each red card to see the status code and every page the link appears on.
03
Export the report
Click Download Excel or Copy CSV to take the full list, with status, type, anchor text, and source pages, straight into your team's fix queue.
Why Broken Link Checker
- Crawls your whole site, not just a single page.
- Tests both internal and external links for 4xx, 5xx, timeouts and dead hosts.
- Separates real breakages from sites that simply block bots (so you don't chase false positives).
- Shows the exact pages each broken link was found on, plus its anchor text.
- Export the full report to Excel or CSV for tracking and fixes.
Common questions
What status codes does the broken link checker treat as truly broken?
404 and 410 for missing pages, any 5xx server error, plus timeouts and connection failures. Responses like 401, 403, 429, and LinkedIn's 999 are bot-protection signals rather than proof a page is gone, so those land in the blocked group instead.
How long does it take to check 404 links across a whole site?
Usually well under a minute for small and mid-sized sites; the scan time appears under the summary tiles when it finishes. Very large sites can hit the internal time budget, in which case you'll see a partial-result warning and can rerun on a subsection.
Can the dead link checker tell me where each broken link lives?
Yes, and it's the most useful part of the report. Every card lists the exact source pages the link was found on, plus its anchor text, so you jump straight to the page that needs editing instead of grepping your whole site.
Why does the checker flag a link as blocked when it opens fine in my browser?
Some hosts refuse automated requests on principle. They return 403, 429, or a custom code to anything that isn't a real browser session. The tool separates these deliberately: verify them by hand rather than deleting links that work for actual visitors.
Does the crawl test external links or only my internal pages?
Both. It only crawls deeper through internal pages, but every outbound link it finds on them gets tested too. External rot is the most common kind, since other sites delete pages without telling you.
Will the link checker crawl pages behind a login?
No. It follows standard anchor links on publicly reachable pages over http and https. Forms, JavaScript navigation, and authenticated areas are out of scope, so anything behind a sign-in wall won't be scanned.
Should I fix broken internal links with redirects or by editing the link?
Edit the link wherever you control the source page; a direct link beats a redirect hop every time. Redirects are for the other direction, when external sites point at a URL of yours that moved and you can't edit their pages.
How do I get the broken link report to my team?
Two buttons: Download Excel produces a formatted spreadsheet, and Copy CSV puts the same rows on your clipboard. Both include category, status, URL, type, anchor text, and the pages each link was found on.