What the crawl checks

Link Checker Pro uses an external service to crawl a WordPress site like a normal visitor. It checks internal and external URLs, then returns a list of broken links and redirects. The external crawler handles the crawl work, keeping computation on the site low. The checker works with WordPress extensions out of the box. Polylang sites are supported; WPML may also work.

Pro checks and results

• Check embedded internal and external pictures for broken files.
• Check whether embedded YouTube videos are available.
• Schedule a website check once a day and receive a summary by email.
• Export results as a CSV file for review, filtering, or sharing.
• Save results on the Link Checker server and fetch them again from various users or browsers without another check.

Review the results after a website update or during routine maintenance, then use the list or CSV export to follow up on broken links and redirects.

Can it check protected pages?

Form login support lets the crawler check protected content such as membership areas. Configure the form login details needed for those pages. The external crawler cannot access a local development site on a private network, and a hosting provider may block it.

Crawler access and setup

The website sends its URL and the fact that it uses WordPress to the external server operated by the plugin developer. The crawler respects robots.txt, including the crawl-delay directive. Use the MB-SiteCrawler visitor-agent group to control which pages it checks.

Install and activate the extension, open Link Checker in the WordPress admin sidebar, and select the option to check your website. The stated minimum requirements are WordPress 4.7 and PHP 5.6. Before starting a crawl, confirm that your hosting environment allows the crawler to access the site and that your robots.txt rules permit the intended crawl.