Bulk URL updates
Change one URL. Update every link to it.
A URL changed and now two hundred links across your site point at the old one. Linkilo finds every occurrence from its indexed link table, shows you the exact before and after on each affected post, and rewrites them in a single operation with a rollback snapshot taken first.
Included in every plan. 30-day money-back guarantee.
Find
/old-category/humidors/
Replace with
/guides/cigar-humidors/
218 links 64 posts
Preview shows every change before a word is written.
The job, as it stands
Bulk URL replace in WordPress, without the database surgery
A URL changes. Now find every post that links to the old one. Search-and-replace in the database if you are brave, or by hand if you are not, and hope you did not catch a partial match.
By hand, that means
- Note the old URL and the new one.
- Search every post, page, menu, widget and custom field for the old one.
- Edit each occurrence, checking you are not catching a partial match of a longer URL.
- Add a redirect for whatever you missed.
- Re-crawl to confirm nothing still points at the old address.
Linkilo does every step of that.
What it costs to leave it
Change a URL and every link to the old one becomes a redirect at best and a 404 at worst. On a site with a few hundred posts that is a few hundred edits, or a database search-and-replace you run once and worry about for a week.
Somebody has to do that: you, or somebody you pay.
What you get back
The search-and-replace, and the risk that came with it.
What it looks like instead
One rule rewrites the link everywhere it appears, and you can schedule it or roll it back.
How soon
Applies across the archive in one pass.
Who does the work
Deterministic
Explicit old-to-new rules with scope, scheduling and priority. Nothing is inferred, because a wrong guess here edits your posts.
Time figures describe the shape of the job (an afternoon, a day, a week), not a promise about your site. Your archive is your archive.
Outdated links cost you twice.
Once in lost equity through redirect hops that should not exist, and again in the hours it takes to fix them by hand. Most people pay the first cost forever because the second one is too expensive.
The usual options
- Run a database search-and-replace and hope nothing else matched the string
- Open sixty posts and edit the same link in each one
- Leave a redirect in place forever instead of fixing the links behind it
- Miss the occurrences inside custom post types entirely
- Have no way back if the replace went wrong
What this does instead
- Finds every occurrence from the indexed link table, instantly
- Shows the exact before and after on every affected post
- Applies in capped batches so a large site stays responsive
- Covers posts, pages and custom post types
- Writes a rollback snapshot before touching anything
The questions you should ask of any bulk edit tool
“How does it find the links?”
From the indexed link inventory Linkilo already maintains, so locating two hundred occurrences is a table lookup rather than a scan of every post’s content.
“Will it match things I did not intend?”
It operates on real links rather than raw strings, so it cannot accidentally rewrite the same characters where they appear in body text or a code sample.
“Can I see what will change?”
Every affected post is listed with the before and after for each link. Deselect anything you want left alone before applying.
“Does it touch my anchor text?”
No. Only the href changes. The visible text and the surrounding sentence are left exactly as written, which is what makes this safe on live content.
“Can I limit the scope?”
Scope a run by post type, category or date, so a change meant for the blog never reaches your product pages.
“What about relative versus absolute URLs?”
Both forms of an internal link are recognized as the same destination, so you do not have to run the operation twice and hope you caught everything.
“Will it survive a big run?”
Changes go out in capped batches sized for shared hosting, with progress shown, rather than attempting two hundred post updates in one request.
“What if it goes wrong?”
A rollback snapshot is written before the first change, each post is permission-checked, and the link inventory refreshes automatically afterwards.
“Can I use a pattern?”
Match an exact URL or a pattern across a whole path, which is what makes a directory-level restructure a single operation rather than fifty.
A replace you can actually trust
It already knows where every link is
Because Linkilo maintains an indexed inventory of every link on the site, finding all two hundred occurrences of a URL is a lookup rather than a full-content scan. On a large site that is the difference between instant and a timeout.
It also means the operation works on links as objects rather than as text, which is the root reason it is safer than the SQL alternative.
- Indexed lookup, not a scan of every post
- Exact URL or a pattern across a whole path
- Scope by post type, category or date
- Relative and absolute forms treated as the same destination
218 links in 64 posts
Posts 51 Pages 9 Products 4
Scope this run to a post type or category if you only want part of it.
Nothing changes until you have seen it
The preview lists every affected post and shows the before and after for each link. Only the href differs between the two, which is the thing worth confirming with your own eyes before approving a change across sixty posts.
Deselect anything you want to leave alone. A bulk operation you cannot partially decline is not really a bulk operation, it is a gamble.
- Per-post before and after
- Only the href is rewritten; anchor text untouched
- Deselect individual posts or links
- Nothing is written until you confirm
Best Humidors Under $200
<a href="/old-category/humidors/">our humidor guide</a>
<a href="/guides/cigar-humidors/">our humidor guide</a>
Anchor text unchanged. Only the destination differs.
Batched, permissioned, reversible
Changes go out in capped batches so shared hosting survives a two-hundred-post edit rather than timing out halfway through and leaving you unsure what actually happened.
Each post is checked against your permission to edit it, and a rollback snapshot is written before the first change. A mistake is an undo, not a restore-from-backup that costs you a day of other edits.
- Capped batches with visible progress
- Per-post edit permission checks
- Rollback snapshots before content changes
- Link inventory refreshed automatically afterwards
47 of 64 posts updated
Snapshot saved Inventory refreshing
The Update URL screen, exactly as it ships.
Rewrite a link everywhere it appears in one pass: the rules you have saved, what is active, what is scheduled, and how many occurrences have been rewritten.
Update URL
Find and replace any URL across your content in bulk — schedule changes, save reusable templates, and undo individual replacements.
Enter an Old URL and a New URL and Linkilo rewrites that link everywhere it appears in your content. Choose Permanent for a finished move, Temporary or Scheduled for time-boxed swaps (sales, seasonal redirects), and save reusable Templates for changes you repeat. Every replacement is logged in the table below and can be undone.
Recreated from templates/url_replace.php. Same settings, same preview, same rollback.
When you reach for this
Almost always on a deadline, and almost always across more posts than you expected.
Sites mid-migration
Every internal link points at the old URL structure.
With Linkilo: rewrite them all in one pass, with a preview before you commit.
Affiliate publishers
A merchant changes their URL structure and you have three hundred links.
With Linkilo: find and replace them in minutes rather than an afternoon.
Teams cleaning up redirects
Chains everywhere because links were never updated after each move.
With Linkilo: point the links at the final URL and retire the intermediate hops.
Anyone who has used SQL search-replace
It worked. Right up until the time it did not.
With Linkilo: a preview, a permission check, and a way back.
Ecommerce
Category restructures orphan every guide that linked into them.
With Linkilo: a path-level pattern handles the whole restructure at once.
Agencies
Inherited a client site with years of accumulated link debt.
With Linkilo: clean it in a scoped, reversible operation you can show them.
Four guarantees before it writes a single character
The alternative is a SQL replace and a held breath.
Search-and-replace plugins work on raw strings anywhere in the database. That is a blunt instrument pointed at your content.
| Capability | Linkilo | DB search and replace |
|---|---|---|
| Finds every occurrence | Yes | Yes |
| Operates on links, not raw strings | Yes | No |
| Cannot match text in prose or code samples | Yes | No |
| Per-post before and after preview | Yes | No |
| Deselect individual posts | Yes | No |
| Relative and absolute treated as one destination | Yes | No |
| Permission checked per post | Yes | No |
| Rollback snapshot | Yes | No |
| Capped batches for shared hosting | Yes | No |
| Link inventory refreshed afterwards | Yes | No |
If the links you are replacing exist because of a redirect, the Redirection manager can find and fix them from the other direction too.
Three steps, and a way back from all of them
Find
Enter the old URL or a path pattern. Linkilo returns every affected link and post instantly from its index.
Preview
Check the before and after on each post, and deselect anything that should be left alone.
Apply
Capped batches, permission checks per post, and a rollback snapshot written before the first change lands.
Questions before you run it
A SQL replace matches raw strings anywhere in the database, including serialized data and places you never intended, and it has no undo. This works from the link inventory, changes only the href of real links, previews every change, checks permissions per post, and takes a rollback snapshot first.
Yes. Both forms of an internal link are recognized as the same destination, so a single run catches both rather than leaving half the links behind.
Links in post content across posts, pages and custom post types are covered. Some page builders store content outside standard post content, so check a preview on a representative page before running a large batch. That is the honest limitation.
A rollback snapshot is written before the first change, and every edit is recorded in the audit log with the post, the old destination and the new one.
The opposite. Pointing links at the final destination is what makes the redirect unnecessary for internal traffic. Keep the redirect for external links and bookmarks; it just stops being on the path for your own readers.
Batched, permission-checked, preview-first and reversible. Those four together are what make it safe. Run it on a quiet hour if you want, but nothing about it requires downtime.
Redirection Manager
Catch 404s as they happen and redirect them before anyone notices the traffic went missing.
Broken Link Checker & One-Click Repair
Find every dead link on your site and fix it in one click. No spreadsheets, no manual editing.
Anchor Text Reporting Tool
See every anchor pointing at every page, and catch the over-optimized ones before Google does.
Fix two hundred links in one operation.
Find every occurrence instantly, see exactly what will change, and apply it with a rollback snapshot already written.
30-day money-back guarantee. Every feature is included in every plan.