Linkilo checks the internal and external links in your content and reports any that are broken (404, 500, dead domain). Find them, fix them from the report, or let Fix Link Health handle the safe ones.
What this is
A broken-link checker built into Linkilo. It scans your posts on a schedule you set, monitors HTML links, images, plain-text URLs and video embeds, and can email you when it finds dead links.
The checker is off by default. Nothing is scanned until you turn it on.
Turn it on
- Go to Linkilo → Manage → Settings.
- In the Settings sidebar, click Broken Links (under the Tools group).
The page has two cards.
Card 1: Broken link checker
- Run the checker — master toggle. Turning this ON adds the Broken Link Checker report to your Linkilo menu (under the Fix group).
- Email me when issues are found — sends a summary to your site's admin email whenever new broken links are detected. Recipients and sending options live in Settings → Email Notifications.
- Also flag links that redirect — optional. Surfaces links that still work but only via a redirect, so you can point them straight at the final URL. Off by default; it adds extra checks, so scans run a little slower.
Card 2: Advanced
- Hide the WP-Cron warning — turn ON if you've set up a real server-level scheduled task instead of relying on WordPress's built-in WP-Cron. Hides the warning Linkilo otherwise shows when WP-Cron seems broken.
Click Save Settings.
Open the report
Go to Linkilo → Fix → Broken Link Checker.
If you open this page while the checker is off, Linkilo shows a note that the checker is turned off, with a Turn it on in Settings button instead of an error.
The page has three tabs:
- Broken Link Check — scheduling, instant scans and the results table.
- Which Links to Check — tick the link types to include: HTML links, HTML images, plain-text URLs, and embedded YouTube, GoogleVideo, DailyMotion and Vimeo videos. Click Save Selection.
- Historical Data — past scan results and a trend chart of broken links over time.
Schedule a scan or run one now
On the Broken Link Check tab:
- Scheduled Scan — tick Enable Scheduled Scan, pick a Frequency (Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Yearly) and the day, then click Save Schedule.
- Instant Scan — click Start Scanning to check everything right now. Progress shows on the page and you can stop at any time.
- Show Ignored Links — lists links you chose to ignore, so you can restore them.
- Enable Reporting — set the email report and send a Test Report.
Read the results table
Each row shows:
- Status — Broken, Review (the destination answered with something like 401/403, so a human should check), or Redirect (works, but only via a redirect).
- Post — the post the link is in, with the surrounding text.
- Anchor, URL, Type (internal or external) and Code (the HTTP status).
- Impact — shown when Google Search Console is connected. Sorts the broken links on your highest-traffic pages to the top.
Only a 2xx response counts as "working". Scan history is kept for 180 days.
Fix a broken link
Each row has four buttons: Fix, Unlink, Ignore and Delete.
Click Fix to open the fix panel. Depending on the link you'll see:
- Suggest a replacement — asks your AI provider for the best page on your own site (only when an AI key is set up).
- Apply replacement — type or pick a working URL and rewrite the link.
- Remove link, keep text — strips the link and leaves the anchor text in place.
- Create 301 redirect instead — for internal links, files a redirect in Redirection rather than editing content.
- Look up on Wayback Machine — for external links, finds the last archived copy as a last resort.
Select several rows and click Apply to run the same action on all of them. Re-check now revalidates the links in the table without a full scan.
Auto-fix the whole list
Click Auto-fix above the table. Choose a strategy — Smart cascade, Wayback only, AI internal replacement or Remove all — and whether Linkilo should Review first (propose fixes, you approve) or Apply automatically. Click Start. Applied runs can be reversed with Undo last run.
Fix Link Health hand-off
Broken links also feed the Linkilo → Fix → Fix Link Health queue, which groups every link problem on your site (broken links, redirected links, redirect chains, orphan pages) by safety level: Safe fixes, Needs review, Manual decisions and Blocked.
- Broken links are grouped by URL. Each group shows how many posts are affected; click Affected posts to see them.
- In the detail view, tick the occurrences you want and use Replace Selected (needs a same-site replacement URL) or Unlink Selected (removes the link, keeps the text). Both run in small batches and save a rollback snapshot first.
- Broken-link ignore rules let you hide known false positives by Domain or URL contains. Click Add Ignore Rule; matching open items move to the Ignored tab.
- Every content change is logged under Recent rollback snapshots and can be restored.
Common Questions
Why is Linkilo saying a link is broken when it works in my browser?
A few common causes:
- Site temporarily down. Click Re-check now later.
- Site blocks bots. Some sites return 403 (forbidden) to anything that isn't a human browser. These land in Review rather than Broken.
- Rate limiting. Heavily protected sites may block repeated checks. Linkilo retries before calling a link broken, but it can still happen.
For known false alarms, click Ignore on the row, or add an ignore rule in Fix Link Health. Linkilo won't flag it again.
Will checking thousands of links slow my site down?
No. Checks run in the background on a schedule, not during page loads, and in small batches so they never overload your server or the destination sites.
Does this need WP-Cron working?
Yes. Scheduled scans use WordPress's scheduled task system. If your host has broken WP-Cron, scans won't run automatically (instant scans still work). See Troubleshooting for how to fix WP-Cron issues.
Can I exclude specific URLs or posts from checking?
Yes. To skip whole posts, add them to Settings → Content & Ignored Words → Skip auto-link & URL changes (see Content Filters). To hide individual URLs or whole domains from the results, use Ignore on the row or an ignore rule in Fix Link Health.
What gets checked?
Whatever you tick on the Which Links to Check tab: HTML <a href> links, <img src> images, plain-text URLs and YouTube, GoogleVideo, DailyMotion and Vimeo embeds in post content. Linkilo does not check links in theme headers, menus or custom fields unless they're rendered into the post content.
How long does a full scan take?
It depends on how many links you have and how fast the destination sites answer. Scans are rate-limited so they don't overload your server; the first scan is the slowest. Progress is shown on the page while it runs.
Last reviewed for Linkilo 3.0.0 (October 2026).