Broken Link Checker
Scan any page, extract its links, and HEAD-check each one for 4xx / 5xx errors.
Written by Anil Gautam · Updated
Where does the link check run?
The check runs on a server. When you click Check links, the page URL and your link limit are sent to the OneClickUse server, which passes them to a separate network service. That service downloads the page, collects its links and requests each one, then returns a status code and a response time for every link. Because the requests come from a server, the results show what a crawler sees: pages behind a login and sites that block automated traffic can return errors even though they open normally in your browser.
The Max links box decides how many links are tested. Whatever you type, the server keeps the number between 5 and 80: 150 checks at most 80 links, 2 checks up to 5, and an empty box falls back to the default of 40. A long article or a link-heavy homepage can hold more than 80 links, in which case one scan covers only part of the page.
How should you read each status code?
Each row shows the status code, the link and the response time in milliseconds. Codes are color-coded: green for 2xx, blue for 3xx, amber for 4xx and red for 5xx. A red ERR in place of a number means no HTTP response came back at all, which usually points to a domain that no longer exists, a refused connection, a certificate problem or a timeout.
Codes 404 (not found) and 410 (gone) are the clearest cases: the target page has been removed, so update the link or delete it. With 401 or 403, the page often needs a login or the site refuses automated requests, so open the link yourself before editing anything. A 429 means the target is rate limiting the checker, and a 5xx code can be a short outage. Run the scan again later and fix only the links that fail twice. For any code you do not recognize, the HTTP Status Code Lookup explains what it means.
How do you clean up dead links on a site?
Scan one page at a time, starting with the pages that bring the most visitors, and switch to the Broken filter so only the failures are listed. Clicking a URL in the list opens it in a new tab, which lets you confirm the problem before you edit the page. When the target has moved, link straight to its new address, and use the Redirect Chain Checker to see where an old address now leads. After editing, run the scan again and check that the Broken count has gone down.