WordPress Broken Link Checker — Background Scanning
Rank Forge scans every post on your site for broken links — internal and external — in the background, via WP Cron, on a schedule you configure. When broken links are found, you get an email notification and a dashboard widget showing the count. Each broken link has edit controls to fix it in place.
Why broken links hurt SEO
Broken outbound links leak PageRank, frustrate users, and signal to Google that your content isn’t maintained. Broken internal links are even worse — they create orphan pages, break navigation paths, and damage the internal linking structure that Google uses to understand your site’s hierarchy.
On a mature WordPress site with thousands of posts, broken links accumulate whether you notice them or not. External sites delete pages. Internal pages get renamed or moved. Every one is a potential SEO problem.
Rank Forge finds them all.
Background scanning
Instead of scanning every link on every page load (which would slow down your site), Rank Forge runs the broken link checker as a background job via WP Cron. You configure the interval:
- Hourlyfor very large sites that change frequently
- Dailytypical for news and content sites
- Weeklytypical for small business sites
- Monthlytypical for mostly-static sites
The scan runs without UI interaction. You see results in the admin when you next log in.
What gets checked
Internal links
Every <a href> pointing to a URL on your own domain. If the target is a WordPress post, page, or custom post type, Rank Forge verifies it exists and is published. If it’s a direct URL, Rank Forge makes an HTTP HEAD request to check the status.
External links
Every <a href> pointing to another domain. Rank Forge makes an HTTP HEAD request (with a browser-like user agent) and records the response code.
Images
Every <img src> on every page is checked. Broken image sources are flagged separately from text link errors.
Attachments and media
File downloads linked from content (PDFs, ZIPs, etc.) are checked for availability.
Redirects
Links that redirect through multiple hops are flagged (chained redirects) — these aren’t “broken” but they’re suboptimal for SEO.
What counts as broken
- 404 Not Foundthe target doesn’t exist
- 410 Gonethe target explicitly says it’s gone
- 500–599 Server errorsthe target domain is broken
- Timeoutthe target didn’t respond within 30 seconds
- DNS failurethe target’s domain doesn’t resolve
- Blockedthe target blocks HEAD requests or our user agent
Each failure type is tagged separately so you can filter (e.g., “show me only 404s” or “show me only DNS failures”).
Cached results
Broken link results are cached with a configurable TTL (default: 30 days for working links, 7 days for broken links). Working links aren’t re-checked until the cache expires, which keeps scan times fast even on huge sites.
You can force a full re-scan from the dashboard if you suspect cached results are stale.
The broken links table
Once the scan completes, broken links appear in a table with:
- The post where the link was found (with a direct edit link)
- The broken URL
- The type (internal, external, image, attachment)
- The HTTP status (404, 500, timeout, etc.)
- The date last checked
- The anchor text
- Edit and dismiss controls
Filter by
- Status
- Type
- Post type
- Post category
- Date range
Sort by
- Frequency (most-linked-to first)
- Recency
- Status code
Bulk actions
- Dismiss (mark as “intentional, don’t report again”)
- Remove link (strips the
<a>tag, keeps the anchor text) - Replace with redirect (creates a redirect in the Redirect Manager)
- Edit link in post
Email notifications
Configure email notifications in settings:
- On every scan completionget a summary email every time the scan runs
- Only on new broken linksonly notify when a link that was previously working is now broken
- Weekly digesta Monday morning summary of broken links across all scans that week
Recipients can be multiple addresses (admin, SEO lead, content editor).
Integration with the Redirect Manager
When a broken internal link is found, Rank Forge offers a one-click path to create a redirect for it. This is especially useful after migrations or URL restructures where the same internal link appears on many pages.
Performance
The broken link checker is designed not to slow down your site. It:
- Runs during WP Cron (typically during a user visit)
- Uses HTTP HEAD requests (smaller than GET)
- Caches results aggressively
- Rate-limits requests to avoid hammering external domains
- Sets a realistic user agent so CDNs and firewalls don’t block the scan
A site with 10,000 posts can be scanned fully in under 30 minutes of cumulative WP Cron runtime.
Ready to find and fix broken links?
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The Broken Link Checker is included in every paid plan.