Broken Link CheckerThe Options page holds the settings that every popup scan starts from. By the end of this page you will know each setting, its default and the keyboard shortcuts.
Plan: every option on this page works the same way on every plan. Check images needs an account, because guest scans never check images.
Open the Options page
- Click the gear icon at the top of the popup.
- Open the three-dot menu in the popup and click Options.
- Right-click the extension icon in the toolbar and click Options.
The version number shows next to the name at the top, for example v1.0.3. Every change saves on its own, and a short "saved" note confirms it. Your scan defaults, theme, exclude patterns and notification choice follow your Chrome profile to other computers.
Scan defaults
These switches set the starting values for every new scan you start from the popup.
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Check external links | On | Checks links to other sites. Scans of pages with many links take longer. |
| Check images | Off | Checks image sources on the page, srcset sources included. Guests never check images. |
| Ignore query parameters | On | Treats tracking variants such as ?utm_source= as the same address. |
| Respect robots.txt | On | Skips the paths that the robots.txt file of the site disallows. |
| Open side panel on results | Off | Opens the side panel instead of the popup after a scan finishes. |
The Advanced section in the popup can change the first three switches for one scan. Respect robots.txt has no switch in the popup, so you set it here.
Some sites block all crawlers from the whole site in their robots.txt file. Then the popup shows "This site asks crawlers to stay out". If you own the site, switch on Scan anyway, I own this site on that screen. The scan still identifies itself as our bot when you switch this on.
Open side panel on results has a catch, covered in Highlight and the side panel.
Theme
Under Theme, pick Auto, Light or Dark for the popup, the side panel and the Options page. Auto is the default, and it follows the light or dark theme of Chrome.
Exclude patterns
Exclude patterns list the addresses that every scan skips, on every site.
- Click Exclude patterns in the menu on the left of the page.
- Type one pattern per line, for example
/tag/or.pdf.
A scan skips any page or link whose address contains one of your patterns. Patterns match plain text, so wildcards and regular expressions do not work here. The counter next to the heading shows how many patterns you have.
IGNORE in the side panel adds a line here for you, and RESTORE removes that line again. Patterns apply to every site you scan, so keep them specific.
Notifications
Switch on Notify on new broken links to get a Chrome notification when each scan finishes. Chrome asks for permission first, and switching it off removes the permission again. Highlight and the side panel covers what each notification says.
Account and plan
The Account card shows your email, your plan and the scans you used this month. On a plan with unlimited scans, it shows only the number you used.
- Upgrade opens the plans on brokenlinkchecker.io, and it shows only on the Free plan.
- Sign out signs the extension out of your account on this browser.
As a guest, the card reads "Not signed in." with a Sign in button. Guest mode and signing in walks you through each step of signing in.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Action | Windows, Linux and ChromeOS | Mac |
|---|---|---|
| Open the popup | Ctrl+Shift+L | Cmd+Shift+L |
| Open the side panel | Ctrl+Shift+K | Cmd+Shift+K |
The Keyboard shortcuts card shows the shortcuts that are set right now. It reads "not set" when a shortcut has no keys, for example when another extension took them first. To change a shortcut, open chrome://extensions/shortcuts in a new tab.
Keys inside the popup and the side panel
| Key | In the popup | In the side panel |
|---|---|---|
| Arrow up and down | Move through the results | Move through the rows |
| H or Enter | Highlight the selected link | H highlights the selected link |
| C | Copy the selected link | Copy the selected link |
| O | Open the selected link | Open the selected link |
| I | Not used | Ignore the selected link |
| Esc | Close the menu or the tools drawer | Not used |
On the start screen of the popup, Enter starts the scan.
The rest of the suite
The Options page also lists six other tools on brokenlinkchecker.io, such as the Keyword Rank Tracker and the Uptime Monitor. Click OPEN ↗ next to a tool to open its page. All of them work with the same account as the extension.