Broken Link CheckerEvery scan starts in the popup, on the tab you want to check. By the end of this page you will know each screen from the first click to the results.
Plan: a guest scans only the page in the tab, and whole-site scans need an account. A Free account scans up to 500 pages per site, and Pro Agency up to 5,000.
Start a scan
- Open the page you want to check in a normal browser tab.
- Click the extension icon in the toolbar to open the popup.
- Under Current tab, check that the address is the page you want.
- Pick This page or Entire site.
- Click Scan this page or Scan entire site, or press Enter.
This page is the default, and it checks every link on the page in your tab. Entire site follows the internal links from that page and checks every page it reaches. A site scan stops at the page limit of your plan.
You cannot set a crawl depth or a page count yourself. The extension does not read your sitemap, so it finds pages only by following links.
The Advanced options
Click Advanced under the scan button to change three switches for this scan only.
- Check external links checks links that point to other sites, and it is on by default. With it off, the scan skips links to other sites completely.
- Check images also checks the image sources on the page, and it is off by default. Guests cannot check images, even with this switch turned on.
- Ignore query parameters treats tracking variants like
?utm_source=as the same address. It is on by default, so one page never counts twice.
The starting values come from Scan defaults on the Options page. Changes you make under Advanced apply to this popup session and do not save. Respect robots.txt and exclude patterns live only on the Options page. Extension options and shortcuts covers both settings and every other option.
While the scan runs
The popup shows Scanning page or Scanning site above the address, with three counters:
- Checked counts the links the scan has checked so far.
- Broken counts the broken links the scan has found so far.
- Elapsed shows the time that has passed since the scan started.
A striped bar moves while the scan runs, without a percentage, because the total is not known yet. The status line starts with "queued" and then counts the pages crawled. Broken links appear in the list as the scan finds them, with the newest on top.
You can close the popup, because the scan keeps running on our servers. Open the popup again at any time to see where it stands. The toolbar badge shows three dots while the scan runs.
Cancel a scan
Click Cancel scan to stop following the scan in the popup. The scan still finishes on our servers and still counts toward your monthly scans.
You can run one scan at a time, from the extension and the website together. Starting a second scan while one runs shows "You already have a scan running."
Read the results
When the scan finishes, a summary line reads, for example, "3 broken of 120 links", next to a health score. The score turns green at 90% and up, amber at 70% and up, and red below that.
Filter chips above the list narrow it down to All, 404, 5xx or SSL:
- 404 covers 404, 410 and every other error code in the 400 range.
- 5xx covers server errors and failed connections, such as timeouts and DNS errors.
- SSL covers links whose security certificate failed the check.
A chip with a count of zero is greyed out and cannot be clicked. Blocked links sit under their own BLOCKED heading below the broken ones. The four link states explains each state and how it is counted.
Working links fold into a line such as "95 links returned 200 OK". Click SHOW on that line to list them, and HIDE to fold them again. The popup list leaves redirects out, but the CSV and the side panel include them.
Actions on each row
- HIGHLIGHT outlines the link on the page you scanned.
- OPEN ↗ opens the link in a new tab of your browser.
- COPY copies the link address to your clipboard.
Use the arrow keys to move through the list of results. Then press H to highlight, C to copy or O to open the selected link. Highlight and the side panel covers highlight and its messages in detail.
Buttons under the results
- New scan takes you back to the start screen of the popup.
- CSV exports every checked link as a CSV file, redirects and working links included.
- Full report opens the report page for this scan on brokenlinkchecker.io.
The CSV has one row per link, with the status code, anchor text and the page it was found on. The full report page stays online for 30 days after the scan.
Run a fresh crawl
A repeat scan of the same site within 6 hours can show your recent result instead of a new crawl. For a new crawl, open the three-dot menu and click Rescan, fresh crawl. That item shows only while results are on screen, and it counts as a new scan.
A clean result
With nothing broken or blocked, the popup shows a health score of 100%. A short receipt lists your internal links, external links, redirects and images. The images line reads "skipped · off in Advanced" when the scan did not check images.
Schedule a weekly re-scan opens your project on brokenlinkchecker.io, or the Projects hub when the site has no project yet. Weekly scans and email alerts explains how weekly scans work.
Results belong to their site
Open the popup on a different site, and it starts fresh on the start screen. Go back to the scanned page, and the Last scan · this page card links to its report. The extension remembers your last twenty scanned pages this way.
More SEO tools
The More SEO tools row in the popup opens six other tools on brokenlinkchecker.io. Each one opens for the domain in your tab, such as the SEO & AEO Audit. On the Free plan, the Uptime Monitor row carries a PRO tag.
After a scan, one suggestion can appear under the results. On a WordPress site, for example, it points to the WordPress plugin. Click the × to hide a suggestion for that site.