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Read a scan report

What each part of a scan report means, from the health score to the broken link table, and how to share the report link with your team.

3 min read

Every scan ends in a report page. By the end of this page you will know what each number means and how to share the report.

The summary at the top

The report opens with the site name and one sentence that sums up the scan. It names the scan date, the broken links, the links checked and the pages crawled. The line below it shows the scan type, the time in UTC and the date the report expires.

Next to it sits the health score. It is the share of checked links not counted as broken. A label tells you how to read it:

  • HEALTHY means a score of ninety or higher.
  • WATCH means a score from seventy to eighty-nine.
  • AT RISK means a score below seventy.

Four numbers follow:

  • pages crawled is the number of pages the scan visited.
  • links checked is the number of links tested across those pages.
  • broken is the number of links that failed and pull the score down.
  • warnings counts links we could not verify, plus soft 404 pages.

The table titled Every broken link, with its location lists one row per problem. Each row has five columns:

  • Status shows what went wrong.
  • Broken URL is the address the link points to.
  • Anchor text is the clickable text of the link. Image links show "Image".
  • Found on is the page that holds the link. Click copy to copy that address.
  • Type tells you if the link is internal or points to another website.

To fix a link, open the page from Found on and search it for the anchor text. Then update or remove the link.

What each status means

  • A number such as 404, 410 or 500 is the answer the server gave. Any 4xx or 5xx answer counts as broken, except 403 and 429.
  • 403 and 429 mean the site blocked the checker. These links count as warnings and move to the Blocked links note.
  • S404 is a soft 404. The page loads but shows a "not found" message.
  • DNS means the host name no longer exists.
  • SSL means the site's security certificate failed.
  • TIMEOUT means the server did not answer in time.
  • CONNECTION means the server refused or dropped the connection.

Timeouts and connection failures appear in the table but do not count as broken. Many servers ignore checkers but serve people normally, so open those links in your browser to confirm. The table can hold a few more rows than the broken number for that reason. How links are classified explains how the scanner decides each status.

Sites like LinkedIn and Facebook block automated link checkers. Links to them get their own Blocked links note below the table. So do links to any site that answered 403 or 429. These are not errors, and they do not lower your score. Check that you typed each one correctly.

Share the report

The address of the report page is the report link. Copy it from your browser and send it to anyone who needs to see the results. Anyone who has the link can open the report, and search engines do not list it.

Paste the link into a chat app or social network and a preview image appears. It shows the domain, the health score, the broken count and the number of links checked.

The report stays online for 30 days. After that, the link stops working. Your projects keep a summary of each scan for longer, so log in if you want a history.

Scan a site without an account Run a free broken-link scan from the homepage. No signup, live progress, and a report you can share, with the page and anchor text for every broken link. Create your first project Add your domain as a project to keep every scan in one place. Run the first scan and learn what each tab of a project shows you.