Broken Link CheckerThe plugin keeps its settings on one page with four tabs. By the end of this page you will know what each setting does and where it starts.
Plan: most settings work on every plan. Settings marked Pro need a site with Pro, which comes from a connected site holding a Pro slot.
Open the settings
Open Settings & billing in the Broken Links menu. The connection bar sits at the top. The tabs follow: General, What to scan, Notifications and, with Pro, SEO.
Changes save on their own a moment after you make them. If a save fails, a bar appears with a Save Settings button so you can save by hand.
The Re-check all links button at the top clears every stored link status and runs a fresh scan. Links you marked as Not broken stay skipped.
General
| Setting | Default | What it does | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scan schedule | Manual on Free, Weekly on Pro | Runs scans on their own, Daily, Weekly or Monthly, at the Time and Timezone you set | Pro |
| Links per scan | All links | Set a limit stops a scan after that many links | Every plan |
| Timeout | 30 seconds | How long the plugin waits for a link, from 5 to 120 seconds. Slower links count as a warning | Every plan |
Skipped and excluded links count toward Links per scan too. A limit of 500 means 500 links read, not 500 links checked.
On hosts with a strict time limit, the plugin can use a shorter timeout than you set. That keeps each scan step inside the host's limit.
What to scan
| Setting | Default | What it does | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content types | Every type | Which post types the scan reads, such as posts, pages and products | Every plan |
| HTML links | On | Checks links in <a href> and embeds in <iframe src> |
Every plan |
| Images | On | Checks image sources in <img src> |
Every plan |
| Slider content | On | Checks Smart Slider and Revolution Slider slides. Turn it off if a slider caches old URLs | Every plan |
| Comments | Off | Checks links in approved comments | Pro |
| Exclusions | Empty | Skips every link that contains one of your rules | Every plan |
| Remove URL parameters | On | Tells brokenlinkchecker.io to treat ?a=1 and ?a=2 as one page when it crawls this site |
Every plan, once connected |
If you switch off both HTML links and Images, the plugin turns both back on.
Write exclusion rules
Put one rule per line, with no wildcards. A link is skipped when its address contains the text of a rule.
For example, /tag/ skips every tag archive link, and ?ref= skips links with that parameter. Cart, admin and login addresses are skipped without a rule.
Remove URL parameters
This setting does not change the plugin's own scan. It applies to site scans and SEO / AEO audits on brokenlinkchecker.io. The same switch also sits on the plugin's SEO / AEO Audit page.
Notifications
| Setting | Default | What it does | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email me when new broken links are found | Off | Mails a report after each scheduled scan that finds broken links | Pro |
| Send to | Empty | The addresses for that report, separated by commas | Pro |
| Email the post author when their post has a broken link | Off | Mails each author about broken links in their own posts | Pro |
Manual scans never send mail, only scheduled scans do. Scheduled scans explains the reports.
SEO
This tab appears on a site with Pro.
| Setting | Default | What it does | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fix with AI | Off | Adds the Fix with AI row action and the Fix all with AI button | Pro |
| Replacement suggestions | Off | Adds the View archived version action to broken external links | Pro |
Fix with AI in the plugin shows both actions at work.
When a site loses Pro
Scheduled scans stop after the plugin next checks your plan and learns the site lost its Pro slot. If you change any setting while the site has no Pro, the Pro switches are saved as off. Your email addresses stay saved, so switch the settings back on once the site has Pro again.
What is not a setting
- There is no user agent setting.
- There is no switch to keep data when you delete the plugin. Uninstall the plugin lists what goes.
- The Rank Tracker and the Uptime Monitor keep their settings on their own pages.