[Core Features & Tools] Using the Broken Links Report

Using the Broken Links Report

Broken links damage your SEO, hurt user experience, and make your site appear unprofessional. Link Whisper's Broken Links Report helps you identify and fix broken links quickly. This comprehensive guide covers everything from running scans to troubleshooting false positives.

Why Broken Links Matter

Before diving into the tool, understand why broken link management is critical:

SEO Impact:

🔻 Lost Link Equity: Broken internal links prevent the flow of link authority through your site

🔻 Poor Crawl Budget: Search engines waste crawl budget following dead links

🔻 Ranking Drops: Pages with many broken links may rank lower

User Experience Impact:

👎 Frustration: Visitors clicking broken links feel disappointed

👎 Lost Trust: Broken links signal an abandoned or poorly maintained site

👎 Increased Bounce Rate: Users leave when they encounter 404 errors

Types of Broken Links:

404 Not Found: The linked page no longer exists

500 Server Error: The target server is experiencing issues

Redirect Chains: Link goes through multiple redirects before reaching destination

Deleted YouTube Videos: Embedded videos that have been removed

How to Run a Broken Links Scan

Link Whisper offers two methods for scanning your site for broken links:

Method 1: Manual Scan (Fast)

When to Use: When you need immediate results and want to check all links right now.

How It Works:

Navigate to Link Whisper → Reports → Broken Links

Click the "Scan for Broken Links" button at the top

The scan begins immediately

Link Whisper checks hundreds of pages per second

Results appear in real-time as broken links are discovered

Speed: Completes in minutes even for large sites (1,000+ posts)

Warning: Because of this high speed, some servers or firewalls may block the scan, leading to false positives (503 errors or 429 errors).

Why False Positives Happen:

Your server sees rapid requests from Link Whisper

Security plugins (Wordfence, Cloudflare) interpret this as a bot attack

They temporarily block the requests

Link Whisper reports these as "broken" even though the links are actually fine

Best For:

Small to medium sites (under 500 posts)

Sites without aggressive security/firewall settings

One-time checks before a site launch

Method 2: Automatic Background Scan (Recommended)

When to Use: For regular, ongoing monitoring without server stress.

How It Works:

You do not need to click anything. Link Whisper automatically runs a slow background process that:

Checks approximately ~10 links every 5 minutes

Runs continuously in the background

Monitors link health without crashing your server

Updates the Broken Links Report incrementally

Speed: Takes 24-48 hours to complete a full site scan (depending on size)

Why This is Better:

✅ No false positives: Slow scanning doesn't trigger security blocks

✅ Server-friendly: Minimal resource usage

✅ Always current: Continuously monitors your site

✅ Set and forget: Requires no manual intervention

Best For:

All sites (especially large sites with 500+ posts)

Sites with security plugins or CDNs (Cloudflare, Sucuri)

Ongoing monitoring rather than one-time checks

How to Enable:

Background scanning is enabled by default. It runs automatically as long as Link Whisper is active.

To Verify It's Running:

Go to Link Whisper → Reports → Broken Links

Look for a "Last Scanned" timestamp

Check back in a few hours - the timestamp should update

Understanding the Broken Links Report

Navigate to Link Whisper → Reports → Broken Links to view the dashboard.

Report Columns Explained:

Status Code: The specific HTTP error code (e.g., 404 Not Found, 500 Server Error, 503 Service Unavailable).

What Each Code Means:

404 Not Found: The page doesn't exist anymore (most common)

500 Internal Server Error: The target server has a problem

503 Service Unavailable: Target server is temporarily down or overloaded

429 Too Many Requests: You're being rate-limited (often a false positive)

0 (Zero): Connection failed entirely (DNS issue, firewall block)

Link Type: Indicates whether the broken link is:

Internal: Links to other pages on your own site

External: Links to other websites

Embed: Embedded content like YouTube videos, iframes, or external media

Context: Shows the sentence containing the link so you can locate it easily in your content without opening the post.

Example Context:

"Check out our [broken link] for more information about WordPress security."

This helps you quickly understand where the link appears and what it was supposed to point to.

Source Post: The title of the post or page where the broken link appears.

Click the post title to open it in the editor.

YouTube Detection: Unlike many other tools, Link Whisper can detect if an embedded YouTube video has been deleted, made private, or removed.

Why This Matters:

YouTube embeds that no longer work show blank spaces on your pages, creating a poor user experience.

Example Detection:

"YouTube video [https://youtube.com/watch?v=abc123] is unavailable (deleted or private)"

Filtering and Sorting:

Filter by Link Type:

Click "Internal Only" to see only broken internal links

Click "External Only" to see only broken external links

Click "Embeds Only" to see only broken embedded content

Sort by Status Code:

Click the "Status Code" column header to group by error type

Prioritize 404s (permanent) over 503s (often temporary)

Search Function:

Use the search box to find broken links containing specific keywords or domains.

Fixing Broken Links

You can fix links directly from the report without opening each post manually.

Method 1: Edit the Link (Quick Fix)

When to Use: The destination page has moved to a new URL, but you know the correct URL.

How to Fix:

Hover over the broken URL in the report

Click the Edit (Pencil) icon that appears

A text field opens

Delete the old URL

Paste the correct URL

Click the checkmark (✓) to save

Result: Link Whisper updates the live post immediately with the new URL. No need to open WordPress editor.

Example:

Broken: https://example.com/old-page/ (404 error)

Correct: https://example.com/new-page/

Edit the link to point to the new URL.

Method 2: Unlink (Remove Hyperlink, Keep Text)

When to Use: The link destination no longer exists, and there's no replacement, but the text itself is still relevant.

How to Fix:

Find the broken link in the report

Click the Delete (X) icon

Confirm if prompted

Result: The hyperlink is removed, but the text remains in your post as plain text.

Example:

Before: "Check out this [tool] for SEO analysis."

(link to deleted tool website)

After: "Check out this tool for SEO analysis."

("tool" is now plain text, no longer a link)

Method 3: Delete Link and Text

When to Use: The entire sentence or reference is outdated and should be removed completely.

How to Fix:

This requires manually editing the post:

Click the post title in the "Source Post" column

WordPress editor opens

Find the sentence with the broken link (use Ctrl+F to search)

Delete the entire sentence or paragraph

Click "Update" to save the post

Method 4: Bulk Delete (Mass Cleanup)

When to Use: You have multiple broken links on the same domain or type and want to remove them all at once.

How to Fix:

In the Broken Links Report, check the boxes next to multiple broken links

Use the Bulk Actions dropdown at the top

Select "Unlink" or "Delete"

Click "Apply"

Result: All selected links are processed in one action.

Time Saved: Instead of fixing 50 broken links one-by-one (30+ minutes), bulk delete in 30 seconds.

False Positives Explained

If your report shows valid links as "Broken" (often with a 503 Service Unavailable or 429 Too Many Requests error), this is usually a server defense mechanism.

Why False Positives Happen:

The Cause: Your security plugins (Wordfence, Cloudflare) or host firewalls interpret the fast Manual Scan as a bot attack and block the connection.

Example:

You run a manual scan. Link Whisper sends 100 requests per second to check links. Your firewall sees this rapid activity and thinks: "This is a DDoS attack!" It blocks further requests, causing Link Whisper to report those links as "broken."

How to Identify False Positives:

Indicators:

Many links show 503 or 429 errors

All errors appear at the same time (during manual scan)

Links to major sites (Google, Amazon, Wikipedia) show as broken (unlikely)

The number of "broken" links is suspiciously high

Quick Test:

Manually click one of the "broken" links. If it loads fine in your browser, it's a false positive.

The Solution (Don't Run Manual Scan Again):

Do NOT run the manual scan again. This will only trigger more false positives.

Instead:

Allow the Background Scan to run over the next 24–48 hours. It will:

Slowly re-check these links (one at a time, spread out)

Verify which are truly broken vs. blocked by firewall

Clear the false positives automatically

Result: After 24-48 hours, the Broken Links Report will show only genuine broken links.

Preventing False Positives:

Solution 1: Only Use Background Scan

Never click the "Scan for Broken Links" button. Let background scanning handle everything.

Solution 2: Whitelist Link Whisper in Security Plugin

If you must use manual scans:

In Wordfence:

Go to Wordfence → Firewall → All Firewall Options

Add your site's domain to whitelisted URLs

This prevents Wordfence from blocking Link Whisper's requests

In Cloudflare:

Create a Page Rule for yoursite.com/wp-admin/*

Set Security Level to Medium or Low

This reduces false blocks during scans

Excluding Certain Links

Some links intentionally block crawlers and will always show up as "broken" even though they work fine when clicked.

Common Examples:

Affiliate Links:

Amazon affiliate links

Booking.com links

Commission Junction links

These sites use anti-bot measures that block automated checking.

Social Media:

LinkedIn profiles

Facebook pages (sometimes)

These require login and block automated access.

Gated Content:

Paywalled articles

Members-only pages

Solution: Ignore Problematic Links

You can ignore these links so they don't clutter your report:

Method 1: Ignore Individual Link

Steps:

In the Broken Links Report, find the link you want to ignore

Click the "Ignore" icon (eye with a slash, or "Ignore" button)

The link is hidden from the report

When to Use: You have a few specific links that are false positives.

Method 2: Ignore Entire Domains

Steps:

Go to Link Whisper → Settings → Content Ignoring

Find the "Broken Links to be Ignored" field

Add the domain URL you want to exclude

Pro Tip: Add a star (*) to the end of the URL to wildcard exclude every link pointing to that domain

Examples:

Exclude all Amazon links:

https://amazon.com*

Exclude all Booking.com links:

https://booking.com*

Multiple domains (separate with commas):

https://amazon.com*, https://booking.com*, https://linkedin.com*

Result: Link Whisper will never report links to these domains as broken, even if they return errors.

Best Practices for Broken Link Management

1. Check Reports Monthly

Set a calendar reminder to check the Broken Links Report once per month.

Why: Links break gradually over time as external sites change or delete content.

2. Prioritize Internal Links First

Fix internal broken links (links to your own site) before external links.

Why: You have full control over internal links and they impact your SEO more directly.

3. Replace, Don't Just Delete

When you find a broken link, try to replace it with a relevant alternative rather than just removing it.

Example:

Broken link to "Keyword Research Tool A" (defunct)

❌ Bad: Just remove the link

✅ Good: Replace with link to "Keyword Research Tool B" (similar, active tool)

4. Update Old Content

When fixing broken links, take the opportunity to:

Update outdated information in the post

Add new internal links to recent content

Refresh statistics or data

This improves the post's overall quality and freshness.

5. Set Up 301 Redirects for Internal 404s

If you've deleted or moved pages on your own site:

Set up 301 redirects from the old URL to the new URL

This fixes broken links site-wide automatically

Use a plugin like Redirection to manage redirects

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How often does the background scan run?

A: It checks approximately 10 links every 5 minutes, running continuously 24/7.

Q: Can I schedule scans to run at specific times?

A: The background scan runs automatically. You can run manual scans anytime by clicking the "Scan" button.

Q: Will fixing broken links improve my SEO immediately?

A: Yes, but gradually. Google will recrawl your pages over days/weeks and recognize the improvements.

Q: What if I have 1,000+ broken links?

A: Use bulk actions to handle many at once. Prioritize high-traffic pages first (check Google Analytics).

Q: Can Link Whisper automatically fix broken links?

A: No, Link Whisper identifies broken links but requires your approval to fix them. This prevents automatic mistakes.

Q: Do broken external links hurt my SEO?

A: Moderately. While not as critical as broken internal links, they do hurt user experience and trust signals.

Q: Should I remove all external links to avoid broken link issues?

A: No! External links to authoritative sources improve your content and are an SEO best practice. Just monitor and update them.

Need Help with Broken Links?

If you're experiencing issues with the Broken Links Report:

Email: support@linkwhisper.com

Subject: "Broken Links Report Issue"

Include:

Whether you used manual or background scan

Any error messages

Examples of false positives (if applicable)

Your hosting provider

Response Time: Usually within 24 hours