LinkHawk - Broken Link Checker

Automatically scan your WordPress site for broken links and images, then fix them with 301 redirects — no coding required.

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Overview

LinkHawk is a lightweight, production-ready WordPress plugin that crawls all your published posts and pages, detects broken links and broken images (404s, timeouts, server errors), and lets you fix them instantly by adding 301 redirects — right from the WordPress admin.

No external API. No SaaS subscription. Runs entirely on your own server.

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Features

Broken Link & Image Scanner

• Scans all published posts and pages automatically
• Extracts every <a href> link and <img src> image from post content (including shortcode output)
• Checks each URL using wp_remote_head() with GET fallback for 405 responses
• Detects: 404 Not Found, 5xx Server Errors, Timeouts, Connection Errors
• Skips: mailto:, tel:, #anchors, javascript:, data: — no false positives
• Configurable request timeout (5–60 seconds)
• Excluded domains — skip trusted CDNs or internal domains
• URL Ignore List — permanently skip specific URLs from all future scans

Real-Time Scan Progress

• Chunked AJAX scan — scans one post at a time, no PHP timeout risk
• Live progress bar showing current post being scanned
• Final summary: posts scanned · broken links found

Admin Dashboard

• Premium stat cards: Total Broken · Affected Pages · 404s · Timeouts/Errors · Broken Images · Last Scan
• Full broken links table with Type badge (Link / Image) column
• Colour-coded status badges: red (404), orange (timeout/error), dark red (5xx)
• Scan Now button — real-time AJAX progress, no page reload
• Bulk dismiss selected rows in one click
• Export to CSV — UTF-8 BOM for Excel compatibility
• Ignore URL — skip a link in all future scans (one click)
• Paginated results (configurable rows per page)

301 Redirect Manager

• Add permanent redirects from broken URLs to working ones
• Works for both broken links and broken images
• One-click "Add 301" from the broken links table — source URL auto-fills
• Tracks hit count per redirect so you know which ones are active
• Search redirects by source or target URL
• Sortable columns: Source URL · Target URL · Hits · Created date
• Paginated results (15 per page)
• Delete redirects with instant AJAX removal

Auto Cron

• Daily automatic scan using WordPress wp_schedule_event
• Runs silently in the background — zero manual work
• Settings page shows next scheduled run countdown

Settings Page

• Request timeout (seconds)
• Rows per page
• Excluded domains list (one per line)
• Email notifications — get alerted when broken links are found
• Custom notification email address
• Live cron schedule status + next run countdown
• Ignored URLs table — view and remove ignored URLs

Developer Friendly

• Pure PHP + vanilla JS — no React, no npm, no build step
• WordPress nonces on every AJAX action
• All inputs sanitized, all outputs escaped
• wpdb with $wpdb->prepare() for all database queries — no raw SQL
• uninstall.php — clean removal of all tables and options

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Screenshots

Dashboard	Redirect Manager	Settings
Premium stat cards + broken links table with type badges, bulk actions, and ignore	Add/manage 301 redirects with search, sort, pagination, and hit tracking	Configure timeout, notifications, excluded domains, and ignored URLs

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Requirements

Requirement	Minimum
WordPress	6.0 or higher
PHP	8.2 or higher
MySQL	5.7 or higher
Browser	Any modern browser

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Installation

Method 1 — Upload via WordPress Admin

1. Download the latest release ZIP from GitHub Releases
2. Go to WordPress Admin → Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin
3. Choose the ZIP file and click Install Now
4. Click Activate Plugin

Method 2 — Manual FTP/cPanel Upload

1. Unzip the downloaded file
2. Upload the LinkHawk folder to /wp-content/plugins/
3. Go to WordPress Admin → Plugins
4. Find LinkHawk - Broken Link Checker and click Activate

Method 3 — LocalWP / XAMPP (Development)

1. Copy the LinkHawk folder into your local site's /wp-content/plugins/ directory
2. Open WordPress admin and activate the plugin under Plugins

On activation, the plugin automatically creates three database tables and schedules a daily cron scan.

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Usage

Run Your First Scan

1. Go to WordPress Admin → LinkHawk
2. Click the Scan Now button
3. Watch the real-time progress bar as each post is scanned
4. Review broken links and images in the table

Fix a Broken Link or Image with a 301 Redirect

1. Find the broken item in the dashboard table
2. Click Add 301 on that row
3. You'll be taken to the Redirect Manager with the source URL pre-filled
4. Enter the target URL and click Add Redirect — done

Ignore a URL

1. Click the Ignore button on any broken link row
2. The URL is added to the Ignored List and skipped in all future scans
3. To re-enable it, go to Settings → Ignored URLs and click Remove

Configure Settings

Go to LinkHawk → Settings to adjust:

• Scan timeout
• Email notifications
• Excluded domains
• Rows per page
• View / remove ignored URLs

Export Broken Links

Click the Export CSV button at the top of the dashboard to download all broken links as a spreadsheet.

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Database Tables

The plugin creates three tables on activation:

-- Stores detected broken links and broken images
wp_linkhawk_links (
    id, post_id, post_title, post_url,
    broken_url, anchor_text, http_status, link_type, detected_at
)

-- Stores 301 redirect rules
wp_linkhawk_redirects (
    id, source_url, target_url, hit_count, created_at
)

-- Stores permanently ignored URLs
wp_linkhawk_ignored (
    id, url, url_hash, ignored_at
)

All three tables are completely removed when you delete the plugin (via uninstall.php).

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File Structure

LinkHawk/
├── linkhawk.php                  # Main plugin file (bootstrap + constants)
├── uninstall.php                 # Clean removal on delete
├── includes/
│   ├── database.php              # DB table creation, CRUD helpers
│   ├── scanner.php               # Link/image extraction + HTTP checking
│   └── redirects.php             # 301 redirect handler (init hook)
├── admin/
│   ├── menu.php                  # Admin menu + asset enqueue
│   ├── ajax.php                  # All AJAX action handlers
│   └── views/
│       ├── dashboard.php         # Broken links/images page
│       ├── redirects.php         # Redirect manager page
│       └── settings.php          # Settings + ignored URLs page
└── assets/
    ├── css/admin.css             # Admin styles
    └── js/admin.js               # AJAX + UI interactions

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does this plugin slow down my site? No. The scanner only runs when you click "Scan Now" or via the daily cron — never on frontend page loads.

Does it work with external URLs? Yes. LinkHawk checks all http:// and https:// links and images — both internal and external.

Does it check images too? Yes. From v1.1.0, LinkHawk scans <img src> tags in post content in addition to <a href> links. Broken images appear in the dashboard with an "Image" badge.

What happens to anchors like #section? They are automatically skipped — anchor-only links are never checked.

Can I skip links from specific domains like my CDN? Yes. Go to Settings → Excluded Domains and add one domain per line.

Can I permanently ignore a specific URL? Yes. Click Ignore on any row in the dashboard. The URL is added to the Ignored List and will never be flagged again. Remove it from Settings → Ignored URLs to re-enable checking.

Are redirects permanent? Yes. All redirects send a 301 Moved Permanently header, which is correct for SEO.

Will deleting the plugin remove my data? Yes. The uninstall.php file drops all three database tables and removes all plugin options when you delete the plugin from the admin.

My scan finds 0 results — what's wrong? Make sure you have at least one published post or page with <a href> links or <img src> images in the content.

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Changelog

v1.1.0 — 2026-04-08

• New: Real-time chunked AJAX scan with live progress bar (no PHP timeout)
• New: Broken image detection — <img src> tags now scanned alongside links
• New: URL Ignore List — permanently skip specific URLs from all scans
• New: Search, sortable columns, and pagination for the Redirect Manager
• New: "Add 301" button works for broken images too
• New: Premium stat cards with gradient accents and hover animations
• Fix: 301 redirect not firing when source URL was stored as full URL but request came as path (or vice versa) — now matches 4 URL variants
• Fix: Delete button on Redirect Manager not working — nonce now embedded directly on each row
• Refactor: Full rename from LinkGuard → LinkHawk across all constants, DB tables, options, page slugs, and text domain

v1.0.0 — Initial Release

• Broken link scanner with HEAD + GET fallback
• Admin dashboard with stats, badges, bulk actions
• 301 Redirect Manager with hit tracking
• CSV export
• Paginated results
• Settings page (timeout, excluded domains, email alerts)
• Daily auto-scan via WP cron
• uninstall.php for clean removal

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Contributing

Pull requests are welcome! For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch: git checkout -b feature/my-feature
3. Commit your changes: git commit -m "Add: my feature"
4. Push to the branch: git push origin feature/my-feature
5. Open a Pull Request

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License

This plugin is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.0 — the same license as WordPress itself.

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Author

Kamlesh Kumar Jangir

• Website: trsoftech.com
• GitHub: @bharatkabharman-pixel

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Built with ❤️ for the WordPress community