Broken Link Checker WordPress Plugin Help

Posted on Jun 30 2014 by in Blog 

WordPress is a fairly easy to use blogging platform that is used for the creation of millions of websites, from personal blogs to business sites.  Whether you are a personal blogger or a small business owner, the main goal of a well-designed website should be to provide a pleasant viewing experience to your visitors.  Creating the perfect user experience is no easy task; though, there are certain steps you can take to ensure that your website operates smoothly and without errors.  This will encourage visitors to return to your website.

One common error that should be taken care of quickly as possible is broken links.  Any link on your WordPress site, from on-site links to outbound links to other sites, broken links that result in unfound pages could force you to lose a follower, customer, or regular visitor to your WordPress site.  That is where the Broken Link Checker WordPress Plugin can help.  Here are some of the ways that this plugin can help with visitor retention.

The Broken Link Checker Monitors Your Site

The Broken Link Checker is a WordPress plugin.  Before you can use it, you will need to install it and then activate it.  Once activated, this plugin will monitor your entire WordPress site.  It basically crawls through your entire website and searches for broken links.  It will monitor your pages, posts, comments, and custom fields during its monitoring.  When broken links are detected, you can choose to be notified through the WordPress dashboard or via email.

Fixing Broken Links

 

After you have been notified that there are broken links, fixing the problem is incredibly simple.  Instead of editing the specific pages or posts that contain broken links, you can solve the issue directly from the dashboard screen for the plugin.  With this plugin installed, there will be a new tab in your dashboard called Broken Links.  This will contain the list of found broken links.  Choose to edit the URL to fix a broken link.  You can also choose to unlink the link.  This removes the link while leaving the text that was used intact.  If you know for sure that a link marked as broken is working then you can manually tell the plugin that the link is not broken.  Your final option is to dismiss a notification of a broken link.  The dismissed notifications will be ignored until its status is changed.

A Note on Page Speed

Some WordPress users have mentioned that this plugin has slowed down the load time of their WordPress site.  The reports on this subject are mixed.  The supposedly slower websites are due to the fact that the Broken Link Checker is constantly monitoring your site.  There are customization options so that you can limit when it checks for broken links, if you feel that it is slowing your site down.  For most WordPress users, the benefits of the Broken Link Checker will outweigh the potential of a slight increase in load time for their WordPress site.

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