Title: Awlware Link Checker
Author: awlware
Published: September 29, 2026
Last modified: September 29, 2026
---
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# Awlware Link Checker
By [awlware](https://profiles.wordpress.org/awlware/)
[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/awlware-link-checker.1.0.0.zip)
* [Details](https://wordpress.org/plugins/awlware-link-checker/#description)
* [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/plugins/awlware-link-checker/#reviews)
* [Installation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/awlware-link-checker/#installation)
* [Development](https://wordpress.org/plugins/awlware-link-checker/#developers)
[Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/awlware-link-checker/)
## Description
Awlware Link Checker finds links and images that are really broken and helps you
fix them where they are used. Everything runs on your own server: there is no account,
no cloud service and no limit on the number of links.
**It tells “broken” apart from “the site refuses robots”.** Social networks, marketplaces
and job boards often answer automated requests with 403, 429, 999 or a captcha page
while the page works fine in a browser. Those links are shown as _Blocked (verify
manually)_ instead of cluttering the Broken list. Server errors (5xx) and timeouts
are rechecked later and reported as broken only if they repeat.
**It looks where links actually are:** posts, pages and public post types (content
and excerpts), classic menus, block theme navigation, synced patterns and templates,
custom fields you choose, Text, Custom HTML and Block widgets, pages built with
Elementor, and (optionally) approved comments and commenters’ websites. Images (
including srcset), iframes, video and audio sources are checked too.
**Fix links from the report:** Edit URL or Unlink in one or all places (menu items
and navigation links stay as plain text), Remove image, Recheck, Dismiss. Posts
keep a revision, every change is written to a log and can be undone. Elementor layouts
are shown with a link to the Elementor editor.
**Light on your site:** checks run in short background slices (WP-Cron, 20 seconds
every 5 minutes), one request at a time per external site with a pause between requests.
Links to your own content are verified from the database instead of over HTTP. Nothing
runs on visitor page views. Database tables are created and updated only through
dbDelta under a lock, never on visitor requests.
#### How a link is judged
* **Broken**: 404 or 410, domain does not exist, redirect loop, missing anchor
on one of your pages, or a server error / refused connection that repeated on
separate checks.
* **Unconfirmed**: a server error or refused connection on the first check. It
is checked again after an hour (then 2, 4… hours) and becomes Broken only if
it fails again.
* **Timeout**: the server did not answer on repeated checks.
* **Suspected**: the page answers “200 OK” but looks like a “not found” page (soft
404): its title or text says so, WordPress shows its 404 template, or a deep
link redirects to the home page. Never counted as broken.
* **Blocked**: anti-bot protection (Cloudflare, PerimeterX, DataDome, Akamai, Imperva,
Sucuri, AWS WAF, captcha pages), rate limiting (429), login required (401), or
a site known to refuse automated checks.
* **Unknown**: the answer does not prove anything (for example 403 without anti-
bot signs or a TLS error).
* **Redirect** and **OK**: the link works.
#### WP-CLI
```
wp awlware-lc scan, `index`, `report --format=table|json|jsonl`, `where `, `stats`, `reset`.
```
#### For developers
Actions and filters start with `awlwlc_`, for example `awlwlc_user_agent`, `awlwlc_request_args`,`
awlwlc_post_types`, `awlwlc_meta_keys`, `awlwlc_exclude_url`, `awlwlc_classify_result`,`
awlwlc_verdict_changed`, `awlwlc_results_saved`, `awlwlc_report_tablenav`, `awlwlc_admin_tabs`.
### External requests
Checking links means requesting them, so this plugin makes outgoing HTTP requests.
Here is exactly what it does:
* It requests **only the URLs found in your own content** (HEAD first, GET when
needed) to see whether they work. Nothing else is fetched.
* **No data is sent to the plugin author** or to any third-party service. There
are no Awlware servers involved, no telemetry, no license checks and no remote
lists: the list of anti-bot sites ships with the plugin.
* Each request carries the User-Agent `Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; AwlwareLinkChecker/
1.0.0; +https://awlware.com/link-checker/)`, so site owners can see who is checking.
It can be changed with the `awlwlc_user_agent` filter. The plugin never pretends
to be a browser.
* One request at a time per external site, with a pause between requests, and at
most three attempts per URL per check (redirects are followed hop by hop). Soft-
404 detection on other sites (one extra GET per working page) is off unless you
enable it. A site that does not resolve or refuses connections is not asked again
in the same run.
* All requests go through the WordPress HTTP API, so proxies, `WP_HTTP_BLOCK_EXTERNAL`,`
WP_ACCESSIBLE_HOSTS` and HTTP filters apply.
* SSRF protection: addresses in private, loopback, link-local and reserved ranges(
IPv4 and IPv6) are never requested, every redirect is checked again, and the
checked address is pinned for the connection to prevent DNS rebinding.
### Privacy
The plugin stores the list of links, where they are used, their check results and
a log of fixes (who changed what, kept 90 days) in its own database tables on your
site. No data leaves your site except the link-check requests described above. It
does not use cookies and adds nothing to the public side of your site.
## Screenshots
[⌊Report: broken links and the places where each one is used, with tabs for Unconfirmed,
Blocked, Unknown, Redirect and OK.⌉⌊Report: broken links and the places where each
one is used, with tabs for Unconfirmed, Blocked, Unknown, Redirect and OK.⌉[
Report: broken links and the places where each one is used, with tabs for Unconfirmed,
Blocked, Unknown, Redirect and OK.
[⌊Fix screen: replace a URL or unlink it in one or all places.⌉⌊Fix screen: replace
a URL or unlink it in one or all places.⌉[
Fix screen: replace a URL or unlink it in one or all places.
[⌊Settings: what to scan, exclusions, check intervals and confirmation of server
errors.⌉⌊Settings: what to scan, exclusions, check intervals and confirmation of
server errors.⌉[
Settings: what to scan, exclusions, check intervals and confirmation of server errors.
[⌊Log of changes with Undo.⌉⌊Log of changes with Undo.⌉[
Log of changes with Undo.
[⌊WP-CLI: scan, report and where a URL is used.⌉⌊WP-CLI: scan, report and where
a URL is used.⌉[
WP-CLI: scan, report and where a URL is used.
## Installation
1. Install and activate the plugin.
2. Open **Tools Link Checker**. The first check starts in the background within a
few minutes.
3. Optional: in **Settings**, choose what to scan and add custom field names.
If WP-Cron is disabled on your site, run `wp cron event run --due-now` from a system
cron job every 5 minutes, or use `wp awlware-lc scan`. While the report is open,
checks also run in the browser tab.
## FAQ
### Why is a link “Blocked” and not “Broken”?
The site refused the automated check (anti-bot protection, rate limit or login).
The page most likely works for people. Open it in your browser; if it really is
gone, fix it or leave it. Blocked links are never counted as broken.
### Why is a server error “Unconfirmed”?
Servers have short outages. A 5xx error, a refused connection or a timeout is checked
again later and reported as broken only when it repeats, so a five-minute outage
does not produce a false alarm.
### Will it slow down my site?
No work is done on visitor page views. Background slices are short, links to your
own site are verified from the database, and results are written in batches. On
a test site with 2,000 posts and 26,000 links, building the index took about 2 seconds.
### WP-Cron is disabled on my server.
See Installation: use a system cron job or WP-CLI. The report page shows a notice
with instructions and keeps checking while it is open.
### I am moving from another broken link checker.
Deactivate the old plugin, activate this one, and add the custom field names you
want scanned under Settings. There is nothing to import: the index is built from
your content automatically.
### Does it support Elementor and comments?
Links in Elementor layouts are found and checked; change them in the Elementor editor(
the report links to it). Comment scanning is off by default: enable it under Settings
to check links in approved comments and commenters’ websites, and fix or unlink
them from the report.
### Does it change my content?
Only when you click Edit URL, Unlink or Remove image. Changes go through the normal
WordPress API (posts get a revision), are logged, and can be undone from the Log
tab.
### What is removed when I delete the plugin?
By default all plugin tables, settings and scheduled events. You can keep the data
by turning off “Delete all plugin data” in the settings before deleting.
## Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
## Contributors & Developers
“Awlware Link Checker” is open source software. The following people have contributed
to this plugin.
Contributors
* [ awlware ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/awlware/)
[Translate “Awlware Link Checker” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/awlware-link-checker)
### Interested in development?
[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/awlware-link-checker/),
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/awlware-link-checker/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/awlware-link-checker/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/awlware-link-checker/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).
## Changelog
#### 1.0.0
* First release.
## Meta
* Version **1.0.0**
* Last updated **1 day ago**
* Active installations **Fewer than 10**
* WordPress version ** 6.4 or higher **
* Tested up to **7.1.2**
* PHP version ** 7.4 or higher **
* Tags
* [broken images](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/broken-images/)[broken links](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/broken-links/)
[dead links](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/dead-links/)[link checker](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/link-checker/)
[seo](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/seo/)
* [Advanced View](https://wordpress.org/plugins/awlware-link-checker/advanced/)
## Ratings
No reviews have been submitted yet.
[Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/awlware-link-checker/reviews/#new-post)
[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/awlware-link-checker/reviews/)
## Contributors
* [ awlware ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/awlware/)
## Support
Got something to say? Need help?
[View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/awlware-link-checker/)