Link Inspector: find every broken link on your website
Find every broken link on your website, and the exact place to fix it.
Link Inspector is the newest addition to KT8 Tools, alongside the DNS checker, mail tester and speed test. Enter your web address and it works through your site page by page, testing every link it finds and reporting anything that no longer works.
Invite only for now: Link Inspector is open to invited KT8 Tools members. Sign in with your KT8 account to run your first check.
The problem with links
Links rarely break all at once. They decay: a supplier moves its product pages, a news site reorganises its archive, a domain is left to expire, or a page on your own site gets a new address. Nothing tells you when it happens.
The result is a dead end for the reader, and a site that looks neglected. On a blog with years of posts, finding these by hand means clicking through thousands of links.
How a check works
- Start from your home page. Link Inspector reads the page and collects every link on it.
- Follow your own pages. It moves from page to page across your website, up to 500 pages, collecting links as it goes.
- Test outside links once. Links to other websites, such as sources, partners and affiliate offers, are each tested once. We never crawl other people's websites.
- Build the report. Problems are grouped by type, with every page each one appears on.
Large websites can take a few minutes. You can close the page and come back: the check carries on, and the report is kept for 30 days.
What the report covers
| Check | What we look for |
|---|---|
| Broken links | Missing pages (404), removed pages, server errors, domains that no longer exist, timeouts and security certificate problems |
| Missing pictures | Images on your pages that fail to load |
| Redirects | Links that still work but pass through one or more redirects first, so they are worth updating |
| Insecure links | Old http:// links on a secure https:// website |
Every problem comes with the page it sits on and the link text to search for, plus a copy button and plain-English steps to fix it. You can download the full list as a CSV file or share a link to the report with whoever looks after your website.
Gentle on your server, fair to everyone else
Link Inspector checks three addresses at a time, pauses between batches, follows your robots.txt file and identifies itself clearly, so your visitors won't notice it running.
Your own websites only: a full check needs proof that the website is yours, using a DNS record or a short tag on your home page. Any other website gets its first page checked only. This stops the tool being used to put load on someone else's server.
Coming next
- Weekly checks by email: we check your website every week and only email you when something breaks.
- All your clients' websites: check every client site from one list, with a note when one needs attention.
We're also exploring nightly checks inside ReaderCount, which already knows the pages your readers visit and the links they click. That would put the links that matter most to your readers first.
Have an idea for Link Inspector? Tell us in the community.