Snagbane Link Scanner
Searching for a “broken link checker” or “dead link checker” for WordPress turns up plenty of options — but most of them treat a blocked request the same as a dead page. If a link you pointed to is protected by Cloudflare, Akamai, Incapsula, PerimeterX, DataDome, or Sucuri, those firewalls often rej
Searching for a “broken link checker” or “dead link checker” for WordPress turns up plenty of options — but most of them treat a blocked request the same as a dead page. If a link you pointed to is protected by Cloudflare, Akamai, Incapsula, PerimeterX, DataDome, or Sucuri, those firewalls often reject an automated checker with a 403, 503, or a “checking your browser” challenge page — and most plugins report that as broken, even though a real visitor opening the same link in their browser gets the page just fine.
Link Scanner tells the two apart. Every link gets a real verdict, not just a status code:
- Broken — the page is actually gone (a genuine 404/410, or the domain no longer resolves).
- Blocked, likely fine — the request was rejected by a firewall or bot-protection service, not because the page is gone.
- Needs re-check — a timeout, a server error, or an SSL issue that’s worth trying again before calling it either way.
- OK — responded normally, including redirects that land somewhere that still works.
How it works
Link Scanner scans your published posts and pages for links, then checks each one in the background, a few at a time on WordPress’s own cron — never inline while a page loads, so it never slows your site down. New links get checked when a post is saved; the rest are checked automatically on a rolling schedule. The admin screen shows what actually needs your attention first, with one-click re-checks and bulk actions for cleaning up a whole list at once.
Free vs. Pro
This plugin tracks every link on your site, with no cap on how many, re-checked on a fixed daily cadence, with the full verdict engine (including firewall/bot-protection detection) included — not held back for a paid tier. Every feature described above is 100% free and fully functional with no restrictions, time limit, or nag screens.
Snagbane Link Scanner Pro is a separate, optional add-on plugin (not included in this download, and not distributed through WordPress.org). It does things this free plugin does not do at all — it is not a faster or less-limited version of what is already here:
- “Find a fix” — looks up an archived copy of the dead page on the Wayback Machine and replaces the link everywhere it appears on your site, in one click, without leaving the page you are on.
