Check External Links
Your pages link to external sites. Those sites change, move, or go down without notice. Sitepager checks every outbound URL on your scanned pages and flags anything that returns a confirmed error. It does not crawl external pages, capture screenshots, or run SEO checks on them.
Where to find it
Section titled “Where to find it”The Broken external links toggle is in the Additional Checks section when creating or editing a scan. It is disabled by default.
How it works
Section titled “How it works”Sitepager finds every outbound link on the pages in your scan scope, checks each URL, and records the status. Broken URLs appear in the Broken External URLs tab of your scan results.
What counts as broken
Section titled “What counts as broken”Sitepager flags external links that return a confirmed error such as 404 Not Found or 410 Gone. Some links may not be flagged because sites that block automated requests often return codes that are not classified as confirmed errors.
How it fits into the release process
Section titled “How it fits into the release process”External link checking runs alongside your other checks as part of your pre-publish scan. The right cadence depends on how you have set up your scans:
- On your key pages scan, enable it to catch high-impact broken links before every update
- On your full site scan, enable it for complete coverage before major launches or every two weeks
After fixing broken links on your site, re-run the scan to confirm they are resolved.
For guidance on structuring your key pages and full site scans, see Setting Up Your Scans.
Focus on high-severity items first. A broken link on your homepage or pricing page matters more than one buried in an old blog post.
Re-run after making fixes. Sitepager checks all outbound URLs again on every run and updates the status of previously flagged links.