Bulk Broken Link Checker

Scan up to 25 pages for broken outbound links in one batch. Per-page count of 404s, 500s, and unreachable URLs.

Broken outbound links rot in slowly: an external blog goes down, a vendor changes URL structure, a tool deprecates a docs path. Bulk broken-link scans let you sweep your highest-value pages for rot in one paste.

## What this tool does

Paste up to 25 pages. We crawl each one, extract every outbound <a href>, and check the status code of each link. The result is a per-page count of broken links plus the first few example URLs so you can prioritise fixes.

## Where it shines

Top-traffic blog posts. Resource pages and roundups. Documentation that links to external tools. Any page where external link rot quietly ages the content. Catch it on a weekly schedule and the rot never compounds.

What this tool checks

• Outbound links per page (followed to status code)
• Count of broken links per page (4xx / 5xx / unreachable)
• First few example broken URLs
• Pass / fail verdict per page

Why it matters

Broken outbound links erode trust, frustrate visitors, and quietly hurt SEO. Across a content portfolio, link rot is constant — bulk scans catch it before users do.

How to fix what it finds

• Filter the CSV for pages with broken_count > 0 — those are the urgent fixes
• For internal broken links (your own site), fix the source URL — that is a bug in your CMS
• For external broken links, either remove them or swap for an archive.org snapshot
• Re-run weekly on your top traffic pages — they earn the most external link rot

Methodology

For each input URL we GET the page, parse the HTML, and extract every <a href> with an absolute URL. We then HEAD each outbound URL (falling back to GET for servers that block HEAD) with a 10-second timeout. Status codes 200–399 count as alive; 400+ and connection errors count as broken. We deduplicate URLs within a page (no double-counting). We do NOT recurse into the linked pages — this is a one-level scan focused on outbound links on the input page. For deep crawls of an entire site, that is what LemWatch's broken-link monitor does.

Frequently asked questions

Does this check internal links?

Yes — any href on the page is checked, internal or external.

Does it crawl deeper than the page I submit?

No — it checks the outbound links on the submitted pages only. For full-site crawls, use LemWatch monitoring.

Some links show as "broken" but work in my browser — why?

Common causes: the destination blocks our user-agent, requires authentication, or has aggressive rate limiting. Click the row to inspect in the single-URL tool.

How long does a 25-page run take?

Depends on how many outbound links each page has. Typically 60–120 seconds.

Does it follow nofollow links?

Yes — nofollow is an SEO directive, not a "do not check" directive.

What about links inside JS-rendered content?

Static HTML only in bulk mode. For client-rendered pages, the single-URL tool can render before scanning.