‹ MAA Labs plugins
🔗
Maintenance · Link Health
● Live on WordPress.org

LinkGuard

Scan every internal and external link on your WordPress site, find the broken ones, and fix them without touching a single file — all from wp-admin.

Get it on WordPress.org ↗ Back to suite
What it does

Built for one job, done well.

🔍
Full link scan
Automatically crawls every internal and external link across your pages, posts and custom post types on a schedule you control.
🏥
Damage triage
Broken links grouped by error type — 404, redirect chain, timeout, DNS failure — so you know exactly what is broken and how bad it is.
🔁
Redirect & restore
Set a 301 redirect or update the link target directly from the dashboard. No file editing, no manual database changes.
📊
Link health report
A clear overview of total links, broken count, redirect count and ignored links so you can track improvement over time.
📧
Alert emails
Get notified when a scheduled scan finds new broken links so nothing slips through between manual checks.
⚡
Throttled crawler
Scanning runs in small background batches via WP-Cron so it never spikes server load or affects frontend performance.
🙈
Ignore rules
Whitelist specific URLs, domains or patterns to skip known false positives and keep the report clean.
🔒
Zero external service
All scanning happens on your own server. No account, no cloud dependency, no data sent anywhere.

Install it in seconds.

Free on the WordPress plugin directory. Activate, let it run one scan, and your broken link map is ready.

View on WordPress.org ↗
FAQ

Questions admins actually ask.

Does LinkGuard scan external links too?
Yes. LinkGuard scans both internal links (pointing to other pages on your site) and external links (pointing to other domains). External links are checked for 404s, timeouts and redirect chains so you always know what is broken and where.
Will the link scanner slow down my site?
No. Scanning runs in the background using WP-Cron with throttled requests so it never spikes CPU or affects frontend page speed. Visitors experience no slowdown.
How do I fix a broken link once it is found?
From the LinkGuard dashboard you can set a 301 redirect, update the link target directly, or mark a link as ignored. All actions happen inside wp-admin without touching template files or the database manually.
Can I get email alerts for new broken links?
Yes. LinkGuard sends an email alert to the WordPress admin address when new broken links are detected during a scheduled scan so you are never caught off guard.
Does it work on large sites with hundreds of pages?
Yes. The crawler processes links in small batches using WP-Cron so it scales to large content sites without memory issues or timeout errors.
Does LinkGuard require any external service or account?
No. All scanning happens entirely on your own server. There is no cloud service, no account registration and no data sent to any third party.
Quick stats

The numbers at a glance.

v1.5.3
Current version
7
Features included
WP 6.0+
Requires WordPress
PHP 7.4+
Requires PHP
Free
Forever, no upsells
Part of MAA Labs — in memory of Maa ❤️
Every plugin carries her blessings · 18 May