Broken links kill your SEO, frustrate visitors, and make your site look abandoned. Worse - if your homepage or checkout page goes down, you're losing real money every minute.
Here's how to find and fix broken links on WordPress, plus how to catch site-wide outages before they cost you sales.
Types of Broken Links on WordPress
1. Internal Broken Links (404 Errors)
Links between pages on your own site that lead nowhere. Common causes:
- You deleted a page but didn't update links pointing to it
- You changed a permalink and broke old internal links
- Plugin conflicts generated bad URLs
SEO Impact: Google sees broken internal links as poor site maintenance. Hurts rankings.
2. External Broken Links (Outbound Links)
Links to other websites that no longer exist. The site moved, deleted content, or went offline.
SEO Impact: Minor. Google doesn't penalize you for linking to dead external sites, but it's bad UX.
3. Site-Wide Outages (Your Entire Site is Down)
Your hosting crashed, your SSL certificate expired, or a plugin broke your site. Visitors see a white screen or error message.
Revenue Impact: SEVERE. Every minute your site is down = lost sales, lost trust, lost Google rankings.
Method 1: Use a Broken Link Checker Plugin (For Internal Links)
Best Plugin: Broken Link Checker
How to Use It:
- Install and activate the plugin from your WordPress dashboard
- Go to Tools Broken Links
- The plugin scans your site and lists every broken link
- Click Edit URL to fix or Unlink to remove
Pros:
Finds broken internal and external links automatically
Free
Cons:
Slows down your site (runs in background constantly)
Only checks links INSIDE your content, not if your whole site goes down
Doesn't alert you in real-time - you have to log in and check manually
Method 2: Manual Link Checking (Slow But Free)
- Go to Google Search Console
- Click Coverage Look for 404 errors
- Fix each one manually
Pros:
Free
Shows you exactly what Google sees
Cons:
Time-consuming
Reactive, not proactive (Google finds the error days after it happens)
Doesn't catch site-wide outages
Method 3: External Uptime Monitoring (For Site Outages)
Plugins can't help if your entire WordPress site goes offline. You need external monitoring that checks your site from outside your server.
What External Monitoring Catches:
- Hosting server crashes
- SSL certificate expirations ("Your connection is not private" warning)
- DNS configuration errors
- Plugin conflicts that white-screen your site
- Database connection failures
How It Works:
- A monitoring service pings your site every hour (or more frequently)
- If your site doesn't respond, you get an instant email/SMS alert
- You fix it before Google notices and before you lose sales
The WordPress Site Owner's Nightmare Scenario
Friday, 11pm: Your hosting provider has a server failure. Your WordPress site goes offline.
Saturday morning: You wake up. Your site has been down for 9 hours. You had no idea.
Saturday afternoon: You finally check your site. It's dead. You scramble to contact hosting support.
Monday: Your site is back online. But you lost an entire weekend of sales. Google saw your site was down and may have dropped your rankings.
Total cost: Hundreds (or thousands) in lost revenue. All because you didn't know your site was down.
How to Never Miss a Site Outage Again
CheckBioLink monitors your WordPress site from outside your server. It checks your homepage, checkout pages, and any critical URLs multiple times per day.
When something breaks:
- You get an instant email alert with the exact error
- You can fix it immediately (or call your hosting provider)
- Downtime is measured in minutes, not hours or days
What CheckBioLink Monitors:
- Your WordPress homepage
- Product/checkout pages (WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, etc.)
- SSL certificate status (catches expirations before browsers show warnings)
- DNS and server response times
Pricing:
- Starter: $7/month - Monitor 3 URLs, check every 4 hours
- Pro: $15/month - Monitor 10 URLs, check every 2 hours
- Agency: $29/month - Monitor 50 URLs, check every hour
14-day free trial. No credit card required.
Start Monitoring Your WordPress Site
Test Your Site Right Now (Free)
Is your WordPress site actually loading right now? Test it:
Free Site Checker - Test Your Site in Seconds
Enter your homepage URL and see if it's responding correctly. No signup required.
Broken Links vs. Site Outages: Which is Worse?
| Issue | SEO Impact | Revenue Impact | Solution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broken internal link | Minor | Low | Broken Link Checker plugin |
| Broken external link | Minimal | Low | Manual cleanup |
| Site-wide outage | SEVERE | CRITICAL | External uptime monitoring |
Bottom line: Plugins catch internal link issues. External monitoring catches catastrophic failures.
You need both.
WordPress-Specific Outage Causes (And How to Prevent Them)
1. Plugin Conflicts
Two plugins clash, white-screen your site.
Prevention:
- Test plugin updates on a staging site first
- Keep backups
- Use external monitoring to catch issues instantly
2. Expired SSL Certificate
Browsers show "Your connection is not private" - visitors bounce immediately.
Prevention:
- Set up auto-renewal with your hosting provider
- Use external monitoring to alert you 7 days before expiration
3. Hosting Server Crashes
Your shared hosting plan goes down, takes your site with it.
Prevention:
- Upgrade to better hosting (SiteGround, WP Engine, Kinsta)
- Use external monitoring to catch outages within minutes
4. Database Connection Errors
"Error establishing database connection" - entire site is inaccessible.
Prevention:
- Optimize your database regularly
- Monitor your homepage so you know immediately when this happens
The Real Cost of Downtime
Let's do the math:
- Your WordPress site generates $500/day in revenue
- Your hosting crashes on a Saturday at 2am
- You don't notice until Monday morning (48 hours later)
- Total lost revenue: $1,000
Cost of CheckBioLink monitoring: $7/month
One avoided outage pays for an entire year of monitoring.
FAQs
Q: Can't I just use Google Search Console to find broken links?
A: Google Search Console shows you 404s after Google finds them (could be days/weeks later). Plugins and monitoring catch them faster.
Q: Do I need both a plugin AND external monitoring?
A: Yes. Plugins catch internal link rot. External monitoring catches site-wide outages that plugins can't see.
Q: What if my site goes down at 3am?
A: You get an email/SMS immediately. Fix it in the morning before your traffic hits.
Q: Can CheckBioLink monitor WooCommerce checkout pages?
A: Yes. Add your checkout URL and we'll alert you if it goes down.
Bottom Line: Broken links hurt SEO. Site outages kill revenue. Fix both.
Written by Ray Rothwell, founder of CheckBioLink