When we talk about checking internal link, we generally mean checking for broken link. Google search results prove this idea.
Tools that check for broken link usually address both internal and external links, but since this blog is dedicated to internal link, I will emphasize "internal link" in the wording in the article for SEO purposes.
The article also describes tools that can tell you more than just broken link.
Tools focused on checking broken link
dead-link-checker.com
Link checker dead-link-checker.com is online service to check dead (broken) links of specified site. UI is simple, just enter the URL of the site you want to check.
Progress is shown during check process.
- It is free of charge. There is no explicit limit to the number of URLs that can be checked.
- If there is an error, a list of unreachable URLs and the URLs linked to them will be displayed.
If processing time is acceptable to you, you may continue to use this tool. If you are not willing to use it on a daily basis because of long waiting time, you may want to look for another tool.
Online Broken Link Checker
Online Broken Link Checker is online service that allows you to check for broken link on a given site. Although it has many limitations, it should be useful for applicable sites.
Enter URL of the site and click button to display details screen.
Progress is shown during check process.
Detected errors are displayed in following format This is excellent.
- It is free of charge, but there are restrictions. Also, 5 characters of image verification is required.
- To handle sites with more than 3,000 pages or sites in subdirectories, a paid service subscription is required (details unknown).
- Clicking on the src in the error list will show you the HTML source of the page that made the error. This is useful.
The check takes less time than dead-link-checker.com, but it does not mean that Online Broken Link Checker is better, as it is also more capable of detecting errors.
If your site can be checked for free, you may want to bookmark it as one of your checking tools. Whether or not you would be willing to use this service on a daily basis depends on you.
W3C Link Checker
W3C Link Checker is online service that allows you to check for broken link on a given site. The service is free of charge, but is not recommended due to poor quality of the service.
Next is the screen during the checking process. There is a progress bar, which tells you how long you will have to wait.
検出されたエラーは次の形式で表示されます。いかにもな感じです。（他人のサイトを処理させたのでモザイクかけています。）
Detected errors are displayed in the following format. (I had someone else's site processed, so it's mosaicked.)
- The checking performance is poor and cannot handle the theme used on my site.
- The advantage is that there is no limit to the number of URLs that can be checked and it can be used in subdirectories.
I think there are a few people who prefer this service.
Check My Links
Check My Links is a free add-on that checks for broken links on page currently displayed in Chrome.
When this add-on is activated, icon circled in red will appear in the toolbar. Click this icon with the page you wish to check for broken links displayed, and the check will begin.
Results of the check for each link will be colored on the fly.
If there is an error, the area where the link is located will turn red. The response code is also displayed.
You can copy error list to the clipboard by operating the add-on's panel.
It is certainly a useful tool, but it can only check the page that is currently displayed. This is what makes it fundamentally different from other tools. Whether you use it on a daily basis or not, there is no harm in installing it in Chrome and having it ready to use.
I think it is a great tool to check that there are no more broken links on this page, especially when you have fixed it on a page where you found a problem.
Ahrefs Broken Link Checker
Ahrefs Broken Link Checker is an online service that allows you to check for broken links on specified site. The service is free of charge. There are no restrictions on the sites you can use.
It says, "Check your site for broken inbound and outbound links in seconds." This may sound insane, but in fact, the check takes only a few seconds, and the following message is displayed.
There is a trick to it.
- Ahrefs has built a database of crawled sites from all over the world, and this tool checks for broken links by referring to it. Therefore, the check results do not reflect the current status. They are days old. We don't know when that was.
- If you fix a broken link, you will have to wait a few days for it to be reflected in check results of this tool.
- Ahrefs is a leading company in the SEO industry, and its paid service is not cheap, starting at $99 per month. Being able to use its huge database for free and check for broken links in seconds is great, even if it is a lead-in to the paid service.
However, after using this tool for few months, I found it not reliable enough for serious Web masters. It simply won't detect link issues as it should do. So I don't recommend this tool.
Broken Link Checker
Broken Link Checker is a free WordPress plugin. It is absolutely high-performance broken link detection tool. Many people criticize it for its heavy operation and server load, but I don't think so.
Detected problems are shown like this.
It is a WordPress plugin, so there are many options for the problems you have identified. Its ease of use is outstanding.
- By default, it performs a detection action every 72 hours. If you are concerned about the load on your server and need this to be longer, I would suggest not using it.
- The broken link detection performance is excellent. It can be finely customized.
- You can have it send an email when it detects a problem. This is very useful.
The biggest disadvantage is that it runs on the server where your site is located, so its heavy load can have a negative impact on site users (blog readers). Some people do not like that and do not recommend it at all. However, if the load on the server is light, it is the best broken link detection tool (for WordPress site administrators) so far.
I have confirmed that the load on CPU and memory is light on my server's resource monitor. There is no problem at all in my environment.
Tools beyond broken link checker
If you are currently using Ahrefs or Semrush, please skip to the next "Tool to study internal link structure".
Google search console
Some blogs mention Google Search Console (GSC) as a tool to check internal links, but they are wrong.
- In the "Pages" section of the menu under "Indexing", internal link may be involved in the reason why a page was not indexed. This only presents a conclusion, and AWT and others can be used to determine the cause.
- GSC is not designed to report broken internal links.
- There is an indication of inbound links, but it is not useful.
GSC is not a tool to check internal links.
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is a online service which provides some features of Ahrefs for free.
You can register multiple sites that you manage and have them inspected (audited) on a regular basis. The inspection capability is so high that many of us may feel too aggressive.
I have designated this site to be inspected every Tuesday morning at 3:00 am.
This tool (abbreviated AWT) is very useful for understanding what Google Search Console (GSC) lacks information about and what the GSC points out.
Here is a comparison of the functions of AWT and GSC.
Quote:Ahrefs Webmaster Tools
The service, which costs $99/month even for the cheapest plan, is being opened partially free of charge, and the level of functionality available is very high. The purpose of this service is to increase the number of subscribers to paid services,but this tool is so powerful that I think it can't be free for any reason.
I highly recommend AWT. I use it in the following ways
- Set up weekly inspections (could be done daily, but not recommended).
- Open AWT several times a week as part of my morning routine, as it has useful information in addition to the inspection results.
- Look at the AWT inspection results if there are any pointers in the GSC index report that I can't understand.
There was a time in the past when I used Ahrefs (paid service), but I could not get enough use out of it to justify the cost. Currently I am happy with a combination of AWT and other tools.
Tool to study internal link structure
Most tools for studying internal link structure are in list form or kind of it. The best way for humans to understand internal link structure is to visualize it, but there were no tool makes me satisfied.
That's why I developed Link Map Viewer.
Link Map Viewer
Link Map Viewer is a free application for Windows that I developed. It was subscription based paid service before but now it is absolutely free. Anyone can use it for free of charge.
The following is the result of visualizing internal link structure of this site with Link Map Viewer.
Link Map Viewer specializes in visualization of internal link. As far as I know, there is no tool that can do the same thing as Link Map Viewer.
Check out Youtube videos demonstrating Link Map Viewer.
Recommended combination
I prefer following combination. However, you must periodically check that the load on Broken Link Checker's server is light.
- I leave broken link detection to Broken Link Checker.
- I have Check My Links installed in Chrome so that I can check broken links as soon as they are fixed.
- AWT provides other useful information in addition to the Site Audit results, which is very useful.
- I routinely open GSC every morning, and check two things: search performance and page index status.
- To check internal link structure, of course, I use Link Map Viewer.
Related posts
Best practices for optimizing internal link
There are best practices for optimizing internal link including what Google officially documented.
Practical method to check internal link
Visualization is the best way to check how internal links are currently working within a site and how they are linked between articles.
Tools and services to visualize internal link
Link Map Viewer is the most powerful tool for visualizing internal link and site structure.
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