v0.6.0: Broken Link Checking
Detect broken outgoing links and images across your site. The 23rd automated SEO check, available in CLI and desktop.
What’s New in v0.6.0
Broken Link Checking (22 → 23 Total Checks)
The crawler now detects broken outgoing links and images on every page. During a crawl, external URLs referenced in anchors and image tags are verified with lightweight HEAD requests. Any link that returns 404, 410, 5xx, or fails to connect is flagged as broken.
This is the 23rd automated SEO check, bringing the full list to:
- 4 title checks (missing, short, long, duplicate)
- 4 meta description checks (missing, short, long, duplicate)
- 6 H1 checks (missing, multiple, empty, long, short, duplicate)
- 3 content checks (missing, short, long)
- 5 technical checks (long URLs, noindex, nofollow, non-self canonicals, paginated pages)
- 1 broken links check (new)
How It Works
The crawler sends HEAD requests to every outgoing link and image src found on crawled pages. Only external URLs are checked - internal links are already verified by the crawl itself. The check runs concurrently alongside the main crawl so it does not significantly slow things down.
Results are grouped by broken target URL and show which pages link to it, making it easy to find and fix every reference.
CLI Usage
Broken link checking is enabled by default. Run crawler seo as usual:
crawler crawl https://example.comcrawler seo example-com.crawlThe Broken links section appears in the SEO report alongside all other checks. Export with --export csv or --export txt as normal.
To skip outgoing link verification (faster crawls when you only care about on-page SEO):
crawler crawl https://example.com --no-check-outgoingDesktop App
The desktop app picks up broken links automatically in the SEO Issues card. Each broken URL is listed with the pages that reference it. Toggle the check on or off in the Settings card with the Check Outgoing Links option.
Who Benefits
- SEO professionals can catch dead external links that waste link equity and hurt crawl budget
- Content teams can find and replace broken references before readers hit 404 pages
- Developers get broken link data in
.crawlfiles and JSON exports for automated monitoring
Related
Wrap-up
A CMS shouldn't slow you down. Crawler aims to expand into your workflow — whether you're coding content models, collaborating on product copy, or launching updates at 2am.
If that sounds like the kind of tooling you want to use — try Crawler .
