How Dr. Link Check Scans a Website and Reports Results

Updated

Dr. Link Check scans a site by crawling outward from a single start URL: it reads the HTML and CSS of every page it can reach, collects each link it finds, and runs several checks on every one. You get a report that ranges from a high-level summary down to the exact spot in the code where a problem link appears, with sorting, filtering, and CSV export. To use it you need a start URL and a browser with JavaScript enabled — the site's own page states that the checker requires JavaScript.

What the scan covers

The crawler begins at your start URL and follows the site's structure through its HTML and CSS. According to the site, the links it examines include:

  • Internal page links between your own pages
  • Outbound links to other websites
  • Links to images, style sheets, and other resource files

This matters because broken images and missing stylesheets hurt a page just as a dead hyperlink does, and a manual click-through would rarely catch them.

The checks each link passes

Every link found goes through more than one test, so a "200 OK" alone doesn't clear it:

Check What it looks for
Broken link check Malformed URLs, servers that don't respond in reasonable time, invalid SSL certificates, and error return codes such as 404 (missing page) or 500 (server error)
Blacklist check Whether the destination appears on blacklists for hosting malicious content
Soft error check A 200 OK response whose page content still indicates something is wrong with the link

The soft error check is the one most manual reviews miss: the server says the page exists, but the content tells a different story.

Reading and using the report

Results are organized from a summary of the whole check down to the exact locations of the found links in your code, so you can go straight to the line that needs fixing. The site says results can be sorted and filtered in various ways and exported to CSV for further work in Microsoft Excel — useful if you want to assign fixes to different people or track progress across a large site.

Keeping checks running

Checks can be scheduled to run automatically on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis, with status reports delivered by email. That turns link checking from a one-off cleanup into an early-warning system for link rot, so you find dead links before visitors do. The site also mentions advanced customization options for controlling aspects of a check, though the available page text cuts off before listing them.

Practical notes before you start

  • JavaScript is required. The checker page will not run without it, so enable JavaScript and reload before starting.
  • Pick a start URL that represents the site. The crawl expands from there, so a section-level URL will scope the check to what is reachable from it.
  • Plan for the report, not just the scan. Decide in advance whether you will sort by error type, filter to a section, or export to CSV — the report supports all three, and choosing early saves rework.
  • Check pricing before committing to scheduled runs. The site links to a pricing page, but the available material does not state costs, so confirm terms there rather than assuming a free tier.