Why a broken link is worse than a missing one
A missing link earns nothing and you know it. A broken link earns nothing while looking exactly like a working one — it still gets clicked, still sits on your best-converting page, and still shows up in your traffic. The revenue simply never appears, and because affiliate income is lumpy anyway, a dead link on a popular review can go unnoticed for months. Checking links periodically is one of the highest-return, lowest-effort maintenance habits in affiliate marketing.
The three failures this catches
Most affiliate link problems fall into three buckets. Hard breaks — the destination returns a 404 or 500, or times out — are unambiguous and worth fixing immediately. Bad redirects are sneakier: a cloaked link whose redirect chain has broken, or points somewhere unexpected, so clicks leak out before reaching the merchant. And missing Amazon products — where a once-valid tagged link now redirects away from its item because the product was delisted — are the quietest of all, since the page still loads fine; it just isn't the thing your reader wanted.
How to use it well
Paste the links from a page or two at a time — your highest-traffic reviews and roundups first, since those are where a break costs the most. Anything flagged broken or "check" deserves a manual look: open it, confirm, and either update the link or, for a dead Amazon product, swap in a current alternative. Make it a monthly habit on your top pages and you'll catch most leaks within weeks instead of quarters.
An honest word on limits
No automated checker is perfect, and pretending otherwise would cost you trust. Some retailers deliberately block automated requests, which can make a perfectly good link look broken — so a flag here is a prompt to look, not a verdict. Equally, a store can return a healthy status while the page itself says "currently unavailable," which a status check can't see. This tool is a fast way to surface the obvious problems across many links at once; your own eyes settle the rest.
Frequently asked questions
Why do broken affiliate links matter so much?
Because they fail silently. A dead link still gets clicks — you just earn nothing from them, and you rarely notice until you go looking. A broken or misredirecting link on a high-traffic page can quietly cost commissions for months, which is why periodic checks pay for themselves.
What does the checker actually detect?
It follows each link server-side and reports the final status: OK, redirected (and where to), broken (4xx/5xx, timeouts, or dead redirects), or an Amazon link that redirected away from its product — a sign the item may be unavailable. It traces the full redirect chain so you can see where a cloaked link really lands.
Can it catch every dead link?
No, and it's honest about that. Some retailers block automated requests, so a link may show as broken or skipped when it's actually fine — always open it yourself to confirm. And a page can return a healthy 'OK' status while displaying 'currently unavailable,' which no status check can detect. Treat this as a fast first pass, not the final word.
Are my links stored?
No. Links are checked on our server in the moment and nothing is saved. The tool exists to help you find problems, not to collect your data.