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Documentation

Install

1. Install LinkTender from Plugins → Add New (search “LinkTender”, or get it from WordPress.org) and activate it.
2. Open LinkTender in the admin menu and click Start checking links. Nothing is scanned or checked before that; activation only creates two database tables and makes no outgoing requests. The first scan then runs in the background and results appear as links are checked.
3. Optionally adjust what is scanned under LinkTender → Settings.

If your host disables WP-Cron (DISABLE_WP_CRON), make sure a real cron job calls wp-cron.php every few minutes.

Link statuses

Status	Meaning
Broken	404 or 410 (reported at once, re-confirmed over 24 hours), or timeouts, server errors, DNS failures and refused connections that kept failing at retries after 2, 10 and 24 hours. With Pro: store pages for products that are gone or unavailable.
Redirected	Works, but through one or more redirects. You can switch the link to the final URL.
Unverified	The other site blocked the automated check (bot challenge, 401/403, 429, 400/999 from social networks) or is still being retried. Open it in a browser; if it works, click Mark as fine.
OK	Answered normally.

Fixing links

Each row is one URL with every place it appears. Edit URL replaces it in post content (including shortcode settings), custom fields, Elementor data, comments, menus and widgets. Unlink removes the link and keeps the text. Use final URL points a redirected link at its destination (not offered when the redirect ends on a login, consent or captcha page). Post edits go through WordPress, so revisions let you undo them.

Performance settings

By default a batch checks up to 50 links or runs 20 seconds every 5 minutes (every minute while there is a backlog), 4 links at a time on different domains. Lower the batch size or concurrency on small hosting plans, or pause checking from Health & Tools.

Installing and activating Pro

1. Keep the free LinkTender plugin installed and active.
2. Download linktender-pro.zip from the page shown after checkout (it also shows your licence key; keep a copy), then Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, and activate. On multisite, Network Activate it to use one licence for the whole network.
3. Go to LinkTender → Pro → Licence (multisite: Network Admin → LinkTender) and paste your key (LT-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX).

Activation sends your licence key, site address, plugin and WordPress versions to the licence server and stores a signed token on your site. The token is checked locally and refreshed daily; if the licence server cannot be reached, Pro keeps working (tokens are valid for 30 days). Updates arrive through the normal WordPress update screen while your licence is active.

wp plugin install linktender-pro.zip --activate
wp linktender license activate LT-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

Email reports Pro

Set the schedule under LinkTender → Settings → Pro: email reports: daily or weekly, day and hour (site timezone), recipients (empty = site admin email), and when to send: there are broken links, links broke since the last report, or always. LinkTender → Pro → Email reports shows a preview and a Send a report now button. Reports use wp_mail(); if your site cannot send email, install an SMTP plugin.

Product & affiliate links Pro

For links to known stores (Amazon in all countries, amzn.to, eBay, Etsy, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, AliExpress, Home Depot and others) and to any store domains you add, Pro opens the page like a visitor would and reports:

• Product gone: 404/410, "no longer available", discontinued (schema.org), ended listings, or a product link that now redirects to the store's home or search page.
• Product unavailable: "Currently unavailable" on Amazon, schema.org/OpenGraph out-of-stock, or "sold out" text on a page without a buy button. Can be switched off.

Captcha and bot-check pages are never judged. At most 25 store pages are fetched per batch to stay polite. Flagged product links count as broken; if you enabled the free plugin's strike-through for broken links, it applies to them too.

Redirect clean-up Pro

LinkTender → Pro → Redirect clean-up lists redirecting links and what will happen to each. Preview checks each redirect live without changing anything; Update links rewrites them everywhere. Never changed: affiliate/tracking links (known affiliate networks, tag=, ref=, aff_id= and similar), cloaked links on your site (/go/, /recommends/, /out/ …), internal links that now lead to another site, and links ending on login, consent or captcha pages. Link shorteners and temporary (302/303/307) redirects only on request. Back up your database first; revisions keep the old post content.

CSV export Pro

Use the Export to CSV bulk action on selected links, or Health & Tools → Export CSV for a whole view. Columns: URL, status, HTTP code, problem, details, final URL, redirects, host, last checked, failing since, marked as fine, times found, found in, edit links.

WP-CLI Pro

wp linktender scan [--wait]                 # find links (full rescan)
wp linktender check [--all]                 # check due links (or all) now
wp linktender list [--view=broken] [--format=table|csv|json|ids|count]
wp linktender export [--view=problems] [--file=links.csv] [--network]
wp linktender fix-redirects --dry-run       # then: --user=admin --yes
wp linktender report [--send] [--html]
wp linktender license status|activate <key>|deactivate|refresh
wp linktender sites                          # multisite overview

Multisite

The free plugin works per site or network-activated; each site keeps its own tables and schedule. Network-activate Pro and activate your licence once under Network Admin → LinkTender to get a per-site overview, network CSV export and rescan of all sites.

Developers

Use linktender() to reach the services (links, scanner, checker, queue, editor). Hooks include linktender_link_status_changed, linktender_check_result, linktender_extracted_urls and, in Pro, linktender_pro_product_hosts, linktender_pro_affiliate_hosts and linktender_pro_redirect_skip_reason.

FAQ

Do I need an account or an API key?

No. The free plugin needs nothing. Pro needs only the licence key from your purchase.

Does LinkTender send my content anywhere?

No. The free plugin only requests the URLs found in your content (plus, after a network failure, at most one HEAD request to wordpress.org every 10 minutes to see whether your server is online). Pro additionally talks to the licence server about your licence and updates; it sends no content or link data.

Why is a link "Unverified" instead of "Broken"?

The site blocked our automated check. That says nothing about real visitors, so we do not call it broken.

Will it slow down my site?

Checks run in short background batches, never during visitors' page loads, and can be tuned or paused.

Does it change my content?

Only when you ask it to (Edit URL, Unlink, Use final URL, redirect clean-up). The optional strike-through and nofollow only change how broken links are displayed.

What happens to Pro if my licence expires?

Pro works for 14 more days, then the Pro features switch off. The free plugin keeps working.

Do staging sites use up activations?

No. localhost, IPs, *.local, *.test and staging./dev./test. sub-domains are free.

How do I get support?

Email support@getlinktender.com. Free-plugin questions are also welcome on the WordPress.org support forum.