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Broken Links Checker in Modular DS: what it is and how to use it

The Modular DS Broken Links Checker crawls your websites and alerts you to links that have stopped working and to cases of mixed content so you can fix them before they affect your site's users or its search ranking.


In this article we'll show you how to set it up and what you can do with the results.



The analysis goes through your site's pages and checks two things:


  • Broken links: they point to an address that no longer responds as it should.
  • Mixed content: resources that load over an insecure connection within a secure page.


Each analysis tells you how many links it checked, how many are broken, and how many cases of mixed content it found.


You can see a site's analysis in two places:


  • In the global view, inside "Broken Links", you see the summary of all your sites at once: whether the analysis is active, how often it runs, and each site's results.



  • In each site's view you have the full detail, with the history and the breakdown of the links found.



From the three dots on each site in the global view, you get quick access to several actions:


  • "View analysis": opens that site's detailed view.
  • "Analyze now": launches an immediate scan.
  • "Apply configuration": changes the global configuration assigned to the site.
  • "Deactivate": stops the analysis for that site.


The analysis runs automatically based on the frequency you configure, and you can also launch it yourself at any time.


How to create a global configuration


Just like backups or the Uptime Monitor, the Broken Links Checker works with global configurations: you define once how you want your sites reviewed and apply that configuration to as many as you like.


From the "Global configurations" tab you can see the ones you've already created and create new ones with the "Create global configuration" button.


Each configuration has the name you give it, so you can have several for different types of site and apply them wherever you want without adjusting each site separately.



When you create a configuration, you define how the analysis runs. Some of the main settings are:


  • "Schedule recurrence": how often the analysis runs, with the option to make it weekly or monthly and at what time.
  • "Analysis scope": whether you want to review your site's internal links, external ones or both.
  • "Checks": enable mixed content detection.
  • "Resource type": select which HTML elements to check.


From there you can fine-tune the analysis further with other options, like how the pages are crawled.



How to run an analysis and view the history


To review a site right away, go into its Broken Links view and click "Scan now". Modular DS will crawl the site and update the results when it finishes.




In the "Activity" tab you have two blocks. At the top, the results block shows you where the site's problems are. In this section's dropdown you can choose between two views:


  • "Pages with broken links": each row is a page on your site with problem links, and includes its URL, the type (link or mixed content) and the number of errors.
  • "Links": here you can see your site's broken links directly, with the link to the page or pages where they appear, the text they sit on, or the type of error.


In this same section you have the option to check pages or links to see if they still have problems, without running a full analysis of the site. This is very useful when you fix a link and want to make sure it worked.




Below, the "Analysis history" records each analysis with:


  • The date it ran.
  • The status: "Completed" or "Failed".
  • The pages analyzed.
  • The links checked.
  • The analysis duration.



How to interpret the results


The results use some technical terms. Here's what they mean and what they imply for you.



A broken link points to an address that no longer responds as it should. Modular DS shows you the code the destination responded with, and the most common ones are:


  • 404: the destination page doesn't exist. The link points to a URL that has been deleted or mistyped. It's the clearest case of a broken link.
  • 429 ("Rate limited"): the destination server has received too many requests and rejected the analysis's request. It's often a false positive, because the link does work for your visitors. Before changing anything, click "Check" to analyze the page again and see whether the warning goes away.


Other codes can appear depending on how each server responds, but the logic is always the same: they tell you why the analysis couldn't reach the destination.


Mixed content


Mixed content appears when a page that loads over HTTPS (a secure connection) includes a resource, such as an image, a script or a stylesheet, that is still served over HTTP.


The browser may block that resource or show the visitor the "not secure" warning, even if the rest of the page is fine. To fix it, you need to correct that resource's URL so it also loads over HTTPS.



Next to each link you'll see whether it's internal or carries the "External" tag. The difference matters when fixing it:


  • An internal link points to a page on your own site. If it's broken, it's usually because you moved or deleted that page, and you have the control to fix it.
  • An external link points to another site that isn't yours. You can't change its destination directly.


With a broken external link, your options are:


  • Edit the link in your content so it points to an address that works.
  • Contact the owner of that site so they fix it.
  • Remove the link.
  • Ignore it in Modular DS.



For each broken link, you'll see the option to:


  • Ignore it: the link won't show up in the results again. It makes sense when it isn't a real problem, like a false positive or an external link you'd rather leave as is.
  • Create a redirect: useful when the broken link is a page on your own site that has changed address. For example, if you deleted the path /old-services and that content now lives at /services, the redirect sends anyone who reaches the old address straight to the new one.


Keep one important thing in mind: redirects only work on paths of your own site, the ones you control. You can't redirect an external domain (you can't create a redirect for google.com, for example), so for a broken external link the solution is to edit it or remove it from your content, not to redirect it.


How to create redirects from Modular DS


When you create a redirect, Modular DS opens a modal with several options. The two decisions it will ask you for are the match type and the redirect type.


The match type can be:


  • "Exact": you redirect a specific path. It's what you need for individual pages.
  • "Regex": uses patterns to redirect several URLs at once with a single rule. It's a more advanced option for when you handle many paths with a common structure.


The redirect type is the code returned to the browser:


  • "301 - Moved permanently": the page has changed address for good. It transfers SEO value to the new URL and is the default option for most cases.
  • "302 - Found" and "307 - Temporary redirect": the change is temporary and you plan to recover the original address. They don't pass on SEO value the way a permanent redirect does.
  • "308 - Permanent redirect": it's permanent like the 301, with a technical difference in how the request type is preserved. For a normal content change, the 301 is the one you'll want.


If in doubt, go with "301 - Moved permanently": it covers the most common case, a page that has moved for good.



Where to manage your redirects


All the redirects you create are saved in the "Redirects" section, right below "Broken Links" in the left-hand menu of a site's overview.


There you can see each redirect with its source URL, its target URL, whether it's active or not, the type and the match.



From that same view you can edit a redirect, activate or deactivate it without deleting it, or remove it entirely. Deactivating it is useful when you want to leave it ready to apply later.


If you deactivate or delete the Modular Connector plugin from a site, you'll lose all the redirects you've created from Modular DS for that site.




Do you need help with anything else? Email us at help@modulards.com or contact us via the support chat, and we'll be happy to help you.

Updated on: 12/08/2026

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