Link Checker

Validate links in HTML files and report issues: broken links (404/500), redirects, slow responses, and affiliate link status.

What This Skill Does

• Scans all HTML files in a given directory
• Checks each link (internal + external) for HTTP status
• Identifies broken (4xx/5xx), redirected (3xx), and slow links (>5s)
• Groups links by type: internal, external, affiliate
• Outputs a clean markdown report sorted by severity

Environment Variables

Default affiliate domains: amazon.com,hostname/s/aspx,godaddy.com,bluehost.com,digitalocean.com,heroku.com,shopify.com,awin1.com,ref=

Scripts

check.sh — Full Link Audit

./scripts/check.sh [directory]

Output: markdown report with broken links, redirects, slow links, and affiliate links found.

quick.sh — Fast Scan (broken links only)

./scripts/quick.sh [directory]

Only reports 4xx/5xx status links. Skips affiliate and slow link checks.

affiliate.sh — Affiliate Link Report

./scripts/affiliate.sh [directory]

Lists all affiliate links and whether they're reachable. Critical for revenue site maintenance.

Output Format

# Link Checker Report — [site name]
Generated: [timestamp]

## Summary
- Total links checked: N
- Broken: N  🔴
- Redirected: N  🟡
- Slow (>5s): N  🟠
- Affiliate: N  ✅

## Broken Links (4xx/5xx)  🔴
[file] [line] [url] — [status]

## Redirects  🟡
[file] [url] → [destination]

## Slow Links (>5s)  🟠
[file] [url] — [response_time]

## Affiliate Links  ✅
[file] [url]

Example Usage

# Check all articles
SITE_DIR=./site ./scripts/check.sh

# Fast broken-link only
./scripts/quick.sh ./site/articles/

# Affiliate link audit
AFFILIATE_DOMAINS="amazon.com,digitalocean.com,bluehost.com" ./scripts/affiliate.sh ./site

Notes

• External links are checked with HEAD requests (faster than GET)
• Broken link reports are prioritized by severity (5xx worse than 4xx)
• Affiliate links are flagged but marked ✅ to confirm they're present
• Run this after any major content update to catch broken links before Google does