I use the WordPress plugin “Broken Link Checker” to stay on top of broken links. Broken links on our blogs are bad for SEO and the Broken Link Checker plugin makes it a simple matter to keep up with those 404s.
So, have you ever gone back to an old post where you had a YouTube video embedded just to realize the video was no longer available? I have and it always leaves me wondering how long that post has been showing a dead video. It turns out the Broken Link Checker for WordPress plugin can check those videos as well.
How To – Simple Step By Step Instructions
- Once installed and activated, go to “Link Checker” under your settings tab.
- Then click the “Which Links To Check” tab.
- Check the two YouTube video boxes (Embedded YouTube videos & Embedded YouTube videos – old embed code).
- Then click Save and you’re all set.
Now you should be notified whenever a video was pulled from YouTube or the permissions changed making it no longer available for embeds, as well as those broken links.
What Do You Do?
Are you using a broken link plugin or service? Which one? Do you think broken links are still important for SEO? HEY, what would you like to see when we’re writing these type of quick blogging tips? Any questions you’d like to see addressed next week?
About Brian D. Hawkins
HI Brian
Great information shared!
I’m currently not using any plugin for broken links. But I think I can try this one for sure.
Thanks for sharing
Sapna
There are other ways of checking Sapna, but a lot of broken links can affect your blog’s ranking.
I think broken links are still important for SEO but also for the user experience, I hate when I’m looking for something and I think I found it only to find a broken link that had the content I was looking for.
Great share I will test this plugin and look for broken links on my blogs…
I think it’s still important too Christian, it’s still in Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
I use broken links checker but have never used it for you tube videos. Thank you
Hi George, It’s off by default and I found the setting by accident but I had several dead videos on Hot Blog Tips.
Hello,
i have a problem for the embed and I don’t know where did I get the mistake on it? I just uploaded my video and it couldn’t play.
What should I do to my video?
Thank you
Are you using the iframe or older HTML embed code Kent? Check your video settings and make sure it’s not set to “private” or “unlisted”. You also will want to go to the advanced settings tab for that video and make sure the “Allow Embedding” is checked under “Distribution Options”. Another thing to check whether or not you’re running a video plugin like Smart YouTube or Smart YouTube PRO.
Thanks Brian,
I found out that really useful for my video, I did checked the private mode on my that is why it couldn’t play by the other viewer.
Thank you
We’re glad to help Kent 🙂
Hi Brian, thanks for the tip! I really need to pay more attention to broken links on my blog. I removed the Broken Link checker plugin over a year ago because it stopped working on my blog. Now that I’m on a dedicated server I need to give it a try again.
90% of the videos I embed are my own, but I bet there are some old ones there that need to be removed.
I had a couple of people say it did’t work for them Ileane and it’s worked perfectly for me. I’ve been using a dedicated server for years and it didn’t even dawn on me that could be helping. I’d be interested in knowing if it worked for you now that you have a dedicated server. Very interesting. 🙂
Hi Brian, this looks like a good plugin. Thanks for the tip 🙂
Thanks Ben, Give it a try but don’t forget to back everything up since you’re not already using it. 🙂
Hi Brian, I used this once and it worked well. I deleted it because I didn’t want to keep a plugin on my blog that I wasn’t using daily. But then I forgot to use it again. Thanks for the reminder. I will check this out now!
Hi Brian, thanks for the tip! This looks like a good plugin.
Interesting, I’ve been looking for a link checker just last week and viola your blog pops out thanks for sharing this, I’ll definitely be able to use this kind of information.
Broken links are definitely bad for your blog and will not help your SEO rankings.
Having a plugin mentioned by Brian will help solve that problem 😉
Thanks!
Hi, I didn’t even think to get a plugin to detect broken links even though it has been something which I have been concerned about. I was going to check each link myself so thank you for this as it has saved me a lot of time as I have now installed this plugin and all is fine.
Regards.
Gemma
It’ll be great if we’re able to use these link-checkers for other links as well, and not just for video links. Great share by the way. Thanks!