Outbound link checker Beta
Check your external links for dead sources and citations that no longer hold
A broken-link checker tells you a page returns 404. CiteRanger also tells you when a source still loads but no longer supports the claim you attached to it, which is the failure nobody catches.
Why link checkers miss most citation problems
Status 200 is not a valid citation
A study page that was rewritten, a product page whose price changed, a report replaced by a newer edition: all return 200. All no longer say what your page says they say.
Links rot faster than anyone budgets for
Pew Research found that 38% of web pages that existed in 2013 were gone by 2023. Every outbound link on your site is a dependency on someone else's maintenance.
Redirects hide the loss
A dead study URL that redirects to a publisher's homepage passes every checker and supports nothing. Readers who click it lose trust; raters who check it lower the page.
How the outbound link check works
Every external link is checked on two levels: does it resolve, and does the target still contain the claim your page cites.
- 1
Scan the page or the site
Paste a URL or import your sitemap. CiteRanger extracts every outbound link together with the claim it is attached to in your text.
- 2
Two checks per link
First the technical one: does the link resolve, and where does it end up after redirects. Then the one that matters: does the target page still contain the statement, number or fact your page attributes to it.
- 3
Fix with a replacement in hand
Dead and drifted sources are listed per page with the original claim. Where a current source confirms the claim, CiteRanger shows it, so the fix is a link swap instead of a research task. Export the list or set an alert for pages whose sources keep changing.
What CiteRanger checks in every article
The scan extracts every factual claim from the page and verifies it against current sources. Six claim types cover most of what goes stale.
Statistics and numbers
Market sizes, growth rates, survey results, percentages
Prices and plans
Product prices, subscription tiers, fees, cost comparisons
Company facts
Employee counts, headquarters, leadership, acquisitions
Dates and timelines
Product launches, deadlines, historical events, schedules
Product details
Specifications, features, integrations, limitations
Legal and regulatory
Regulations, requirements, certifications, standards
More than a link status report
Claim-to-source matching
Each link is judged against the specific statement it supports, not as an isolated URL.
Judged at the final destination
Links are followed through redirects and checked where they actually land, so a source that now points at a homepage or an unrelated page counts as lost.
Replacement sources
When a current source confirms the claim, it is shown next to the dead one.
Site-wide, on a schedule
Run it across the archive via sitemap and put link-heavy pages on scheduled scans with email alerts.
Built for teams that maintain a lot of content
The same scan, different routines. Pick the setup that matches how you work.
Start free, scale by credits
One credit checks one article. The free plan includes every feature with 15 credits and no credit card.
Free
15 credits to start
1 credit = 1 article scan
- Multi-provider AI scan
- Source validation (does the source still say it?)
- Report with corrected values and sources
- CSV export
- PDF report
Pro
300 credits per month
1 credit = 1 article scan
- Multi-provider AI scan
- Source validation (does the source still say it?)
- Report with corrected values and sources
- CSV export
- PDF report
Frequently asked questions
Is this a broken link checker?
What is a drifted source?
Does it check internal links?
Why do outbound links matter for SEO?
How often should I check external links?
What does it cost?
Guides on this topic
Are External Links Good for SEO? Outbound Links and Citation Quality Explained
Are external links good for SEO? Yes, when they are good citations. What the evidence says about outbound links and rankings, what makes a citation high quality, whether outbound links affect AI citations, and how to keep them from rotting.
Read the guide →Content Refresh Strategy: How to Update Old Content for SEO and AI Visibility
Learn how to systematically update outdated content. Step-by-step guide to identifying, prioritizing, and refreshing old articles for better rankings.
Read the guide →More ways to use CiteRanger
One scan, three jobs: audit an archive, fact-check what you publish, keep your sources alive.
Check the sources on your 15 most-linked pages, free
Those pages earned their links with claims that were true at the time. Find out which ones still are.
Claim 15 Free CreditsCiteRanger is in beta. Features and plans may change before general availability.