# Check External Links and Redirects on a Website

**Use case:** 

Audit the outbound links on your website: crawl a section of your site and check every link to other websites for dead pages, server errors and redirects, with the page each link sits on. Great for content teams, SEO audits and docs sites. Respects robots.txt; answers like 401, 403 and 429 are flagged as unverified rather than broken.

## Input

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.python.org/about/"
  ],
  "maxPages": 10,
  "maxDepth": 2,
  "crawlScope": "sameHost",
  "includeSitemap": false,
  "respectRobotsTxt": true,
  "checkExternalLinks": true,
  "checkResources": false,
  "onlyBrokenInOutput": false,
  "timeoutSecs": 15,
  "concurrency": 10,
  "perHostConcurrency": 2
}
```

## Output

```json
{
  "url": {
    "label": "Link",
    "format": "link"
  },
  "statusCode": {
    "label": "Status",
    "format": "number"
  },
  "isBroken": {
    "label": "Broken",
    "format": "boolean"
  },
  "isUnverified": {
    "label": "Unverified (blocked)",
    "format": "boolean"
  },
  "linkType": {
    "label": "Internal / external",
    "format": "text"
  },
  "resourceType": {
    "label": "Type",
    "format": "text"
  },
  "firstFoundOn": {
    "label": "Found on",
    "format": "link"
  },
  "foundOnCount": {
    "label": "Pages linking",
    "format": "number"
  },
  "finalUrl": {
    "label": "Final URL",
    "format": "link"
  },
  "redirectCount": {
    "label": "Redirects",
    "format": "number"
  },
  "isRedirectLoop": {
    "label": "Loop",
    "format": "boolean"
  },
  "responseTimeMs": {
    "label": "Time (ms)",
    "format": "number"
  },
  "error": {
    "label": "Error",
    "format": "text"
  }
}
```

## How it works

### 1. Sign up on Apify or log in

The Broken Link Checker: Crawl a Website, Find 404s & Redirects Actor is ready to run with the inputs already set for "Check External Links and Redirects on a Website". [Sign up or log in](https://console.apify.com/create-task-from-example/0L3XVpAdZT9sIJJvf) and you'll land in Apify Console with a copy of this exact task.

### 2. Start the "Check External Links and Redirects on a Website" task

The Broken Link Checker: Crawl a Website, Find 404s & Redirects Actor will start running based on the input automatically. You can also change all the input fields, like start urls, max pages to crawl, and more, to match your specific use case.

### 3. Receive the "Check External Links and Redirects on a Website" output

Monitor the progress in real time. You will be notified as soon as your dataset is complete and ready for review. Each result includes data such as link, status, broken, and more.

### 4. Integrate into your workflow

The final output is delivered in JSON, CSV, or Excel format, ready to be plugged into your workflow. You can also [run the "Check External Links and Redirects on a Website" task via API](https://apify.com/charlesmarkette/broken-link-checker-crawl-website-404.md).

## About this Actor

This example demonstrates how to use [Broken Link Checker: Crawl a Website, Find 404s & Redirects](https://apify.com/charlesmarkette/broken-link-checker-crawl-website-404.md) with a specific input configuration. Visit the [Actor detail page](https://apify.com/charlesmarkette/broken-link-checker-crawl-website-404.md) to learn more, explore other use cases, and run it yourself.


## How to integrate an Actor?

This Task's input is already configured above. Use it as-is rather than inventing a new one.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For full API examples (JavaScript, Python, CLI, MCP, OpenAPI), see this Task's Actor page: https://apify.com/charlesmarkette/broken-link-checker-crawl-website-404.md

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).