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FAQ

Most checkers read links out of your database. PlugUpp Link & Image Health Audit renders each page the way a visitor's browser would and checks the links and images that actually ship - including ones added by your theme, menus, widgets, footers and page builder, which database-only checkers never see. It runs entirely on your own server, with no external crawler and no per-link quota.

Will it change my content?​

No. It is read-only. It renders your pages and checks the links and images they output; it never edits posts, settings or metadata. The only things it stores are its own scan results and your plugin settings.

Does it crawl my site?​

No. It scans only your known WordPress content (pages, posts, and any custom post types or WooCommerce products you include in Settings) and the links and images those pages output. It never follows links to discover new URLs like a crawler.

Does it send my site anywhere?​

No. Scanning is local. To check whether an external link or image works, the plugin requests that URL directly from your server - but only URLs that already appear on your pages, and only to read their response. Internal links are checked against your own site. Google Safe Browsing checks are a Premium, opt-in feature that needs your own Google API key; without one, nothing is sent to Google.

What does "Not checkable" mean?​

Plenty of large sites refuse automated requests while serving people perfectly normally - review sites, marketplaces, forums and social platforms all do it, behind whichever security layer they happen to use. The plugin tells these apart from genuine failures and counts them under "Not checkable" rather than as issues, so you are not chasing false positives. On Premium you can send a browser user-agent, which helps with hosts that decide on the user-agent alone. It will not help with the large platforms - they identify automated visitors by the way the connection is made, which no setting changes - so for those the audit tells you plainly that it could not check, and lets you confirm the link yourself in one click.

Can I exclude pages from scanning in bulk?​

Yes. As well as the Exclusions screen inside the plugin, the standard Posts and Pages screens (and any scanned custom post type) gain two bulk actions: "Link Health audit: Exclude" and "Link Health audit: Include". Select the rows you want, choose the action, and apply. Because bulk actions work on whatever is currently filtered or selected, you can combine them with any list filter - including filters added by other plugins. Paid plans can also auto-exclude pages by rule (post type, category or tag, author, URL pattern) - see Excluding content.

What are the "suggested parameters" on paid plans?​

Cache-busters and tracking tags in URLs (like ver or a session token) make the same file look like many different URLs, inflating your counts. The free plugin ignores a built-in list of the common ones. On Premium, the URL Parameter Learning Engine watches the parameters in your own scans and suggests new ones worth ignoring, each with evidence and a live example you can open with and without the parameter to see they load the same thing. Nothing is ever changed without you - you decide what to add. See Reviewing your results.

What is the difference between the free and paid plans?​

Free scans your pages and posts - and, when you switch them on in Settings, your custom post types, WooCommerce products and unpublished content (drafts, scheduled, pending and private) - and checks every link, image and resource with no limits. Paid plans add the URL Parameter Learning Engine, scheduled scans and email reports, change detection, soft-error and Google Safe Browsing checks, one-click filters and CSV export, and multi-site licensing. The full comparison is on Plans and premium features; current pricing is at https://plugupp.com/plugins/link-image-health-audit/.

Does the alt-text audit tell me my site fails WCAG?​

Not on its own, and not for every finding. On Premium, the Images view splits alt-text findings into two tiers. Warnings - a missing alt attribute, alt text that is only whitespace, or an empty alt alongside a title attribute - are clear-cut accessibility failures with a published WCAG technique behind them. Review notices - alt text that looks like it was forgotten, that conflicts with an aria-label, that reads like a filename or placeholder, or that runs unusually long - are signals worth a human look, not rule violations; thresholds like the alt-length check are conventions, not standards. The audit never labels a review item as "failing WCAG" - it explains what to check and leaves the judgement to you. See Reviewing your results for the full tier breakdown.

Are private or password-protected pages checked?​

Password-protected pages are never scanned - there is no way to render them without the password. Private, draft, scheduled and pending content is skipped by default, but you can include it by switching on Unpublished content in Settings; it is rendered privately for the scan only and never shown to visitors. If you later publish a page (or remove its password), it is picked up on the next scan like any other published page.