# Dead Link Crawler (`actually_good_at_this/dead-link-crawler`) Actor

Scans any website and identifies broken links (4xx and 5xx status codes). Allows to find and fix broken links, perform SEO audits, identify orphaned pages and server errors, ensure all links work before going live, analyse competitors and discover what's broken on competitor sites.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/actually\_good\_at\_this/dead-link-crawler.md
- **Developed by:** [john Y](https://apify.com/actually_good_at_this) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Automation, E-commerce
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Dead Link Crawler

A dead link crawler built with Apify SDK that scans websites and identifies broken links (404, 500, etc.).

### Features

- Crawls all links on a website
- Detects broken links (4xx and 5xx status codes)
- Uses CheerioCrawler for fast static HTML crawling
- Respects robots.txt
- Customizable User-Agent
- Exports results to JSON/CSV/Excel

### Input

```json
{
  "startUrl": "https://example.com",
  "maxPages": 100,
  "userAgent": "DeadLinkChecker/1.0"
}
```

### Output

Results are stored in the `broken-links` dataset with fields:

- `url`: The broken link URL
- `statusCode`: HTTP status code (404, 500, etc.)
- `checkedAt`: Timestamp
- `source`: Where the link was found

### Example

```json
{
  "startUrl": "https://mywebsite.com",
  "maxPages": 50,
  "userAgent": "MySiteBot/1.0"
}
```

### How to Use

1. Deploy to Apify
2. Configure the input with your target URL
3. Run the crawler
4. Check the broken-links dataset for results

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

One or more URLs to start crawling from. The crawler will follow all internal links from these pages.

## `maxPagesPerUrl` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of pages to crawl per start URL. Set to 10000000 for unlimited crawling per URL.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://example.com"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://example.com/blog"
    }
  ],
  "maxPagesPerUrl": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("actually_good_at_this/dead-link-crawler").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("actually_good_at_this/dead-link-crawler").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call actually_good_at_this/dead-link-crawler --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=actually_good_at_this/dead-link-crawler",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/1PM7G0FSaIjXPLToN/builds/hAlisMJi7hmJmywt6/openapi.json