Automatically fix broken links by replacing them with archived versions from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.

Automattic Special Projects

Glynn Quelch

Chuck Grimmett

Internet Archive

Internet Archive Wayback Machine Link Fixer is a WordPress plugin designed to combat link rot—the gradual decay of web links as pages are moved, changed, or taken down. It automatically scans your post content—on save and across existing posts—to detect outbound links. For each one, it checks the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine for an archived version and creates a snapshot if one isn’t available.
When a linked page disappears, the plugin helps preserve your user experience by redirecting visitors to a reliable archived version. It also works proactively by archiving your own posts every time they’re updated, creating a consistent backup of your content’s history.
Protect your links, preserve your content, and automate the archiving process—all with minimal effort.
<h4>Key Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Automatically scans for outbound links in post content</li>
<li>Checks the Wayback Machine for existing archives</li>
<li>Creates new snapshots if no archive exists</li>
<li>Redirects broken or missing links to archived versions</li>
<li>Archives your own posts on updates</li>
<li>Works on both new and existing content</li>
<li>Helps maintain long-term content reliability and SEO</li>
</ul>
<h3>External Services</h3>
This plugin connects to external services provided by the Internet Archive to provide its core functionality. The following information details what data is sent, when, and why:
<h4>Internet Archive Wayback Machine API (web.archive.org)</h4>
What the service is and what it is used for: 
The Internet Archive Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web. This plugin uses their API to check for existing archived versions of web pages, create new snapshots of pages, and verify the status of archiving jobs.
What data is sent and when:
<ul>
<li>System Status Check: No personal data is sent. Used to verify if the Wayback Machine service is online.</li>
<li>User Account Validation: When you configure an API key, your access key and secret key are sent in the Authorization header to validate your account and retrieve usage statistics (available snapshots, daily limits, etc.).</li>
<li>URL Archiving: URLs from your website content are sent to create new snapshots in the Wayback Machine. This includes both external links found in your content and your own post URLs when auto-archiving is enabled.</li>
<li>Snapshot Status Checks: Job IDs are sent to check the status of archiving requests.</li>
<li>Existing Snapshot Lookups: URLs are sent to search for existing archived versions of web pages.</li>
</ul>
Service Terms and Privacy Policy:
<ul>
<li>Terms of Service: <a href="https://archive.org/about/terms.php" rel="nofollow ugc">https://archive.org/about/terms.php</a></li>
<li>Privacy Policy: <a href="https://archive.org/about/privacy.php" rel="nofollow ugc">https://archive.org/about/privacy.php</a></li>
</ul>
<h4>Internet Archive Bot API (iabot-api.archive.org)</h4>
What the service is and what it is used for: 
This service checks if web pages are accessible and retrieves final URLs after redirects. It’s used to determine if links are broken and need to be replaced with archived versions.
What data is sent and when:
<ul>
<li>Link Accessibility Checks: URLs from your website content are sent to check if they are accessible and to get the final destination URL after any redirects.</li>
<li>Impersonation Parameter: A technical parameter (<code>impersonate=1</code>) is sent to ensure proper link checking behavior.</li>
</ul>
Service Terms and Privacy Policy:
<ul>
<li>Terms of Service: <a href="https://archive.org/about/terms.php" rel="nofollow ugc">https://archive.org/about/terms.php</a></li>
<li>Privacy Policy: <a href="https://archive.org/about/privacy.php" rel="nofollow ugc">https://archive.org/about/privacy.php</a></li>
</ul>
Data Retention and Privacy: 
The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving digital content for public access. URLs sent to these services become part of the public archive and may be accessible through the Wayback Machine interface. No personal information beyond the URLs themselves is transmitted to these services.
<h3>Developer Documentation</h3>
For developer docs and source code, see the GitHub repository: <a href="https://github.com/a8cteam51/internet-archive-wayback-machine-link-fixer" rel="nofollow ugc">https://github.com/a8cteam51/internet-archive-wayback-machine-link-fixer</a>

Internet Archive Wayback Machine Link Fixer


This has been working perfectly for me, and the only slight annoyance isn't the plugin's fault or even the Archive's fault.



Some sites block the Archive from archiving them, so they appear to the link checker as broken links too.



Give a quick look through broken links on your Dashboard's Posts section from time to time, as there might be a few you'll need to add to the Link Exclusions under Advanced Settings.



The benefits far outweigh the effort it takes to monitor that yourself. :)


Working Great, check in on broken links occasionally


Since November 2025, I’ve tested the Internet Archive Wayback Machine Link Fixer plugin against my custom command-line link checker.



Here are my comments.



Internet Archive Wayback Machine Link Fixer



Positives




Continuous link checking



Standard WP administrator interface




Negatives




A high false positive rate means you need to manually verify every flagged link. For example, recently, I saw amazon.com flagged as a 404. Deal breaker.



Automated replacements can unnecessarily replace links. To stop Link Fixer from redirecting to the Wayback Machine for amazon.com (and other good links), I needed to add a random query parameter (?t) to good links. Then I needed to exclude the original good link (that was flagged as a 404) and exclude the new ?t version on top of that (double work for every good link). Deal breaker.



Poor interpretation of HTTP status codes and no way to tweak that. Deal breaker.



Time sink from managing exclusions (no support for bulk action > exclude link) and doing workarounds for the false positives (see #2 above).



High risk of replacing current content with outdated (sometimes totally ancient) archives.



Poor visitor experience with unexpected link manipulation to Wayback Machine pages. At first, shocking and confusing, then annoying.



Content quality degradation from linking to super old information instead of intelligently finding fresh and relevant pages.



Real broken links (e.g., 404s) are not actually fixed in the HTML. So search bots will still see broken links (false sense of security). Dynamically replacing broken links does not help SEO. Google doesn’t guarantee crawling client-side rendering.



Not geared towards human content editors. Shows all broken links across the entire site in one long list. No grouping by document or page. No context about which document contains which broken links. It’s not easy for content writers like me to navigate and fix links.



The “Back to All Links” button is buggy. I expect to return to the main list of links. Instead, it acts like the browser back button. Example link for "Back to All Links": admin.php?page=iawmlf-links&iawmlf_link_id=1401. On top of that, clicking "Back to All Links" submits the last HTTP request (which can undo any edits without you knowing—gnarly).



All Link Fixer admin pages show the same page title. That makes it difficult to navigate back to specific links using the browser history. In the screen capture attached, you cannot tell that the links are actually to different pages.



Phantom (orphaned) links: Links remain in the checking queue even when they're no longer present in any post or page. This creates wasted processing cycles. cluttered interface, and confusion about which links need attention. I needed to manually exclude each orphaned link, so at least I know which ones I can ignore.




Custom code solution



More control



My custom solution is only semi-automated, but I define how to handle HTTP status codes and what my link replacements should be.  



Real link fixing



My broken links are “really” fixed when I edit my posts and pages (bonus: my edits update the “last modified” date). Search bots will see my real fixed links, and my “freshness” score gets a boost.



Document-centric workflow



My custom solution generates a report ordered by page. For each page with a 404 link, it lists the broken URL, the link text for that URL, and Claude Code suggestions for replacement candidates.



Screen captures



False positives: jumpshare dot com /share/VNPnKIoPF3khooUfnEO8



Same page title in browser history: jumpshare dot com /share/ADuvrhg7Xay2lzxv66QS



Parting thoughts



We'd definitely reconsider using this plugin if the major deal breakers are addressed. ☺️


Alternatives to Internet Archive Wayback Machine Link Fixer

Top alternatives