Broken link recovery report

Combine crawl failures with returned Search Console evidence to find broken URLs that may still matter. The report helps you choose between restoring, redirecting or deliberately leaving a URL gone.

Install and run the report

Install the CLI once, then run seo start to connect your site and Google data. After setup you can run this report yourself or ask your agent to run it.

Runafter install

Install the SEO CLI globally.

npm i -g seo

Run setup after installation.

seo start

Find broken or poorly redirected URLs with returned search value.

seo link-recover --project example

What you get from this report

Find broken URLs and weak redirects that still have Search Console value, then decide which pages to restore, redirect or leave alone using search evidence.

Best for: A migration, deletion, or release may have stranded valuable URLs.
Needs: Returned Search Console page evidence
You get: Find broken URLs and weak redirects that still have Search Console value, then decide which pages to restore, redirect or leave alone using search evidence.
Use next: Trace a redirect chain

Every report follows the same rules for missing data and outside estimates.See how report data works.

What you need before you run it

The report uses the information below. Optional sources are only used when you ask for them.

Returned Search Console page evidence

Provides clicks and impressions for URLs that still hold observed search value.

Live response and redirect evidence

Shows whether each candidate fails, blocks access, redirects poorly, or reaches a usable final page.

Use a different report for these jobs

These jobs need a different report or a manual review.

You need every redirect hop and the final page controls for one recovery candidate.

Run redirect trace for that URL. It adds the complete hop sequence plus the final response, canonical, robots directives, and indexability evidence needed to verify a redirect fix.

Redirect trace

You need to decide whether an old URL should be restored, redirected, or left gone.

No automated report can decide relevance, replacement quality, or business intent. Use this report to rank URLs with observed search value, then review the old purpose and the best current destination before choosing a response.

Needs more evidence

Use the report with an agent or in code

The command above is enough for most work. These options let an agent, script or application run the same report with explicit input and structured output.

Use the report catalog when an agent, script or CI job needs predictable JSON instead of the normal terminal output. Check the current input first, then run the report with the validated parameters.

Check the current input before the agent or script runs the report.

seo reports describe link-recovery --json

Once the input is valid, run the report through the report catalog.

seo reports run link-recovery --params '{"site":"sc-domain:example.com","days":90,"limit":25,"minClicks":1,"minImpressions":100,"refresh":true}' --json

An MCP agent follows the same two-step flow. It inspects the current schema, fills the required fields and only then runs the report.

Ask the MCP server for the current report input.

{
  "id": "link-recovery"
}

Run the report after the agent has checked and filled the input.

{
  "id": "link-recovery",
  "params": {
    "site": "sc-domain:example.com",
    "days": 90,
    "limit": 25,
    "minClicks": 1,
    "minImpressions": 100,
    "refresh": true
  }
}

Install the package in a Node 22 project when your application needs to run the report directly. The result includes the same evidence, warnings and limits returned through the CLI and MCP server.

Add the SEO package to your project.

npm install seo

Run the report from your TypeScript application.

import { executeReport } from 'seo/mcp'

const result = await executeReport(
  'link-recovery',
  {
  "site": "sc-domain:example.com",
  "days": 90,
  "limit": 25,
  "minClicks": 1,
  "minImpressions": 100,
  "refresh": true
},
)

console.log(result)

What to do next

Inspect the broken URL's search evidence and the page you might use as its destination. Restore or redirect it only when the replacement serves the same intent, then trace the final response and links again.

01Trace the specific redirect chain.
02Recrawl and monitor the repaired URL.

Follow every redirect hop from one URL to its final page and check status codes, loops, chains, canonicals and link safety before updating links.

Redirect trace

Repeat a limited crawl and compare it with the previous run to find technical SEO issues that appeared, changed or disappeared after a release.

SEO crawl diff

Compare current Google URL Inspection results with saved snapshots to find selected pages whose index status or canonical changed since the last check.

URL Inspection monitor

Sources used by this report

These primary sources define the provider data or search controls used by the result.