Skimlinks Broken Link Detection Guide

Short answer: PRG cannot tell you which of your links Skimlinks will monetise — that depends on Skimlinks' own merchant list and your agreement with them, and neither is visible from outside. What PRG does check is the destination of each outbound link: whether the page still loads, whether it redirects somewhere unexpected, and whether it returns an error. Because Skimlinks rewrites links in the browser and leaves the raw href in the page, checking that href is exactly what catches a dead or moved destination before it costs you a sale.

Why Skimlinks failures are invisible to traditional checkers

Most broken-link tools fetch the href attribute and check the HTTP status. With Skimlinks:

The HTML href usually points at the merchant directly (e.g. https://merchant.com/product).
The Skimlinks script wraps the click, routing the visitor through go.skimresources.com and on to the merchant via Skimlinks' tracking.
If the merchant URL is dead, the visitor still gets bounced through Skimlinks — and ends up on a soft-404 or generic page that earns nothing.
A plain HTTP checker reports 200 on the raw href, you assume the link is fine, and your revenue silently drops.

What actually breaks Skimlinks revenue

1. Merchant left the Skimlinks network

The link still goes somewhere, but Skimlinks no longer monetises it. Earnings drop to zero on that destination.

2. Destination URL changed

The href in your old article points at a product that's been retired. Skimlinks redirects to the merchant's homepage — no commission earned.

3. Regional 302 redirects

The merchant 302-redirects EU/UK visitors to a regional storefront the Skimlinks contract doesn't cover.

4. SSL or DNS failure on the destination

Visitors see a browser warning instead of the merchant page. Most won't click through.

How to detect broken Skimlinks links

Run a free scan on any page. Partner Revenue Guard follows every outbound link's redirect chain and validates the destination — catching dead pages, unexpected redirects, and missing tracking parameters before they cost you a sale.
For ongoing protection, sign up free and import the URLs of your top-earning content for continuous monitoring.
Set up alerts so you're told within hours when a link goes dead — not when quarterly reports show the revenue dip.

Best practices for Skimlinks publishers

Audit evergreen content quarterly at minimum — destinations rot fast.
Avoid linking to deep product URLs when a stable category page exists.
Track outbound clicks per article so you can correlate revenue dips with link health.
Combine Skimlinks with a manual high-value programme (Amazon Associates, ShareASale) so you have backup attribution.

Frequently asked questions

How do Skimlinks links work?

Skimlinks auto-monetises outbound links by detecting merchants in your content and rewriting eligible URLs to route through go.skimresources.com. The original href usually stays in your HTML; the Skimlinks script handles the rewrite (typically at click time, sometimes on page load) when their script runs in a visitor's browser.

Why might Skimlinks links stop earning?

Common reasons: the merchant has left the Skimlinks network, the destination URL is dead so the visitor lands on a soft-404, an ad-blocker stripped the script, or the merchant's landing page does a regional 302 to a storefront the Skimlinks contract doesn't cover.

Can I detect a broken Skimlinks link with a status check?

Not really. A naive HTTP check on the raw href tells you whether the destination still loads, but not whether the destination has changed, redirected to the wrong region, or lost the parameters tracking depends on. A scanner that follows the full redirect chain on each outbound link catches those failures before they cost you a sale.

How do I find broken Skimlinks links across my site?

Use Partner Revenue Guard's site scan — it crawls your pages, finds every outbound link, and validates each destination by following the full redirect chain. Free scan available for any URL.

Does Skimlinks have a built-in broken link tool?

Skimlinks reports earnings per merchant but does not surface dead outbound destinations in your content. A third-party scanner is needed to catch broken destinations before they cost you money.