Doesn’t see external links in WooCommerce

Hi @sean-h

I hope you are doing well.

I was able to replicate this on my lab site, it happens for two reasons:

– Local issue:

When using the local method the Broken link checker will scan the post table but the Table plugin is using a custom table.

It has a custom PREFIX_ninja_table_items rather than using the regular post and post meta.

– Cloud issue

The Broken Link Checker is set to Cloud unfortunately it won’t work unless you use the Pro > Legacy method: https://monosnap.com/file/s8cUc1ni1dBWMu9XXMy6btNuy1xgVD because it fits. the same is why the plugin says “Better for SEO” the links will be visible as soon as the page loads and the crawlers can then scan for them, otherwise it loads from Ajax after the page is loaded.

Are you using the Ninja Tables Free or Pro version?

If it is the pro, can you give it a try in the Legacy and use the Broken Link cloud version?

Let us know the result you got.
Best Regards
Patrick Freitas

Hi Patrick,

Thanks for getting back to me. I suppose BLC cloud is an option as I have 4 sites all with BLC.

In the meantime, (I am using Ninja Pro) I’m actually wondering why BLC doesn’t see the links in the individual Woo products, such as this: (made with Divi Builder)

https://www.212esim.com/esims/europe-esim-10-gb-30-days-airalo/

I first input all the products into Woo then the The Ninja table grabs its info from the Woo database, so I won’t mind if BLC ignores/doesn’t see the table as all the links occur twice; in the products, and the table. I think 1 check of each link will be enough?

This site is brand new, about 3 weeks old, so I’m still playing with lots of things, including Woo itself which I have never used, even after 10 years using WordPress.

I thought to use Ajax for the table to allow the whole page to load faster, but again, I probably don’t know what I’m doing, if that will make a difference.

What I am hoping (I must ask them this) that even if any of these products go away, the various providers will do something like the ‘Dogs of Amazon’ where the affiliate cookie is set anyway and users are free to shop for something else. So no, I’m not very worried about any of these affiliate links breaking. I think I’m more curious than anything else.

BLC is otherwise ‘working’ on my other sites where I have outbound affiliate links in normal Gutenberg posts. The problem there is I often get ‘forbidden’ or some other error from BLC, but that I think is for another ticket.

• This reply was modified 3 months ago by Sean. Reason: More info

Hi @sean-h,

?I’m actually wondering why BLC doesn’t see the links in the individual Woo products, such as this: (made with Divi Builder)

Could we know which exact link is broken in the mentioned page that isn’t getting picked in BLC? So that we could have a better idea.

The problem there is I often get ‘forbidden’ or some other error from BLC

The forbidden or 403 error occurs in cases the external URLs are blocking the BLC crawler. This would happen due to a Firewall or Security setting. I’m afraid, if the URLs are pointing to the external server there isn’t much that could be done regarding such aspects.

Kind Regards,

Nithin

Hi Nithin,

It is the big blue ‘Buy Direct’ button, on every product page, all of which are external links.

When it comes to firewalls etc, can you not make the BLC crawler act more human like? I would have thought the purpose of BLC is to check for broken links, no matter where the link is pointing? Why else would we use BLC? This has actually been quite an annoyance over the years, especially with links to sites like Amazon.

So I tried BLC cloud, and it now reports 3 broken links, when it fact they are not. It just can’t see past the ? parameter in the URL, but only to those of certain affiliate websites.

It also found 441 774 links on a site only 3 weeks old? I have only added 480, so far.

It does however report 505 unique URLs, which is about right. The other 25 links are internal pages.

No, I’m not going to sign up for premium support, unless the product first works. Only then, if it breaks, I will pay.

I have since gone back to local, checked all the boxes for ‘Look for links in’, and still it doesn’t see any of the outbound affiliate links in the products nor the Ninja table, which is now set to Legacy.

Clicking on the ‘All’ column, it turns out BLC local is able to check outbound links, when I have added them in the regional plans, where it says ‘Coverage in # countries’.

https://www.212esim.com/esims/europe-esim-10-gb-30-days-airalo/

And they are all reported as 200 OK. So it would seem these particular sites don’t mind your crawler, where Amazon on the other hand is just being Amazon.

But still, the links in the blue buttons are missed.

Hi @sean-h,

I hope you are doing well today!

Thanks for the updates. Please let us know if you are referring to the all blue buttons in the example link
https://www.212esim.com/esims/europe-esim-10-gb-30-days-airalo/ with labels of “Buy Direct” or the big one only.

https://prnt.sc/RP0gO5Lggwt2
https://prnt.sc/58yXVWMXLXS6

Please also inform us about the exact error message if it is 403 Forbidden or something else, or just missed from the final list. We appreciate if you can share some screenshots or video.

Kind regards,
Zafer

Hi Zafer,

I must apologise, the 403 errors I was referring to are happening on another site, but I also said I should probably open a separate ticket for that, with screenshots. So maybe lets not worry about that issue in here.

In this case, it is just the big blue button containing an external link that is not being checked.

Hello Sean,

Thank you for the clarification.

If the buttons were added as Divi modules, then unfortunately the Local version won’t be able to scan them (unless they are the Text modules).

There’s an issue the with the Local version scanning the content inside Divi modules, which might be related to how it is stored in the database. It has been reported to the developers, and they will be considering a fix, but there’s no ETA, I’m afraid.

The Cloud version on the other hand should be able to scan all links on the frontend, however it will ignore all the parameters after the ? character.

Best Regards,
Dmytro

Hi Dmytro,

Thanks. A fix would be nice, considering I have checked every single box to tell it where to look for links; Body Templates, Ninja Tables, Templates, Theme Builder Items, Theme Builders, the whole lot. Yet it still can’t see the links in the Divi Woo Add to Cart (Buy Direct) buttons.

As far as I’m concerned, a link is a link, so a link checker should be able to see it. If my browser can see them when I hover the mouse, so should BLC.

In this post, BLC local can see the link in the text that says ‘Coverage in 52 countries’, it reports as 200 OK, but it doesn’t see the button. It is the exact same link: https://www.212esim.com/esims/europe-extended-esim-10-gb-30-days-ubigi/ No, I don’t state coverage on single country plans, otherwise this wouldn’t be a problem.

As far as cloud goes, why can’t it see past the ? parameter, when the local plugin can? The cloud saw all the links in the Ninja table, but reported them all as 404. So unfortunately cloud isn’t very useful either.

A vast majority of the outbound links on my 4 sites are affiliates. I don’t really care about the odd link to some random site for info, it is the links that pay that I want to monitor.

Where Amazon, Get Your Guide, Viator and other such websites don’t like being checked and throw 403 forbiddens etc on my other sites, at least the providers I work with on this site don’t seem to mind. So yes, it would be nice if BLC can lend a hand ??

Hello @sean-h

Your point are valid and I understand each cloud and local version has some issues, we are actively working on improving the link scanner on both versions to get a better result, the local version engine is complete different than the cloud version and in general cloud version should work better than the local.

We will try fix the motioned issues on next plugins however as we mentioned there is not any ETA for that.

Best Regards,
Amin

In the meantime I’m actively looking for another link checking solution. I’ve had other issues on other sites that are also not resolved.

I’m going to mark this ticket ‘resolved’, even though it isn’t.

Thanks for you time.