Starting with the Standard Plan, Dr. Link Check automatically matches each link of your website against a list of sites known for hosting unsafe content. This step helps you ensure that you don’t direct visitors to external websites that pose a threat to their privacy and security. It also acts as an alarm system that notifies you when one of your own pages gets blacklisted, whether by mistake or a security breach of your server. In cases such as these, you certainly want to be able to react as quickly as possible, for the sake of both your visitors and your search engine rankings.
The blacklists used by Dr. Link Check cover unsafe content from two categories: phishing and malware.
Phishing is a scam that tricks users into handing over personal information such as passwords or credit card details. The criminals behind the scam then use the information to steal the user’s money, identity, or both. Below are a few screenshots of typical phishing sites that mimic the look and feel of well-known websites to deceive visitors into providing their credentials.
Malware is software designed with malicious intent. This includes viruses, spyware, ransomware, and Trojan horses, among others. Websites hosting malware are typically compromised by hackers, who distribute harmful software without the site owner’s knowledge and consent. Most dangerous are sites that exploit software vulnerabilities to infect a computer without any user interaction at all.
With the Premium Plan, Dr. Link Check matches links against the following blacklists:
It’s an unfortunate fact of life that any software has bugs and security holes. This means that any web server can be hacked and used to spread malware or other unwanted content. Since you don’t know when this might happen, we recommend scheduling regular weekly or monthly checks with Dr. Link Check.