Xenu, also known as Xenu’s Link Sleuth, is a crawler that scans websites and analyzes links and related elements.
Its main value is simple: it helps you detect broken links, wrong redirects, and missing pages.
Why it matters
Broken links hurt:
- user experience
- crawlability
- technical SEO
- trust in the site
Why people still like Xenu
- it is free
- it is lightweight
- it focuses on practical link analysis
- it can also help generate a sitemap
What to keep in mind
Xenu is mainly a Windows desktop tool. More modern crawlers such as Screaming Frog offer deeper audits, but Xenu remains useful if your priority is simply finding broken links without paying for a larger SEO toolkit.