Amazon Health Check
How Brokenly detects out-of-stock and removed Amazon products that a normal HTTP check would miss.
A plain HTTP check is not enough for Amazon affiliate links. Amazon almost always returns 200 OK even when the product is gone, out of stock, or replaced with a "currently unavailable" placeholder. To catch those cases, Brokenly runs Amazon links through an extra availability check.
How the Amazon Check Works
When Brokenly identifies an affiliate link as an Amazon product, it doesn't stop at the HTTP response. It also looks at the product's real-world availability and updates the link status accordingly:
| Brokenly detects | Status assigned |
|---|---|
| Product is in stock and available | Healthy |
| Product page exists but isn't buyable | Out of Stock |
| Product has been removed from Amazon | Unavailable |
Why This Matters
A 200 OK response can hide a dead affiliate link:
- Visitor clicks your link to a discontinued product
- Amazon shows a "Currently unavailable" placeholder, or redirects them
- They bounce — and you lose the commission
The Amazon health check catches both cases automatically so you can swap the link before it bleeds traffic.
Freshness
Availability results are cached briefly so a single product page isn't re-fetched on every crawl. A freshly delisted product may take a crawl or two to show as Unavailable.
Non-Amazon Affiliate Links
Non-Amazon links are verified with a standard HTTP check — see How Scanning Works. The Amazon availability check is layered on top only for links Brokenly identifies as Amazon products.