Where do I put the rules?

nginx: in your server block. Apache: in .htaccess or the vhost. Netlify (and Cloudflare Pages): a _redirects file at the site root. Shopify: it does not read a redirects file at all, so import the CSV under Online Store, Navigation, URL Redirects.

Why is the suggested target sometimes just my home page?

When a dead URL has no obvious live equivalent, the plan points it at the root as a safe default and marks it "review" rather than inventing a page. Change those by hand to the closest real page.

Should I redirect the dead link or fix it?

Both, in order: redirect the dead URL so nothing is stranded, then edit the page that contains the link to point at the live URL directly. The redirect is the safety net, not the fix.

Does this check every link on the site?

It crawls a sample of your pages and requests up to 25 of the internal links it finds. That catches the common cases in one pass. The paid deep crawl walks the whole site.

Turn dead links into redirects

This crawls a sample of your pages, requests every internal link it finds, and writes the redirect rules for the ones that 404. Four formats, ready to paste.

Fetches a sample of your pages and the links on them. Nothing is stored.

How this works

Shipwork runs the broken-links check: it reads a handful of your pages, collects the internal links, and makes a real request to each. Every link that answers 404, 410 or a server error is a dead end. For each one, the plan suggests a target. If the dead URL has a locale prefix and the same path answers without it, that live URL is the suggestion. Otherwise it points at your home page and marks it "review", so you change it to the closest real page rather than trusting a guess. The result is the same 301s written for nginx, Apache, Netlify and Shopify.

Questions

Where do I put the rules?: nginx: in your server block. Apache: in .htaccess or the vhost. Netlify (and Cloudflare Pages): a _redirects file at the site root. Shopify: it does not read a redirects file at all, so import the CSV under Online Store, Navigation, URL Redirects.
Why is the suggested target sometimes just my home page?: When a dead URL has no obvious live equivalent, the plan points it at the root as a safe default and marks it "review" rather than inventing a page. Change those by hand to the closest real page.
Should I redirect the dead link or fix it?: Both, in order: redirect the dead URL so nothing is stranded, then edit the page that contains the link to point at the live URL directly. The redirect is the safety net, not the fix.
Does this check every link on the site?: It crawls a sample of your pages and requests up to 25 of the internal links it finds. That catches the common cases in one pass. The paid deep crawl walks the whole site.