diff --git a/lib/excluded-links.js b/lib/excluded-links.js
index 22f8540240ef..8339a4a01f69 100644
--- a/lib/excluded-links.js
+++ b/lib/excluded-links.js
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 // Linkinator treats the following as regex.
 module.exports = [
   // Skip GitHub search links.
-  'https://github.com/search?.*',
-  'https://github.com/github/gitignore/search?',
+  'https://github.com/search\\?',
+  'https://github.com/github/gitignore/search\\?',
 
   // These links require auth.
   'https://github.com/settings/profile',
@@ -15,6 +15,6 @@ module.exports = [
 
   // Oneoff links that link checkers think are broken but are not.
   'https://haveibeenpwned.com/',
-  'https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:P029',
+  'https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f\\?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:P029',
   'http://www.w3.org/wiki/LinkHeader/'
 ]
diff --git a/script/check-english-links.js b/script/check-english-links.js
index 1fc5743c577f..e8be9c22eefb 100755
--- a/script/check-english-links.js
+++ b/script/check-english-links.js
@@ -3,31 +3,35 @@
 const path = require('path')
 const fs = require('fs')
 const linkinator = require('linkinator')
-const dedent = require('dedent')
 const program = require('commander')
-const { escapeRegExp } = require('lodash')
+const { pull, uniq } = require('lodash')
 const checker = new linkinator.LinkChecker()
 const rimraf = require('rimraf').sync
+const mkdirp = require('mkdirp').sync
 const root = 'https://docs.github.com'
 const englishRoot = `${root}/en`
 const { deprecated } = require('../lib/enterprise-server-releases')
+const got = require('got')
+
+// Links with these codes may or may not really be broken.
+const retryStatusCodes = [429, 503]
 
 // [start-readme]
 //
 // This script runs once per day via a scheduled GitHub Action to check all links in
 // English content, not including deprecated Enterprise Server content. It opens an issue
-// if it finds broken links. To exclude a link, add it to `lib/excluded-links.js`.
+// if it finds broken links. To exclude a link path, add it to `lib/excluded-links.js`.
 //
 // [end-readme]
 
 program
   .description('Check all links in the English docs.')
   .option('-d, --dry-run', 'Turn off recursion to get a fast minimal report (useful for previewing output).')
+  .option('-p, --path <PATH>', 'Provide an optional path to check. Best used with --dry-run. If not provided, defaults to the homepage.')
   .parse(process.argv)
 
 // Skip excluded links defined in separate file.
 const excludedLinks = require('../lib/excluded-links')
-  .map(link => escapeRegExp(link))
 
 // Skip non-English content.
 const languagesToSkip = Object.keys(require('../lib/languages'))
@@ -40,7 +44,7 @@ const languagesToSkip = Object.keys(require('../lib/languages'))
 const enterpriseReleasesToSkip = new RegExp(`${root}.+?[/@](${deprecated.join('|')})/`)
 
 const config = {
-  path: englishRoot,
+  path: program.path || englishRoot,
   concurrency: 300,
   // If this is a dry run, turn off recursion.
   recurse: !program.dryRun,
@@ -56,12 +60,10 @@ const config = {
 main()
 
 async function main () {
-  const startTime = new Date()
-
   // Clear and recreate a directory for logs.
   const logFile = path.join(__dirname, '../.linkinator/full.log')
   rimraf(path.dirname(logFile))
-  fs.mkdirSync(path.dirname(logFile), { recursive: true })
+  mkdirp(path.dirname(logFile))
 
   // Update CLI output and append to logfile after each checked link.
   checker.on('link', result => {
@@ -69,27 +71,63 @@ async function main () {
   })
 
   // Start the scan; events will be logged as they occur.
-  const result = await checker.check(config)
-
-  // Scan is complete! Display the results.
-  const endTime = new Date()
-  const skippedLinks = result.links.filter(x => x.state === 'SKIPPED')
-  const brokenLinks = result.links.filter(x => x.state === 'BROKEN')
-
-  console.log(dedent`
-    ${brokenLinks.length} broken links found on docs.github.com
-
-    Link scan completed in ${endTime - startTime}ms
-    Total links: ${result.links.length}
-    Skipped links: ${skippedLinks.length}
-    Broken links: ${brokenLinks.length}
-    For more details see ${path.relative(process.cwd(), logFile)}
-  `)
-
-  if (brokenLinks.length) {
-    console.log('\n\n' + JSON.stringify(brokenLinks, null, 2))
-    process.exit(1)
+  const result = (await checker.check(config)).links
+
+  // Scan is complete! Filter the results for broken links.
+  const brokenLinks = result
+    .filter(link => link.state === 'BROKEN')
+
+  // Links to retry individually.
+  const linksToRetry = brokenLinks
+    .filter(link => !link.status || retryStatusCodes.includes(link.status))
+
+  await Promise.all(linksToRetry
+    .map(async (link) => {
+      try {
+        // got throws an HTTPError if response code is not 2xx or 3xx.
+        // If got succeeds, we can remove the link from the list.
+        await got(link.url)
+        pull(brokenLinks, link)
+      // If got fails, do nothing. The link is already in the broken list.
+      } catch (err) {
+        // noop
+      }
+    }))
+
+  // Exit successfully if no broken links!
+  if (!brokenLinks.length) {
+    console.log('All links are good!')
+    process.exit(0)
   }
 
-  process.exit(0)
+  // Format and display the results.
+  console.log(`${brokenLinks.length} broken links found on docs.github.com\n`)
+  displayBrokenLinks(brokenLinks)
+
+  // Exit unsuccessfully if broken links are found.
+  process.exit(1)
+}
+
+function displayBrokenLinks (brokenLinks) {
+  // Sort results by status code.
+  const allStatusCodes = uniq(brokenLinks
+    // Coerce undefined status codes into `Invalid` strings so we can display them.
+    // Without this, undefined codes get JSON.stringified as `0`, which is not useful output.
+    .map(link => {
+      if (!link.status) link.status = 'Invalid'
+      return link
+    })
+    .map(link => link.status)
+  )
+
+  allStatusCodes.forEach(statusCode => {
+    const brokenLinksForStatus = brokenLinks.filter(x => x.status === statusCode)
+
+    console.log(`## Status ${statusCode}: Found ${brokenLinksForStatus.length} broken links`)
+    console.log('```')
+    brokenLinksForStatus.forEach(brokenLinkObj => {
+      console.log(JSON.stringify(brokenLinkObj, null, 2))
+    })
+    console.log('```')
+  })
 }