diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 6c72a084..b7984b7e 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -2449,6 +2449,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "tempfile",
  "templates",
  "tera",
+ "url",
  "utils",
  "walkdir",
 ]
diff --git a/components/site/Cargo.toml b/components/site/Cargo.toml
index eb90d9c8..0a69fd43 100644
--- a/components/site/Cargo.toml
+++ b/components/site/Cargo.toml
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ sass-rs = "0.2"
 lazy_static = "1.1"
 relative-path = "1"
 slotmap = "0.4"
+url = "2"
 
 errors = { path = "../errors" }
 config = { path = "../config" }
diff --git a/components/site/src/link_checking.rs b/components/site/src/link_checking.rs
index 46c34389..4774afa2 100644
--- a/components/site/src/link_checking.rs
+++ b/components/site/src/link_checking.rs
@@ -1,7 +1,11 @@
 use rayon::prelude::*;
 
 use crate::Site;
-use errors::{Error, ErrorKind, Result};
+use core::time;
+use errors::{bail, Result};
+use errors::{Error, ErrorKind};
+use std::{collections::HashMap, path::PathBuf, thread};
+use url::Url;
 
 /// Check whether all internal links pointing to explicit anchor fragments are valid.
 ///
@@ -91,60 +95,98 @@ pub fn check_internal_links_with_anchors(site: &Site) -> Result<()> {
     }
 }
 
+fn get_link_domain(link: &str) -> Result<String> {
+    return match Url::parse(&link) {
+        Ok(url) => match url.host_str().map(String::from) {
+            Some(domain_str) => Ok(domain_str),
+            None => bail!("could not parse domain `{}` from link", link),
+        },
+        Err(err) => bail!("could not parse domain `{}` from link: `{}`", link, err),
+    };
+}
+
 pub fn check_external_links(site: &Site) -> Result<()> {
     let library = site.library.write().expect("Get lock for check_external_links");
-    let page_links = library
-        .pages()
-        .values()
-        .map(|p| {
-            let path = &p.file.path;
-            p.external_links.iter().map(move |l| (path.clone(), l))
-        })
-        .flatten();
-    let section_links = library
-        .sections()
-        .values()
-        .map(|p| {
-            let path = &p.file.path;
-            p.external_links.iter().map(move |l| (path.clone(), l))
-        })
-        .flatten();
-    let all_links = page_links.chain(section_links).collect::<Vec<_>>();
+
+    let mut all_links: Vec<(PathBuf, String, String)> = vec![];
+
+    for p in library.pages_values().into_iter() {
+        for external_link in p.clone().external_links.into_iter() {
+            let domain = get_link_domain(&external_link)?;
+            all_links.push((p.file.path.clone(), external_link, domain));
+        }
+    }
+
+    for s in library.sections_values().into_iter() {
+        for external_link in s.clone().external_links.into_iter() {
+            let domain = get_link_domain(&external_link)?;
+            all_links.push((s.file.path.clone(), external_link, domain));
+        }
+    }
+
     println!("Checking {} external link(s).", all_links.len());
 
+    let mut links_by_domain: HashMap<String, Vec<(PathBuf, String)>> = HashMap::new();
+
+    for link in all_links.iter() {
+        links_by_domain.entry(link.2.to_string()).or_insert(Vec::new());
+        // Insert content path and link under the domain key
+        links_by_domain
+            .get_mut(&link.2.to_string())
+            .unwrap()
+            .push((link.0.clone(), link.1.clone()));
+    }
+
     if all_links.is_empty() {
         return Ok(());
     }
 
     // create thread pool with lots of threads so we can fetch
-    // (almost) all pages simultaneously
-    let threads = std::cmp::min(all_links.len(), 32);
+    // (almost) all pages simultaneously, limiting all links for a single
+    // domain to one thread to avoid rate-limiting
+    let threads = std::cmp::min(links_by_domain.len(), 8);
     let pool = rayon::ThreadPoolBuilder::new()
         .num_threads(threads)
         .build()
         .map_err(|e| Error { kind: ErrorKind::Msg(e.to_string()), source: None })?;
 
-    let errors: Vec<_> = pool.install(|| {
-        all_links
+    let errors = pool.install(|| {
+        links_by_domain
             .par_iter()
-            .filter_map(|(page_path, link)| {
-                if site
-                    .config
-                    .link_checker
-                    .skip_prefixes
-                    .iter()
-                    .any(|prefix| link.starts_with(prefix))
-                {
-                    return None;
-                }
-                let res = link_checker::check_url(&link, &site.config.link_checker);
-                if link_checker::is_valid(&res) {
-                    None
-                } else {
-                    Some((page_path, link, res))
-                }
+            .map(|(_domain, links)| {
+                let mut links_to_process = links.len();
+                links
+                    .into_iter()
+                    .filter_map(move |(page_path, link)| {
+                        links_to_process -= 1;
+
+                        if site
+                            .config
+                            .link_checker
+                            .skip_prefixes
+                            .iter()
+                            .any(|prefix| link.starts_with(prefix))
+                        {
+                            return None;
+                        }
+
+                        let res = link_checker::check_url(&link, &site.config.link_checker);
+
+                        if links_to_process > 0 {
+                            // Prevent rate-limiting, wait before next crawl unless we're done with this domain
+                            thread::sleep(time::Duration::from_millis(500));
+                        }
+
+                        if link_checker::is_valid(&res) {
+                            None
+                        } else {
+                            Some((page_path, link, res))
+                        }
+                    })
+                    .collect::<Vec<_>>()
             })
-            .collect()
+            .flatten()
+            .collect::<Vec<_>>()
     });
 
     println!("> Checked {} external link(s): {} error(s) found.", all_links.len(), errors.len());
@@ -165,5 +207,6 @@ pub fn check_external_links(site: &Site) -> Result<()> {
         })
         .collect::<Vec<_>>()
         .join("\n");
+
     Err(Error { kind: ErrorKind::Msg(msg), source: None })
 }