What are some best practices for handling link verification and modification in PHP scripts for Wordpress?

When handling link verification and modification in PHP scripts for WordPress, it is important to ensure that the links are valid and properly formatted to avoid broken links on your website. One best practice is to use the built-in WordPress functions like `esc_url()` to sanitize and validate URLs before outputting them on the front end.

// Example of verifying and modifying a link in WordPress
$link = 'http://example.com/page';
$verified_link = esc_url($link);

echo '<a href="' . $verified_link . '">Click here</a>';