diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 7c448d04bd7..40c1fb20f23 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -47,8 +47,8 @@ Features added
   ``__all__`` attribute if :confval:`autosummary_ignore_module_all` is set to
   ``False``. The default behaviour is unchanged. Autogen also now supports
   this behavior with the ``--respect-module-all`` switch.
-* #9894: linkcheck: add option `linkcheck_exclude_documents` to disable link checking in matched documents.
-  link check in matched documents.
+* #9894: linkcheck: add option `linkcheck_exclude_documents` to disable link
+  checking in matched documents.
 
 Bugs fixed
 ----------
diff --git a/sphinx/builders/linkcheck.py b/sphinx/builders/linkcheck.py
index 1bc1c5b01bc..212f84e07b6 100644
--- a/sphinx/builders/linkcheck.py
+++ b/sphinx/builders/linkcheck.py
@@ -551,6 +551,7 @@ def setup(app: Sphinx) -> Dict[str, Any]:
     app.add_post_transform(HyperlinkCollector)
 
     app.add_config_value('linkcheck_ignore', [], None)
+    app.add_config_value('linkcheck_exclude_documents', [], None)
     app.add_config_value('linkcheck_allowed_redirects', {}, None)
     app.add_config_value('linkcheck_auth', [], None)
     app.add_config_value('linkcheck_request_headers', {}, None)
@@ -561,7 +562,6 @@ def setup(app: Sphinx) -> Dict[str, Any]:
     # Anchors starting with ! are ignored since they are
     # commonly used for dynamic pages
     app.add_config_value('linkcheck_anchors_ignore', ["^!"], None)
-    app.add_config_value('linkcheck_exclude_documents', [], None)
     app.add_config_value('linkcheck_rate_limit_timeout', 300.0, None)
 
     app.add_event('linkcheck-process-uri')
diff --git a/tests/roots/test-linkcheck-documents_exclude/conf.py b/tests/roots/test-linkcheck-documents_exclude/conf.py
index 327b1b91080..65ecbfb3629 100644
--- a/tests/roots/test-linkcheck-documents_exclude/conf.py
+++ b/tests/roots/test-linkcheck-documents_exclude/conf.py
@@ -2,4 +2,4 @@
 linkcheck_exclude_documents = [
     '^broken_link$',
     'br[0-9]ken_link',
-]
\ No newline at end of file
+]
diff --git a/tests/test_build_linkcheck.py b/tests/test_build_linkcheck.py
index afadc069309..0520fb016a7 100644
--- a/tests/test_build_linkcheck.py
+++ b/tests/test_build_linkcheck.py
@@ -634,4 +634,4 @@ def test_linkcheck_exclude_documents(app):
     with open(app.outdir / 'output.json') as fp:
         for record in fp:
             content = json.loads(record)
-            assert content['status'] == 'unchecked'
+            assert content['status'] == 'ignored'