Find Broken Links Before Your Users Do
Broken links hurt your website's credibility, SEO rankings, and user experience. Whether it's a dead external link, a mistyped URL, or a deleted page, broken links create frustration for visitors and signal poor maintenance to search engines.
Our Broken Link Checker scans your webpage and tests every link to identify which ones are working and which are broken. Fix dead links before they cost you traffic and rankings.
How to Use the Broken Link Checker
- Enter URL: Paste the webpage URL you want to check
- Click Check: The tool fetches the page and extracts all links
- Review Results: See which links are working (green) and which are broken (red)
- Fix Issues: Update or remove broken links from your website
Why Broken Links Matter
SEO Impact
Search engines like Google use broken links as a quality signal. Too many dead links suggest your site is outdated or poorly maintained, which can hurt your rankings. Fixing broken links improves crawlability and user experience.
User Experience
Nothing frustrates users more than clicking a link that leads nowhere. Broken links interrupt user journeys, increase bounce rates, and damage trust in your brand.
Lost Traffic
Internal broken links prevent users from discovering other pages on your site. External broken links to outdated resources make your content less valuable.
Common Causes of Broken Links
- Deleted Pages: Internal pages removed without redirects
- Typos: Misspelled URLs in href attributes
- Changed URLs: External sites restructured without redirects
- Domain Expiry: Linked websites went offline
- Protocol Changes: HTTP sites moved to HTTPS
Best Practices for Link Maintenance
Regular Audits: Check your site for broken links monthly, especially after major updates or redesigns.
Use Redirects: When removing or moving pages, implement 301 redirects to preserve link equity and user experience.
Update External Links: Periodically review links to external resources and update them if sites have moved or shut down.
Monitor Analytics: Check Google Search Console for crawl errors and 404 pages that need attention.
Understanding Link Types and Status Codes
HTTP Status Codes Explained
200 OK: Link is working perfectly. The server successfully returned the requested page. This is what you want to see for all your links.
301 Moved Permanently: The page has permanently moved to a new URL. Not technically broken, but you should update the link to point directly to the new location to avoid the extra redirect hop.
302 Found (Temporary Redirect): The page is temporarily at a different location. Monitor these links as they may become permanent or broken over time.
404 Not Found: The classic broken link error. The requested page doesn't exist on the server. This is the most common type of broken link and should be fixed immediately.
410 Gone: Similar to 404, but indicates the page was intentionally removed and won't be coming back. Remove or replace these links.
500 Internal Server Error: The server encountered an error. The link might work later, but persistent 500 errors indicate a broken resource.
503 Service Unavailable: Temporary server overload or maintenance. Check again later before marking as broken.
Internal vs External Links
Internal Links: Links to pages within your own domain. You have complete control over these. Broken internal links are usually caused by deleting pages, changing URL structures, or typos. These are the easiest to fix since you control the destination.
External Links: Links to other websites. You have no control over these destinations. External sites may change URLs, go offline, or restructure without notice. Regular monitoring is essential for maintaining quality.
Outbound Links: Links from your site to others. Too many broken outbound links signal poor maintenance to search engines.
Inbound Links (Backlinks): Links from other sites to yours. If these point to broken pages, you're losing valuable organic traffic and SEO value.
Link Checking Tools Comparison
Browser-Based Tools (Like This One)
Advantages: Instant results, no installation required, free, privacy-friendly (client-side processing), works on any device with a browser.
Limitations: CORS restrictions prevent checking many external sites, can only check one page at a time, slower for large pages with many links, limited to publicly accessible pages.
Best For: Quick checks of individual pages, testing before publishing, small websites, users without technical expertise.
Desktop Software (Screaming Frog, Xenu)
Advantages: Can crawl entire websites, no CORS limitations, detailed reporting, can check thousands of links, export capabilities, advanced filtering and analysis.
Limitations: Requires installation, can be resource-intensive, paid tools for large sites, steeper learning curve.
Best For: Full website audits, large e-commerce sites, SEO professionals, regular comprehensive checks.
Online Services (Google Search Console, Dead Link Checker)
Advantages: Automated monitoring, email alerts for new broken links, historical data, integrated with other SEO tools, schedule regular scans.
Limitations: May require account creation, privacy concerns with third-party access, limited free tier options, slower processing.
Best For: Ongoing monitoring, team collaboration, enterprise websites, automated workflows.
WordPress Plugins (Broken Link Checker)
Advantages: Integrated into WordPress dashboard, automatic scanning, email notifications, fix links directly in interface.
Limitations: WordPress-only, can slow down site if checking large link databases, some plugins poorly maintained.
Best For: WordPress website owners, bloggers, content managers who want automated checking.
Technical Implementation of Link Checking
How Link Checkers Work
Link checking tools use HTTP HEAD or GET requests to verify link status. The HEAD method is faster because it only retrieves headers without downloading the full page content. The tool sends a request to each link and examines the response code. 200-series codes indicate success, 300-series are redirects, 400-series are client errors (including 404), and 500-series are server errors.
Crawling Strategies
Breadth-First Crawling: Checks all links on the current page before moving to linked pages. Good for shallow, wide site structures.
Depth-First Crawling: Follows one path completely before backtracking. Useful for deep hierarchical sites.
Focused Crawling: Prioritizes certain types of links (internal vs external, navigation vs content) for targeted audits.
Rate Limiting and Politeness
Professional link checkers implement rate limiting to avoid overwhelming destination servers. This includes adding delays between requests, respecting robots.txt files, and limiting concurrent connections. Aggressive checking can get your IP blocked by target sites or be considered a denial-of-service attack.
Enterprise Link Management Strategies
Proactive Link Management
Pre-Publication Checks: Verify all links before publishing new content. Make link checking part of your editorial workflow.
Quarterly Full-Site Audits: Run comprehensive crawls every quarter to catch accumulating broken links.
Post-Migration Verification: After any CMS migration, redesign, or URL structure change, verify every internal link still resolves correctly.
External Link Review: Annually review important external links (resources, partners, citations) and update or replace broken ones.
Automated Monitoring Systems
Set up automated systems that check links weekly or daily. Configure alerts for newly discovered broken links so you can fix them immediately. Integrate link checking into your CI/CD pipeline to catch broken links during deployment. Use monitoring dashboards to track link health trends over time.
Link Quality Metrics
Track your site's link health with KPIs: percentage of broken links (target: <0.5%), average time to fix broken links (target: <48 hours), number of broken external links, 404 error rate from Google Search Console.
Fixing Broken Links: Best Practices
For Internal Broken Links
301 Redirects: If the page moved, implement a permanent redirect to the new location. This preserves SEO value and maintains user experience.
Find and Replace: If the same incorrect URL appears multiple times (common after domain changes), use find-and-replace across your database or content files.
Update Navigation: Fix broken links in menus, footers, and sidebar widgets that appear site-wide.
Restore Deleted Content: If a valuable page was accidentally deleted, restore it or create replacement content on that URL.
For External Broken Links
Find Alternatives: Replace with similar, current resources. Search for the content elsewhere or find updated versions.
Use Internet Archive: If the page was valuable but gone, link to the Wayback Machine archived version (web.archive.org).
Update Citations: For academic or technical content, find the current location of cited sources.
Remove if Unnecessary: If the link wasn't critical, consider removing it rather than linking to broken content.
Add Context Notes: If keeping an archived or potentially unstable external link, add a note like "[archived]" or "[link may be unavailable]".
Advanced Link Checking Techniques
JavaScript-Rendered Content
Modern websites often load links dynamically with JavaScript. Standard link checkers may miss these. Use headless browser tools like Puppeteer or tools that execute JavaScript to catch dynamically-loaded broken links.
Anchor Links (Hash Links)
Links to specific sections within pages (#section-id) are difficult to check automatically. These require loading the full page and verifying the anchor exists in the DOM. Many tools skip anchor verification, so manually test critical deep links.
Authenticated Pages
Links behind login forms or paywalls can't be checked by standard tools. Use authenticated crawlers or manual verification for member areas, dashboards, and gated content.
Regional and Mobile Variations
Some links work in one region but not others, or work on desktop but not mobile. Test with VPNs, different user agents, and mobile devices to catch region or device-specific broken links.
Link Checking for Different Website Types
E-Commerce Websites
Product pages frequently change as items go out of stock. Check category pages, product detail pages, and checkout flow links. Broken links in checkout can cost sales directly. Verify affiliate links still work and track correctly.
Blogs and Content Sites
Old blog posts accumulate broken external links over time. Implement a process to update top-performing old content quarterly. Check internal linking between related posts. Verify author profile links and social media links in bylines.
Corporate Websites
Navigation menus and mega-menus often contain dozens of links that must all work. Product datasheets and downloads must be accessible. Legal disclaimer and policy links are critical for compliance. Partner and investor relations links reflect on company professionalism.
News and Media Sites
Embedded content links (videos, images, social media) frequently break. Citation links to sources must remain valid for credibility. Breaking news articles link to developing stories that may change URLs.
SEO Impact of Broken Links
Page Authority Dilution
Internal broken links waste "link juice" that could flow to important pages. PageRank can't flow through broken links, reducing the authority of pages deeper in your site structure.
Crawl Budget Waste
Search engine crawlers have limited crawl budgets. Every 404 error wastes crawl budget that could be spent indexing valuable pages. Large sites especially must minimize broken links to maximize crawler efficiency.
Content Quality Signals
Google uses broken external links as a site quality signal. Linking to dead resources suggests outdated, low-quality content. Regularly updating external links signals active content maintenance and high editorial standards.
User Experience Metrics
Broken links increase bounce rate and reduce time on site. These user experience metrics factor into rankings. Sites with many broken links provide poor user experience, which search engines penalize in rankings.
💡 From my experience: I've seen companies lose significant organic traffic from just 20-30 broken links on high-value pages. One e-commerce client saw a 35% traffic increase within 60 days just by fixing broken links and implementing 301 redirects. The SEO impact is real and measurable. I now recommend monthly link checks as part of every SEO maintenance package.
Tools and Resources for Link Management
Free Tools
- Google Search Console: Coverage report shows 404 errors Google discovered
- W3C Link Checker: Validates HTML and checks links
- Online Broken Link Checker (this tool): Quick single-page checks
- Browser Extensions: Check My Links (Chrome) highlights broken links on current page
Paid Tools
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider: Industry-standard desktop crawler (free up to 500 URLs)
- Ahrefs Site Audit: Comprehensive SEO audit including broken link detection
- SEMrush Site Audit: Regular monitoring with alerts
- DeepCrawl: Enterprise-level website crawling and monitoring
WordPress Plugins
- Broken Link Checker: Automatic background scanning
- Link Checker Pro: Advanced features for large sites
- WP External Links: Manage and monitor external links
Creating a Link Maintenance Workflow
Weekly Tasks
Check Google Search Console for new 404 errors discovered by Googlebot. Verify any recently published content for broken links. Monitor automated link checker alerts for newly discovered issues.
Monthly Tasks
Run full-site crawl with desktop software. Prioritize fixing broken links on high-traffic pages. Update broken external links in top 20 performing blog posts. Review and fix any broken links in main navigation or footer.
Quarterly Tasks
Comprehensive audit of entire website. Update or remove all broken external links. Verify all important deep links (PDFs, downloads, resources). Check for redirect chains (A→B→C) and simplify to direct links (A→C).
Annual Tasks
Review overall link health trends. Audit affiliate links and partnership links for program changes. Verify all legal, policy, and compliance links. Update content strategy based on link decay patterns.
