Broken Link Checker Online: Find and Fix 404s on Any Page
A broken link checker online tests every link on a web page and tells you which ones lead to errors, which ones redirect and which ones work. Our free tool reads any URL, collects up to 300 unique internal and external links, and checks each one in parallel, so you get a full report in about a minute: 404s and other broken links at the top, redirects to update next, and links that refused automated checks clearly labelled. You can filter the results and download them as a CSV to share with your team.
This guide explains why broken links matter for SEO and users, how to read the checker’s results, how to fix each type of problem and how to stop broken links from coming back.
Key takeaways
- Broken internal links waste crawl time and leave visitors at dead ends; fix them first.
- Update internal links that redirect so they point straight to the final URL.
- Replace or remove broken external links; an archived copy is a good stop-gap.
- “Blocked” results usually mean a site refused automated checks, not that the link is broken.
What is a broken link?
A broken link (sometimes called a dead link) is a hyperlink that points to a page that no longer exists or can’t be reached. When someone clicks it, they see an error page instead of the content they expected. The most common cause is the HTTP status code 404 Not Found, but server errors, expired domains and DNS failures also break links.
Internal vs external broken links
- Internal links point to other pages on your own website. They’re fully under your control, and broken ones usually come from deleted pages, changed URLs or typos.
- External links point to other websites. They break when those sites move, delete or restructure content, which happens constantly over time.
How common are broken links?
Links decay steadily. Any site that has been publishing for a few years will have some broken external links, and every redesign, migration or URL clean-up risks breaking internal ones. That’s why regular checks matter more than a one-off clean-up.
Why broken links hurt SEO and user experience
Wasted crawling and lost discovery
Search engines discover pages by following links. Broken internal links send crawlers to dead ends instead of to your important pages. Google’s documentation on making links crawlable explains why working, descriptive links help discovery.
Lost link value
Internal links pass relevance and authority between your pages. A link to a deleted URL passes nothing. If the page moved, a direct link to the new URL is much better than a chain of redirects.
Frustrated visitors
A visitor who hits a 404 in the middle of a buying journey often leaves. Broken links in menus, buttons and calls to action directly cost you leads and sales.
Trust and quality signals
Pages full of dead references look neglected. For articles that cite sources, broken external links make the content harder to verify, which undermines the trust you’re building with readers and the E-E-A-T signals search engines look for.
How to use our broken link checker online
- Enter the page URL you want to check.
- Choose what to include: external links and nofollow links are included by default; untick them to focus on internal links.
- Click Find broken links. The tool reads the page, collects unique links and starts checking them, with live progress.
- Read the tiles for broken links, redirects, blocked links and working links.
- Filter the table by result type. Broken links are listed first, with their anchor text and whether each is internal or external.
- Download the CSV to plan fixes or share with a developer.
- Follow “How to fix it” for grouped, prioritised fixes, including the redirect destination for every internal link that redirects.
How the checker tests links
Each link is first requested with a lightweight HEAD request. If the server doesn’t support that, or returns an error, the tool retries with a normal GET request, and server errors are re-checked one at a time to avoid false alarms caused by temporary overload. Redirects aren’t followed, so you see the first response each link gives and where it points. Links that trigger actions, such as add-to-cart or log-out links, are skipped because checking them could change data.
Understanding your results
| Result | Status codes | What it means | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broken | 404, 410, 5xx | The page is missing or the server failed | High |
| Error | No response | Domain not found, timeout or connection refused | High |
| Redirect | 301, 302, 307, 308 | The link works but goes via another URL | Medium |
| Blocked | 400, 401, 403, 429, 999 | The site refused an automated check | Check manually |
| OK | 200–299 | The link works | None |
Broken: 404 and 410
404 means the server can’t find the page; 410 means it was deliberately removed. Both are dead ends.
Broken: 5xx server errors
The linked site’s server failed. If it’s your own site, investigate immediately. If it’s an external site, recheck later; persistent errors mean the link should be replaced.
Errors with no status code
The domain didn’t resolve, the connection was refused or the request timed out. An expired domain is a particular risk: it can be bought and reused for spam, so remove those links promptly.
Redirects
The link still works, but it adds a hop. Internal links that redirect are easy wins: update them to the final URL. Our 301 redirect checker traces the full chain if you need more detail.
Blocked results
Social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, and sites behind strict firewalls, often reject automated requests with codes like 403, 429 or LinkedIn’s 999. The link usually works fine in a browser. Open a few to confirm.
How to fix broken links
Fixing broken internal links
- Find the correct URL. If the page moved, use its new address. Search your site for the topic if you’re not sure.
- Update the link in the page, menu, widget or template where it appears.
- Add a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one, so external links and bookmarks also keep working.
- If the content no longer exists, remove the link or point it to the most relevant alternative.
Fixing links site-wide in WordPress
When an old URL appears in many posts, a search-and-replace plugin such as Better Search Replace can update every instance in the database at once. Back up your database first.
Common causes to check
- Links copied from a staging site that still use the staging domain.
- Links using
http://after a move to HTTPS. - Missing or extra trailing slashes that trigger redirects.
- Typos in manually entered URLs.
Fixing broken external links
- Look for the new location on the same site; many pages move rather than disappear.
- Replace the link with a current, authoritative source on the same topic.
- Link to an archived copy on the Wayback Machine when the original is gone but the citation still matters.
- Remove the link if there’s no suitable replacement and the sentence still makes sense without it.
Fixing redirecting links
Replace each link with the final destination shown in the report. This is common after HTTPS migrations, domain changes and slug changes.
Turning broken links into opportunities
Reclaim lost backlinks
If other websites link to pages on your site that now return 404, you’re losing the value of those links. Redirect those old URLs to the most relevant live page. Search Console’s Links report and the Page indexing report’s “Not found (404)” list help you find them.
Broken link building
When you find broken external links on other sites in your industry, the site owner may welcome a suggestion for a working replacement, which can be your own relevant resource. Keep outreach helpful and honest; it’s a form of earned link building, which our off-page SEO services use carefully.
Improve your 404 page
Some broken links are outside your control. A helpful 404 page with search, popular links and a clear way back to your main sections keeps visitors on your site. Make sure it returns a real 404 status, not 200.
How to prevent broken links
Redirect whenever a URL changes
Before deleting or renaming a page, set up a 301 redirect. Most WordPress SEO plugins can do this automatically when you change a slug.
Avoid hard-coding URLs in templates
Use menus and dynamic links that update automatically, rather than typing URLs into footers, sidebars and theme files.
Check on a schedule
Run the broken link checker online monthly on your key pages, and after any migration, redesign or bulk content change.
Prefer stable sources
When citing external sources, choose official documentation, established publications and permanent URLs. Google’s own guides, such as its SEO starter guide, are far less likely to move than a blog post on a small site.
Keep your sitemap clean
A sitemap containing deleted pages sends search engines to the same dead ends. Validate it with our sitemap validator, which spot-checks every URL.
Broken link checker online vs crawler tools
A page-level checker is fastest when you want to clean up specific pages, check a new article before publishing or verify a fix. Desktop crawlers and paid platforms are better for scanning every page of a large website at once. Many teams use a crawler to find problem pages and a quick online checker to fix and verify them one by one.
| Our online checker | Site crawlers | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | None, works in your browser | Install software or create an account |
| Scope | One page, up to 300 links | Whole sites |
| Speed for one page | About a minute | Slower to configure |
| Fix guidance | Grouped fixes with redirect targets | Varies |
| Cost | Free | Often paid for large sites |
Beyond broken: checking link quality
Working links aren’t automatically good links. While you review the report, look at the anchor text column too.
Descriptive anchor text
Anchor text tells users and search engines what to expect from the linked page. “Read our local SEO pricing guide” is far more useful than “click here”. The table lists “(no text)” for image links and icon links without accessible labels; add alt text or an aria-label to those.
Links to low-quality or unrelated sites
Outbound links are part of your content. Linking to spammy, irrelevant or untrustworthy sites reflects on your page. If you’re unsure about a domain, check it with our website spam score checker.
Sponsored and user-generated links
Paid, affiliate and sponsored links should carry rel="sponsored", and links in comments or forums rel="ugc", as Google recommends in its guide to qualifying outbound links. Untick “Include nofollow links” in the checker to focus on the links that pass value.
Quality checks matter most on pages that earn traffic and links. Start with your top landing pages in Search Console, fix broken and redirected links there first, then work through the rest of the site. A handful of fixes on high-traffic pages helps more visitors than hundreds of fixes on pages nobody reads.
Broken link checklist
- No broken links in menus, footers or calls to action.
- No internal links returning 404 or 5xx.
- Internal links point to final URLs, not redirects.
- Broken external links replaced, archived or removed.
- Old URLs with backlinks redirect to relevant live pages.
- The 404 page is helpful and returns a 404 status.
- Key pages re-checked monthly and after site changes.
Related free SEO tools
- 301 redirect checker: trace where a redirecting link ends up.
- Sitemap validator: find dead URLs listed in your sitemap.
- Google index checker: check whether linked pages can be indexed.
- Free SEO checker: audit links, images and on-page SEO together.
- Website page size checker: find files that fail to load.
Ready to clean up your page? Run the broken link checker online above.