A broken link checker scans your website and lists every link that leads to an error page. Dead links frustrate visitors, waste the time of search engines and make a site look neglected. This guide explains what broken links are, why they appear and the nine steps that fix them for good.
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What Is a Broken Link?
A broken link is a link that does not lead to a working page. When someone clicks it, the server answers with an error instead of the content they expected. The most common error is 404, which means the page was not found.
Other errors count as broken too. A 410 means the page was removed on purpose. A 500 or 503 means the server failed. Some links fail with no answer at all because the domain no longer exists or the connection times out.
Links can break on your own site, which are internal links, or on other websites you link to, which are external links. A broken link checker looks at both kinds and tells you which is which.
Why a Broken Link Checker Matters for SEO
Search engines find pages by following links, which is why a broken link checker belongs in every SEO routine. When a crawler follows a link and hits an error, it learns nothing and moves on. A few dead links will not sink a website. A large number tells search engines that nobody is looking after the site.
The effect on visitors is more direct. Someone who lands on a 404 page often leaves. If that visitor came from a useful article, you have lost a reader you worked hard to win.
Internal links also pass authority from page to page. A link that leads nowhere passes none. Fixing it puts that value back to work. Google explains in its SEO starter guide that clear, working links help both people and crawlers understand a site.
Why Links Break
Understanding the causes helps a broken link checker do its job, because you know where to look. These are the most common ones.
- Deleted pages. You remove an old post and forget that other pages still link to it.
- Changed addresses. You rename a page or change a category, and the old address stops working.
- Typing mistakes. A missing letter or an extra slash is enough to break a link.
- Expired websites. A site you linked to closes or moves, and your link now points at nothing.
- Site migrations. A redesign or a move to a new domain changes hundreds of addresses at once.
9 Easy Steps to Fix Dead Links Fast
Follow these steps in order. They work for a small blog and for a site with hundreds of pages.
1. Run a broken link checker on the whole site
Enter your address into a broken link checker such as TechSEO on the home page of this site. The crawl visits up to 500 pages and checks every link and image it finds.
2. Open the Broken Links report
The report lists each failing address, the response code, whether it is internal or external, how many pages link to it and the first page where it was found. Start with internal links, because only you can fix them.
3. Sort by the number of inlinks
A dead address that is linked from thirty pages deserves attention before one that is linked once. The inlinks column shows which fix helps the most.
4. Decide what each link should do
For every broken link choose one of three outcomes. Update it to the correct address, replace it with a better page, or remove it. Do not leave it as it is.
5. Redirect removed pages that had value
If a deleted page earned visits or links, send visitors to the closest matching page with a 301 redirect. Do not send everything to the home page, because that confuses visitors and search engines. Google describes how this works in its guide to redirects and Google Search.
6. Fix typing mistakes at the source
Open the page named under Found on, find the link and correct it. In WordPress this means editing the post and updating the link in the editor.
7. Replace dead external links
If an outside website has disappeared, look for a current source that says the same thing. If you cannot find one, remove the link and keep the sentence.
8. Check broken images too
Broken images are broken links in disguise. A missing picture makes a page look unfinished. The images report shows which files fail to load.
9. Crawl again and compare
After your fixes run the broken link checker a second time. Open the Compare tab to see exactly which problems disappeared and whether anything new appeared.
What a Broken Link Checker Reports
A good broken link checker gives you more than a list of addresses. Each row should answer five questions.
- Which link is broken? The full address that fails.
- What went wrong? The response code, such as 404, 410 or 500, or a plain-English reason like a timeout.
- Where is it? The page that contains the link, so you can open it and fix it.
- How big is the problem? The number of pages that link to the same dead address.
- Is it internal or external? This decides who can repair it.
With these facts a task that sounds big becomes a simple edit. You open the page, change one link and move on to the next row.
Types of Broken Link Checker
There are four common kinds of broken link checker. Each one suits a different situation.
Online crawlers
You paste an address into a website and read the results. This is the fastest start, needs no installation and works for any platform. It is the approach used by TechSEO.
WordPress plugins
A plugin checks links from inside your dashboard. It is convenient, but it runs on your own server and can slow a small hosting plan down. Many people switch such a plugin off after a clean-up for that reason.
Desktop programs
Desktop crawlers run on your computer and can handle large sites. They are powerful but take time to learn, and the free versions limit how many URLs you can check.
Search Console reports
Google Search Console shows pages that returned errors when Google visited them. It is valuable, but it only reports what Google found, and it can lag behind by days. Use it together with a crawl, not instead of one.
Internal vs External Broken Links
Internal broken links are the more urgent kind in any broken link checker report. They harm your own navigation and waste the crawl budget that search engines give to your site. You control both ends of the link, so the fix is always possible.
External broken links are less harmful but still worth fixing. They show readers that your content is out of date. You cannot repair the other website, so you must update or remove your link.
A broken link checker that separates the two lets you plan your time. Fix the internal ones first, then work through the external ones when you can.
False Alarms to Watch For
Not every error in a report is a real problem. Before you edit anything, think about these cases.
- 403 and 999 errors. Many large websites, including social networks, refuse automated visits. The page works in a browser even though the tool sees an error.
- Timeouts. A slow server may fail once and work the next time. Test the link again before you remove it.
- Login pages. A link to a members area may answer differently for a crawler than for a signed-in user.
The rule is simple. If a link looks suspicious, open it yourself. Trust your own browser over any broken link checker when the result is unclear.
A Quick Example
Imagine a small food blog with 120 posts. A crawl finds 31 broken links. Twenty-two of them point to one old recipe page that was deleted last year. Five are typing mistakes, and four are external links to websites that no longer exist.
The owner sets up one redirect from the deleted recipe to its newer replacement. That single change clears twenty-two errors. Correcting the five typos takes ten minutes. Removing the four dead external links takes another five.
The numbers in this example are made up to show the idea, but the pattern is very common. A few root causes usually explain most of the errors in a report.
In under half an hour, a list that looked scary is empty. That is why it pays to sort the report by the number of inlinks before you start.
How to Prevent Broken Links
Fixing links once is good. A broken link checker makes it easy to keep them fixed. Keeping them fixed is better. A few habits make a big difference.
- Set up a redirect every time you delete or move a page.
- Keep addresses stable. Avoid changing permalinks unless you really must.
- Link to reliable sources that are likely to stay online.
- Run a broken link checker every month, or after any large change.
- Save each report and compare the next one with it.
Our guide to a technical SEO checklist shows where link checks fit into a complete routine.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I run a broken link checker?
Monthly is enough for most small sites. Busy blogs and shops benefit from a weekly check.
Do broken links hurt my rankings?
A handful will not. Many of them can, because they hurt the experience of visitors and waste crawling time.
Is a free broken link checker good enough?
Yes, for most websites. A free tool that crawls a few hundred pages finds the problems that matter. Larger sites may need a paid or server-based tool.
Should I redirect every 404 to the home page?
No. Redirect a removed page to the most relevant replacement. If none exists, let it return a real 404 page.
Conclusion
A broken link checker turns a hidden problem into a short to-do list. Run one, fix the internal errors first, redirect pages that had value and crawl again to confirm the result. A site without dead ends is easier to use, easier to crawl and easier to trust.
Want to see your own list? Run a free crawl now and check every link on your site in minutes.
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