Websites Broken Link Checker
Scan your website for broken links in seconds. Enter a URL to detect 404 pages, redirects, and unreachable URLs that hurt SEO and user experience. Get a clear report so you can fix broken paths, improve crawlability, and keep your site clean and trustworthy.
Websites Broken Link Checker
The Websites Broken Link Checker scans a URL and returns a report of broken links, redirects, and unreachable pages found on that page. Enter any domain or page URL, click Get Broken Links, and the tool crawls the links it finds and tests each one for its HTTP response status — identifying which links return 404 errors, which redirect, and which are otherwise unreachable.
According to a Semrush 2025 study, 42.5% of all websites have broken internal links — making this one of the most common and easily fixable technical SEO issues. Broken links waste crawl budget on dead ends, interrupt the flow of link equity between pages, and create a poor experience for users who click them. Regular link audits are a standard component of technical SEO maintenance.
How to use the Broken Link Checker
- Enter the full URL of the page or domain you want to scan. The tool will check the links found on that URL.
- Click Get Broken Links. The tool fetches the page, extracts all hyperlinks, and tests each one to determine its HTTP response status.
- Review the report. Links are categorized by their status: working (200 OK), redirecting (3xx), or broken (4xx/5xx). Use the HTTP status code reference table below to understand what each status means.
- Prioritize the issues found. Use the fix priority framework below to address the most impactful broken links first — starting with internal 404s on pages with external backlinks.
- Fix issues by updating link URLs, adding 301 redirects, or removing dead links. Re-run the check after making changes to confirm all issues are resolved.
Scan multiple pages, not just the homepage. The broken link checker tests links found on the URL you enter — it does not automatically crawl every page on your site. For comprehensive coverage, run the check on your homepage, main category pages, top-traffic blog posts, and any pages that underwent recent URL changes or content updates. After a CMS migration or site redesign, checking your key landing pages individually is the most effective approach with a single-page tool.
Why broken links matter — the SEO impact
Broken links cause three categories of damage to a website: crawl budget waste, link equity loss, and user experience degradation. Understanding each helps prioritize which broken links deserve the most urgent attention.
Crawl budget waste
Google allocates a crawl budget to each website — the number of pages Googlebot will crawl within a given time window. When crawlers follow links that return 404 errors or redirect chains, they consume crawl resources on dead ends rather than discovering and re-indexing valid content. For large sites with thousands of pages, excessive broken links can mean that newly published content takes longer to be discovered and indexed. For smaller sites, crawl budget is rarely the critical issue — user experience and link equity are more immediately relevant.
Link equity loss
Link equity — sometimes called link juice or PageRank — flows through hyperlinks from page to page. When an internal link points to a 404 page, the equity that would have passed to the destination page is lost. When an external site links to a page on your site that returns a 404, the authority of that backlink is wasted. A 301 redirect from a broken URL to a relevant live page recaptures most of this equity. Fixing broken links to pages that have valuable external backlinks is the highest-return broken link fix available.
User experience
A user who clicks a link and arrives at a 404 page is likely to leave the site immediately. This raises the bounce rate for sessions that include broken links, creates a negative impression of content quality and site maintenance, and reduces the user's trust in the site. Navigation links are particularly damaging when broken — a user who cannot navigate to a main section of a site from the homepage will often abandon it entirely.
HTTP status codes — what the checker returns
Every link the tool tests returns an HTTP status code — a three-digit number that tells you exactly what the server found when it tried to access that URL. The table below covers every status code you are likely to encounter in a broken link audit, what each one means, and what action to take:
| Status code | Name | What it means | SEO action |
| 2xx — Success (these are fine) | |||
| 200 | OK | The page exists and loaded successfully. The correct response for all pages that should be accessible. | No action needed. |
| 3xx — Redirects (monitor and clean up) | |||
| 301 | Moved Permanently | The page has permanently moved to a new URL. Crawlers and users are sent to the new destination. Most link equity passes through a 301. | Update internal links that point here to go directly to the final URL. Eliminates redirect overhead. |
| 302 | Found (Temporary Redirect) | The page has temporarily moved to a new URL. Crawlers may continue indexing the original URL. Link equity transfer is less reliable than 301. | If the move is permanent, change to a 301. If truly temporary, monitor to ensure it is eventually resolved or made permanent. |
| 307 | Temporary Redirect | Similar to 302 but strictly preserves the HTTP method. Used when content is genuinely temporary. | Same as 302 — confirm whether the redirect should be permanent and update to 301 if so. |
| 4xx — Client errors (fix or remove) | |||
| 404 | Not Found | The server cannot find the requested URL. The page does not exist. This is the most common broken link error. | Fix the source link if a typo. Add a 301 redirect to a relevant page if the page moved. Leave as 404 if content is permanently gone with no replacement. |
| 410 | Gone | The page has been permanently removed with no replacement and will not return. A stronger signal than 404 that Googlebot should remove the URL from its index immediately. | Use 410 instead of 404 when you are certain content is permanently gone. Googlebot processes 410s faster than 404s for de-indexing. |
| 403 | Forbidden | The server understood the request but refuses to grant access. Typically a permissions issue — the page exists but is restricted. | If the page should be public, check file permissions and server configuration. If it is intentionally restricted, no SEO action needed. |
| 401 | Unauthorized | Authentication is required. The user is not logged in or does not have permission. | Expected for login-protected pages. If a public page returns 401 unexpectedly, investigate server configuration. |
| 5xx — Server errors (investigate urgently) | |||
| 500 | Internal Server Error | The server encountered an error processing the request. The page may exist but is currently inaccessible due to a code, configuration, or database error. | Investigate server error logs immediately. 500 errors affecting important pages need urgent resolution — they prevent crawling and indexing of affected URLs. |
Soft 404s are a hidden problem not always caught by basic link checkers. A soft 404 occurs when a URL returns a 200 OK status code (which looks successful) but displays a 'page not found' or empty page to users and crawlers. This happens when a CMS returns 200 for missing pages rather than a proper 404. Soft 404s waste crawl budget because Googlebot interprets the 200 response as a valid page and continues crawling it. To detect soft 404s, use Google Search Console's Coverage report, which explicitly flags pages that are returning 200 responses but behaving like missing pages.
Internal broken links vs external broken links
Broken links fall into two categories with different causes, different impacts, and different approaches for fixing. Understanding the distinction helps you allocate effort correctly:
| Internal broken links | External broken links | |
| What it is | A link from one page on your site to another page on the same domain that no longer exists or returns an error. | A link from your page to a page on a different website that no longer exists, has moved, or has become inaccessible. |
| SEO impact | High. Breaks the flow of link equity (PageRank) between your pages. Wastes crawl budget on non-existent destinations. Can prevent important pages from being discovered and indexed. | Moderate. Does not directly affect how link equity flows through your site. May signal poor content maintenance to search engines and reduces user trust. |
| You can fix it? | Yes — you have full control over both the source page (where the link is) and the destination (where the link points). | Partially — you can update or remove the link from your page, but you cannot fix the external site's missing content. |
| Priority | Fix first. Internal broken links cause the most damage to crawlability and link equity flow. They are entirely within your control. | Fix when practical. Update or remove external links that return persistent errors. Less urgent than internal links, but still worth monitoring. |
| How to fix | Update the link to the correct URL, add a 301 redirect from the broken destination, or remove the link if no replacement exists. | Update the link to a working equivalent page, link to an archived version (e.g. Wayback Machine), or remove the link if no reliable replacement exists. |
Fix priority framework — which broken links to address first
Not all broken links have equal impact. The table below prioritizes broken link types from most to least critical, so you can make the most effective use of your time:
| Priority | Fix these first | Why |
| 1 — Critical | 404s on pages that have inbound backlinks from other websites. | These pages are actively losing link equity. Every external site linking to a broken URL is passing authority that goes nowhere. A 301 redirect to a relevant live page immediately recaptures this value. |
| 2 — High | 404s on pages linked from your homepage, top navigation, or main category pages. | Navigation links are followed on nearly every crawl and visit. Broken navigation links waste crawl budget repeatedly and create a poor first impression for users. |
| 3 — High | Internal links within your highest-traffic pages pointing to 404s. | High-traffic pages have the most visibility. A broken link on a page that receives thousands of visits per month creates significant user experience damage. |
| 4 — Medium | Redirect chains (A → B → C) in internal links. | Each hop in a redirect chain adds latency and reduces the link equity passed. Update internal links to point directly to the final destination URL. |
| 5 — Medium | 404s on internal pages with no backlinks but linked internally from multiple pages. | Multiple links to a broken internal page waste crawl budget across many crawl paths and create dead ends throughout your site structure. |
| 6 — Lower | Broken external outbound links (links to other sites). | Less urgent than internal issues, but broken outbound links indicate poor content maintenance and reduce user trust. Update or remove regularly. |
Common causes of broken links — and how to prevent them
| Cause | How it creates broken links | Prevention |
| URL slug changes | A page's URL is edited (e.g. /blog/old-title to /blog/new-title) without adding a 301 redirect from the old URL. All existing internal and external links to the old URL become broken. | Always add a 301 redirect whenever you change a URL. Keep a log of all URL changes with old → new mappings. |
| CMS or platform migration | Moving from one CMS to another (e.g. WordPress to a headless CMS) often changes URL structures. Without comprehensive redirect mapping, hundreds of pages can break simultaneously. | Audit all existing URLs before migration. Create a complete redirect map of old URL → new URL. Test all redirects after migration before making the new site live. |
| Page or content deletion | A page is deleted from the CMS without adding a redirect. Any page or external site that linked to the deleted page now sends users and crawlers to a 404. | Before deleting a page, check for internal links pointing to it (using the broken link checker or a site audit tool). Add a 301 redirect to a relevant live page if the deleted page had incoming links. |
| External sites removing content | Pages you link to on other websites are moved, deleted, or taken down. Your outbound links become broken even though you did not change anything. | Audit outbound links regularly, particularly in older content. Update or remove links to external pages that persistently return errors. |
| Typos in link URLs | A link is added manually with a spelling mistake in the href attribute. The URL never worked but may have gone unnoticed. | Use the broken link checker on newly published pages to catch typos immediately. Automated link validation on publish is ideal for larger teams. |
| Domain or subdomain changes | Moving from HTTP to HTTPS, from one subdomain to another, or changing domain names without comprehensive redirect coverage breaks any absolute URL internal links. | Update all absolute URL internal links after domain or protocol changes. Ensure all HTTP URLs redirect to HTTPS at the server level. |
Redirect chains — a specific problem to fix alongside broken links
A redirect chain occurs when a URL redirects to a second URL which itself redirects to a third URL, and so on (A → B → C, or longer). Each hop in the chain adds latency to the page load, reduces the link equity passed through the chain (most but not all equity passes through each 301 hop), and wastes crawl budget as the crawler must follow each step.
The correct fix for a redirect chain is to update the source links to point directly to the final destination URL, bypassing all intermediate redirects. Where internal links point to URL B (which redirects to C), update those links to point directly to C. This eliminates the redirect overhead entirely. On the server side, ensure redirect rules go directly from the original URL to the final destination — not through intermediary steps.
Never redirect all 404 pages to your homepage. A common mistake when addressing a large number of 404 errors is to create a catch-all redirect that sends all broken URLs to the homepage. Google explicitly identifies this as a soft 404 — the redirect produces a 200 response but the content is irrelevant to the original URL. This confuses crawlers and provides no value to users. Redirects should always go to a page with genuinely related content, or the broken link should be removed if no relevant destination exists.
Usage limits
| Guest users | 25 checks per day. No account required. |
| Registered users | 100 checks per day. Free to register. |
Related tools
- Spider Simulator — view a page as a search engine crawler sees it. Use alongside the broken link checker to confirm links are discoverable in the static HTML, not just visible in the browser.
- SSL Checker — verify your SSL certificate is valid. An expired certificate causes server errors that may appear as broken links from external perspectives.
- Check GZIP Compression — confirm your server is compressing resources correctly. Server performance issues can cause intermittent 5xx errors that appear as broken links during audits.
- MozRank Checker — check the link authority of individual pages. After fixing broken links on pages with external backlinks, verify that the recovered link equity is reflected in the page's authority score over time.
Frequently asked questions
What is a broken link?
A broken link is a hyperlink that no longer leads to its intended destination — typically because the destination page has been deleted, moved to a different URL without a redirect, or is temporarily or permanently unavailable. The most common broken link error is a 404 Not Found response, which means the server has no content at the requested URL. Other error types include 410 Gone (permanent removal), 403 Forbidden (access denied), and 5xx server errors (server-side failures).
Do broken links directly hurt SEO rankings?
Google has stated that 404 errors are a normal part of the web and do not directly penalize a site's rankings. However, the indirect effects are significant. Internal broken links interrupt the flow of link equity between pages, waste crawl budget on dead ends, and can leave important pages undiscovered if the only paths to them are broken. Pages with valuable external backlinks pointing to broken URLs are losing real authority that a redirect would recapture. Broken links also damage user experience metrics — bounce rate increases and engagement decreases — which are indirect ranking signals.
What is the difference between a 404 and a 410 error?
A 404 Not Found error tells search engines the page is missing but may potentially return in the future. Google treats 404s as temporary by default and continues crawling those URLs periodically. A 410 Gone error tells search engines the page has been permanently removed and will not return. Google processes 410s faster for de-indexing than 404s. Use 410 when you are certain content is permanently deleted with no replacement. Use 404 for pages that are temporarily missing or where you are unsure whether the content might return.
What is a redirect chain and why is it a problem?
A redirect chain is a sequence of redirects where URL A redirects to URL B, which redirects to URL C. Each hop adds latency to the page load (each redirect requires an additional HTTP request), reduces the link equity passed through the chain (each hop passes slightly less authority than a direct link), and requires multiple crawl requests for the crawler to reach the final destination. The fix is to update any links pointing to the intermediate URL (B) to point directly to the final destination (C), bypassing the chain entirely.
Should I fix broken outbound links to external websites?
Yes, but they are lower priority than broken internal links. External broken links do not directly damage your own link equity flow or crawl budget, but they create a poor experience for users who click them and can signal to search engines that your content is not well maintained. Update external broken links to the correct new URL when available, link to an archived version via the Wayback Machine (archive.org) for resources that have been removed, or remove the link if no reliable equivalent exists.
How often should I check for broken links?
For most websites, a monthly broken link audit on key pages is a good baseline. After any significant site event — a CMS migration, URL structure change, large batch of page deletions, or domain change — run a comprehensive check immediately before and after the change. High-traffic or frequently updated sites benefit from more frequent checks, ideally weekly on the most important pages. Automated monitoring tools can alert you to new 404 errors as they occur, which is the most efficient approach for larger sites.
What is a soft 404 and how is it different from a regular 404?
A hard 404 occurs when a server returns a 404 HTTP status code for a URL that does not exist — the correct response. A soft 404 occurs when a server returns a 200 OK status code (indicating the page exists and loaded successfully) but the page displays a 'page not found' message or empty content. Soft 404s are problematic because search engines see the 200 response and interpret the URL as a valid, indexable page — wasting crawl budget crawling it repeatedly. Google Search Console's Coverage report identifies soft 404s. Fix them by ensuring your CMS returns actual 404 (or 410) status codes for missing pages rather than 200.
Is the Broken Link Checker free?
Yes. The tool is free within the daily usage limits shown above. Guest users can run 25 checks per day without creating an account. Registering a free ToolsPiNG account increases the daily limit to 100 checks and gives access to usage history and saved favorites.