How to Find and Fix Broken Links on Your Website

Broken links damage your SEO and user experience

Broken links—both internal and external—hurt your search rankings and frustrate visitors. When Google crawls a page and finds links pointing to missing content or dead external sites, it signals poor site maintenance. Fixing them is one of the quickest wins for SEO.

How to find broken links on your website

Check Google Search Console

1. Log into Search Console for your property
2. Go to Crawl > Coverage to see indexing issues
3. Look for "404 Not Found" errors—these are pages Google tried to visit but couldn't find
4. Click the issue to see which pages link to the broken URL
5. Export the list for reference

This shows you broken internal links that Google discovered. It won't catch every broken external link.

Use a website crawler tool

A dedicated crawler scans your entire site and reports every broken link:

• Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs) crawls your site and flags 404s, redirects, and broken external links
• Ahrefs Site Audit checks internal and external links with detailed reports
• Semrush Site Audit identifies broken links and suggests fixes
• Moz Pro includes a crawl feature with link status reporting

To use Screaming Frog:

1. Download and install the tool
2. Enter your domain
3. Let it crawl (may take minutes to hours depending on site size)
4. Filter by Response Code > 4xx/5xx to see broken links
5. Export the results as CSV

Manually check critical pages

For high-traffic pages, spot-check links manually:

1. Open your most important pages (homepage, top blog posts, product pages)
2. Right-click each link → Open in New Tab
3. Look for 404 pages or "Page Not Found" messages
4. Note the broken URLs

How to fix broken links

For broken internal links

Option 1: Restore the missing page

If the page should exist, rebuild it:

1. Check your backups or content archives
2. Recreate the page with the original URL (or use a redirect if the URL changed)
3. Verify the link now works

Option 2: Update the link to point elsewhere

If the page is no longer relevant:

1. Find the page containing the broken link
2. Edit the link to point to a related, live page
3. Test the link works
4. Update your sitemap if using one

Option 3: Remove the link

If there's no suitable replacement:

1. Delete the link from the page
2. Rewrite surrounding text if needed
3. Republish

For broken external links

Option 1: Find a replacement source

1. Search for the same information on a current, reputable site
2. Update the link to the new URL
3. Test it works

Option 2: Use the Wayback Machine

If a cited page has disappeared:

1. Go to archive.org (Wayback Machine)
2. Enter the broken URL
3. Find a snapshot from when the page existed
4. Link to the archived version instead (optional—some prefer to remove it)

Option 3: Remove the link

If you can't find a replacement and the reference isn't critical:

1. Delete the link
2. Rewrite the sentence if needed

Set up redirects for renamed pages

If you've renamed a page but old links still exist:

1. Create a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one
2. In most CMS platforms (WordPress, Shopify, etc.), go to Redirects settings
3. Add: Old URL → New URL
4. Test that visiting the old link takes you to the new page
5. After 30 days, check Search Console to confirm Google has reindexed

Common mistakes to avoid

• Ignoring external links: Many site owners focus only on internal links. Broken external links also hurt credibility and SEO.
• Using 302 redirects instead of 301s: A 302 is temporary; Google won't fully pass ranking power. Use 301 for permanent moves.
• Not checking after fixing: Always test a fixed link in a new tab to confirm it works.
• Fixing without monitoring: Set a reminder to audit again in 3–6 months. New broken links appear over time as external sites change.
• Deleting pages without redirects: If you remove a page that was linked from elsewhere, create a 301 redirect to avoid 404s.
• Overlooking anchor text: When updating a link, make sure the anchor text is descriptive ("click here" is weak; "best SEO tools" is better).

Monitor broken links going forward

• Set up Google Search Console alerts to notify you of new 404s
• Run a site crawl monthly if your site changes frequently
• Check external links quarterly in case partner sites go down
• Add a broken link checker plugin (WordPress users can use plugins like Broken Link Checker) for continuous monitoring

Try our free broken link finder to scan your site and get a full report of dead links—internal and external—in minutes. Upload your sitemap or enter your domain, and we'll flag every broken link with recommendations for fixing it.