How To Identify And Fix Broken Links On Your Website

Broken Link

Broken link: a hyperlink on a website that points to a URL or resource that is missing, moved, deleted, or otherwise unreachable, resulting in an error (e.g., 404) or failed load.

How to Find Broken Links on Your Website

Use a mix of automated crawlers, online tools, manual checks, and log analysis.

Crawl your site

• Scan all pages to report 4xx/5xx, soft 404s, redirects, and broken assets.


• Tools: Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, DeepCrawl, Xenu, Integrity (Mac).


• Settings: crawl JavaScript where needed, follow internal links, include subdomains, and increase max URLs for large sites.

Check Google Search Console

• Coverage, URL Inspection, and Crawl Errors show indexed pages Google can’t fetch and 404s discovered by Google.

Use SEO platforms

• Run site audits in Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz to find broken internal/external links and orphan pages.

Test external links

• Validate outbound links and third-party resources with online checkers such as BrokenLinkCheck, Dead Link Checker, and Dr. Link Check.

Scan server logs

• Analyze access logs for frequent 404s or repeated errors; identify source pages and crawlers triggering requests.

Browser-based and manual checks

• Use link-checker extensions (Check My Links, LinkMiner) to validate links on specific pages quickly.


• Manually test high-priority pages, navigation, footer, sitemaps, and forms.

Command-line and technical checks

• Inspect responses: use curl -I or wget --spider to test specific URLs and review status codes and redirect chains.


• Automate checks: use scripts to parse sitemaps and HTTP status codes.

Validate assets and media

• Ensure images, CSS, JS, fonts, and embedded media return 200 and are reachable; check the CMS media library and external hosts.

Monitor redirects and chains

• Identify long chains and loops; use the tools above and the Redirect Path extension to reveal chains and status codes.

Check canonical, hreflang, robots, and sitemap

• Confirm canonical and hreflang URLs point to valid pages; verify sitemap URLs return 200 and are current.

Schedule continuous monitoring

• Set regular automated scans and alerts (weekly/monthly) via your crawler, GSC notifications, or uptime monitors to catch new broken links.

Prioritize fixes

• Sort broken links by impact: top landing pages, high-traffic internal links, pages with many backlinks, and external links affecting user tasks.

Quick tool list: Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Google Search Console, BrokenLinkCheck, Check My Links, Redirect Path, server logs, curl/wget.

How To Monitor And Prevent Broken Links On Your Website

1. Know why it matters: Broken links harm SEO, user experience, crawlability, and conversions. Regular detection and quick fixes preserve rankings, reduce bounce rate, and keep visitors engaged.


2. Identify broken links:
   
   
   
   1. Use Google Search Console to check Coverage and URL Inspection for 404s and crawl errors.
   
   
   2. Run site crawlers such as Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, or Xenu to find internal and external broken links at scale.
   
   
   3. Use SEO platforms like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz to detect broken inbound and outbound links and lost pages.
   
   
   4. Monitor uptime and link responses with tools such as StatusCake or Pingdom for endpoint checks, especially for API and file links.
   
   
   5. Use browser plugins and online checkers like Broken Link Checker or Dead Link Checker for spot checks.
   
   
   6. Review server logs to find 404 hits, referrers, and patterns.
   
   
   7. Check external backlinks in Ahrefs or SEMrush to see referring pages linking to removed content.
   
   
   
   


3. Fix broken links step by step:
   
   
   
   1. Prioritize by impact, focusing first on high-traffic pages, key landing pages, and pages with backlinks or conversions.
   
   
   2. Choose the right remedy:
      
      
      
      1. Apply a 301 redirect to the most relevant existing page for moved content.
      
      
      2. Return 410 Gone for intentionally removed content with no replacement.
      
      
      3. Correct the URL if it is a typo or a CMS permalink issue.
      
      
      4. Update or remove outdated external links, or replace them with archived or alternative sources.
      
      
      
      
   
   
   3. Fix internal navigation and menu links immediately.
   
   
   4. Update sitemaps and resubmit them in Google Search Console.
   
   
   5. Re-crawl to confirm fixes and monitor index status.
   
   
   
   


4. Prevent broken links with processes and tooling:
   
   
   
   1. Schedule automated recurring scans with alerts for new 4xx and 5xx errors.
   
   
   2. Implement redirect rules centrally at the server, CDN, or via rewrite rules to manage URL changes.
   
   
   3. Use canonical tags and consistent permalink structures to avoid duplicates or path changes.
   
   
   4. Enforce content publishing protocols:
      
      
      
      1. Add link validation to CMS workflows.
      
      
      2. Require internal link checks before publishing or deleting pages.
      
      
      
      
   
   
   5. Use a staging environment and automated tests in CI to validate links before deployment.
   
   
   6. Maintain a redirects log mapping old to new URLs whenever they change.
   
   
   7. Use relative links where appropriate and avoid hard-coding absolute links that may change across environments.
   
   
   8. Monitor backlinks and perform outreach so high-value external links are updated, or provide redirects.
   
   
   
   


5. Follow best practices for long-term health:
   
   
   
   1. Schedule periodic full-site audits and quick daily checks for critical pages.
   
   
   2. Combine tools, using both crawler-based and server-log methods to catch all issues.
   
   
   3. Educate content authors about link testing and provide clear guidelines.
   
   
   4. Keep architecture stable and minimize unnecessary URL changes.
   
   
   5. Use structured error pages (custom 404) that offer search, popular links, and a contact or report option to salvage visits.
   
   
   
   


6. Track KPIs:
   
   
   
   1. Number of 4xx and 5xx errors over time.
   
   
   2. Time to fix reported broken links.
   
   
   3. Organic traffic and rankings for affected pages.
   
   
   4. Bounce rate and conversion rate on pages where errors occurred.
   
   
   5. Number of redirects in place and the length of redirect chains.
   
   
   
   


7. Request a full audit: Get a prioritized broken-link audit, a redirect plan, and an automated monitoring setup to protect rankings and conversions. Contact us to schedule your site review.