Why are broken links bad for SEO?

Broken links create a poor user experience and can harm your SEO by wasting crawl budget, reducing page authority, and potentially leading to lower rankings. They also frustrate users who can't access the content they're looking for.

What should I do with broken external links?

For broken external links, you have several options: update the link to the correct URL if you can find it, remove the link if the content no longer exists, or replace it with a link to alternative content that provides similar value.

Broken Link Checker

Find and fix broken links on your website to improve user experience and SEO

Website URL

Enter a page URL. We fetch its HTML, list links found on that page, and check each URL’s HTTP status (via a public CORS proxy). Large sites: lower scan depth or expect rate limits. For full-site crawls use Search Console or a desktop crawler.

Scan Options

Check Internal Links

Check External Links

Check Image Links

Scan Depth

Scan Results

Status	HTTP	URL	Found on	Type	Action

About Broken Link Checker

Broken links can negatively impact your website's user experience and SEO performance. Our broken link checker helps you identify and fix these issues quickly and efficiently.

Practical guide: triaging what this checker finds

What this is

This tool probes outbound or listed URLs from a page or list and surfaces HTTP failures, timeouts, and obvious transport errors. It is ideal for periodic hygiene on blogs, resource pages, and directories—not a full-site enterprise crawl replacement.

How to use it

Provide the starting URL or paste the links you care about, then run during off-peak windows for large batches. Export or note status codes: fix true 404s first, then 5xx that indicate instability. For third-party links that died, swap to an archive, a new authoritative source, or remove the anchor if nothing trustworthy remains.

How to read the results

Soft 404s (200 pages that behave like missing content) may not flag as broken here—pair with manual spot checks. Intermittent 5xx deserves retests before you rip links out. Some sites block automated fetchers; false negatives/positives can occur—verify in a browser or with curl when a major partner “looks broken.”

Common mistakes

Deleting educational internal links instead of updating targets. Ignoring broken anchors in PDFs or JS-rendered menus the tool never saw. Chasing every external 403 on paywalled sources that still help users. Forgetting to re-check after migrations. Use the report as a prioritized punch list tied to owners and dates.

Why Check for Broken Links?

Improve user experience by ensuring all links work properly
Maintain SEO rankings by fixing broken links that could hurt your site's authority
Prevent loss of link equity through broken external links
Keep your website professional and trustworthy

Types of Broken Links

404 Errors: The requested page doesn't exist
500 Errors: Server-side errors
DNS Errors: Domain name cannot be resolved
Timeout Errors: Server takes too long to respond

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should I check for broken links?

It's recommended to check for broken links at least once a month. However, if your website is large or frequently updated, you might want to check more often.

What should I do when I find broken links?

When you find broken links, you should either update them with the correct URL, remove them if the content is no longer available, or redirect them to relevant alternative content.

Does the tool check password-protected pages?

No, the tool cannot access password-protected pages. You'll need to check these pages manually or provide appropriate authentication credentials.