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Broken Link Checker

Scan any page for broken links. We extract every <a href> on the page and run a HEAD check on each — surfacing 4xx errors, 5xx errors, and redirects. Up to 50 links per scan.

// your details

Checks up to 50 outbound links on the page. Free to use; result emailed to our team.

// why broken links matter

Dead links cost rankings and trust.

Every link on a page is a promise to the reader and a path for a crawler. When that path dead-ends in a 404 or a server error, you spend user goodwill and crawl budget for nothing. Broken links are one of the cheapest SEO problems to fix and one of the most common to ignore — which makes auditing them a fast, high-leverage win.

01

Crawl waste

Googlebot's crawl budget is finite. Every 404 it fetches is a page it isn't fetching instead.

02

User trust loss

Visitors who hit dead links bounce. Bounce signals leak back into ranking algorithms.

03

Link equity drains

Outbound links to dead pages waste authority. Inbound links to your own dead pages lose equity entirely.

04

AI citation drag

Answer engines weight source quality. Pages full of dead references get cited less.

// how the scan works

Every link, tested in real time.

No crawler database, no cached guesses — we hit each URL live the moment you run the scan, so the results reflect what's actually happening right now.

01

Extract

We fetch the page and pull every <a href> link out of the rendered HTML — internal and external.

02

Request

Each unique URL gets a lightweight HEAD request (falling back to GET) so we read the status without downloading the whole page.

03

Classify

Responses are bucketed: 2xx healthy, 3xx redirect, 4xx client error, 5xx server error, plus timeouts and DNS failures.

04

Report

You get a per-link table with status codes, redirect targets, and the exact anchor text — so each fix is one click away.

// status codes

Reading the results.

Every link the scan returns carries an HTTP status code. Here's what each family means and what to do about it.

2xx

Success

The link works. 200 OK is the target; 204/206 are valid too. No action needed.

Keep
3xx

Redirect

301/302 forwards to another URL. Fine occasionally, but chains waste crawl budget.

Point direct
4xx

Client error

404 Not Found, 403 Forbidden, 410 Gone. The destination is broken or off-limits.

Fix or remove
5xx

Server error

500/502/503 — the destination server failed. Often transient, sometimes chronic.

Recheck / replace
// remediation

How to fix what the scan finds.

01

Repoint or remove

For a 404/410, link to the live equivalent if one exists, or delete the link if the content is gone for good.

02

Collapse redirect chains

If a link 301s through two or three hops, update the href to the final destination so crawlers and users skip the detour.

03

Set up 301s for your own URLs

When you move or retire a page, redirect the old URL to the most relevant live page to preserve its link equity.

04

Recheck flaky 5xx targets

Server errors are sometimes momentary. Re-scan; if a destination is reliably down, swap it for a stable source.

// faq

Broken-link questions, answered.

What counts as a broken link?
A broken link is any href that doesn't resolve to a working page. In practice that means 4xx responses (404 Not Found, 403 Forbidden, 410 Gone), 5xx server errors, DNS failures, and connection timeouts. Redirects (3xx) aren't strictly broken, but redirect chains are worth cleaning up because they waste crawl budget and slow users down.
How do broken links hurt SEO?
Three ways. First, Googlebot has a finite crawl budget — every 404 it fetches is a page it didn't crawl instead. Second, broken outbound links signal low maintenance and can erode topical trust. Third, broken inbound links to your own moved or deleted pages leak link equity that would otherwise flow to live URLs. Fixing them recovers crawl efficiency and authority.
Why does this tool only check 50 links per scan?
The free tool runs a live HEAD request against every link on the page in real time, so we cap each scan at 50 links to keep it fast and fair for everyone. That's enough for most individual pages. To crawl an entire site and check every link across every page, you need a full site audit — which our paid service covers.
Does it check links across my whole site or just one page?
Just the single page (URL) you submit. We extract and test every link on that page. For a site-wide sweep — checking every link on every page and prioritizing fixes by traffic and authority — request a full SEO audit.
What's the difference between a broken link and a redirect?
A broken link returns an error (4xx/5xx) and goes nowhere useful. A redirect (301/302) returns a working page at a different URL. Redirects aren't broken, but a chain of them — A redirects to B redirects to C — adds latency and dilutes link equity. Best practice is to link directly to the final destination.
How often should I check for broken links?
For an active site, monthly is a reasonable cadence; high-velocity publishers benefit from weekly checks. Links rot over time as external sites move or shut down content, so it's an ongoing hygiene task rather than a one-time fix. Set a recurring reminder, or let a full audit monitor it for you.
Need to scan an entire site?
Our paid SEO audit crawls every URL, surfaces all broken links, and prioritizes fixes by impact.
See audit services