Broken Link Checker

Scan any webpage for broken links. Enter a URL and we'll extract all links, check each one for 404s, redirects, and errors, and give you a detailed report.

Public URLDetailed check

Public URLs only. This deeper check reviews the page and related public-page signals, not private Google data.

Why Fixing Broken Links Matters for SEO

User Experience

Broken links frustrate visitors and increase bounce rates. Users expect every link to work — dead ends erode trust in your site.

Crawl Efficiency

Search engine bots waste crawl budget on dead links. Removing broken links helps Google discover and index your valuable pages faster.

Link Equity

Every broken link represents lost ranking potential. Fixing them preserves the SEO value that should flow through your site's internal links.

How to Use the Broken Link Checker

  1. Enter a page URL — paste or type the full URL of the page you want to scan.
  2. Click "Scan for Broken Links" — the tool fetches the page, extracts all links, and checks each one.
  3. Review the report — see which links are valid, redirected, broken, or errored.
  4. Export or copy — download the report as JSON or copy it as formatted text for your records.

Best Practices for Link Maintenance

  • Run a broken link check monthly on your most important pages (homepage, cornerstone content, product pages).
  • When you find a broken internal link, either update it to the correct URL or remove it entirely.
  • For broken external links, check if the target site has moved the content. Use archive.org as a fallback.
  • Set up 301 redirects for any pages you delete or restructure.
  • Use descriptive anchor text so users (and search engines) know what to expect before clicking.

Related SEO Tools

HTTP Status Code Checker Redirect Checker Meta Title & Description Checker Image Alt Text Checker Schema Markup Generator SERP Snippet Preview

Broken Link Checker Examples: Valid vs. Broken Inputs

Use these examples before testing your own site so you know what a normal result and a problem result should look like.

Valid example

Test a small, stable page with a few internal and external links that should return 200-level responses.

Broken example

Test a page that intentionally links to /missing-page or an expired external URL to see broken-link reporting.

Preview: What the Result Should Show

A screenshot should show total links checked, broken links found, status codes, and the source anchor/URL when available.

How to Interpret the Result

Prioritize fixing broken internal links first, then important external links that affect user trust.

Common Failure Cases

  • 404 internal links
  • Timeouts from blocked external sites
  • Redirected links that should be updated

Download sample report

Frequently Asked Questions

A broken link checker scans a webpage for all links, then checks each one to see if it returns a valid (2xx), redirected (3xx), or broken (4xx/5xx) status. It helps you find dead links that harm user experience and SEO performance. Our tool checks up to 25 links per scan and shows you exactly which ones need fixing.
Broken links create a poor user experience by leading visitors to dead pages. Search engines like Google also interpret broken links as a sign of low site maintenance. They waste crawl budget — search engine bots spend time following dead ends instead of indexing your valuable content. Over time, too many broken links can reduce your site's perceived quality and ranking potential.
Crawl budget refers to the number of pages a search engine will crawl on your site within a given timeframe. When crawlers hit broken links, they waste that budget on dead ends. By fixing broken links, you help search engines discover and index your real content faster. This is especially important for large sites with thousands of pages.
The tool analyzes up to 25 links per scan to ensure reliable performance and prevent server overload. If your page has more than 25 links, the first 25 unique HTTP/HTTPS links found on the page will be checked. This covers most pages, but for link-heavy pages like sitemaps or resource pages, you may need to run the tool on subsections.
Both. The tool extracts every HTTP and HTTPS link on the page and checks them regardless of domain. This includes both internal links (pointing to your own site) and external links (pointing to other sites). External broken links can also hurt your SEO since they lead users to dead content.
The tool categorizes links into four groups: Valid (2xx — successful responses like 200 OK), Redirected (3xx — moved permanently or temporarily), Broken (4xx or 5xx — client or server errors like 404 Not Found or 500 Internal Server Error), and Errors (timeouts, connection refused, DNS failures, or invalid URLs).
For each broken link, the best fix depends on the situation: (1) Update the link URL if the content moved to a new address; (2) Remove the link entirely if the target page no longer exists and has no replacement; (3) Use a 301 redirect if the old page has been permanently relocated; (4) Reach out to the external site owner if a third-party link is broken; (5) Replace with a link to alternative content that serves the same purpose.
Link rot refers to the gradual decay of hyperlinks over time as pages are deleted, domains expire, or content is restructured. Studies show that about 25% of links rot within 7 years. Regular link audits using a broken link checker help you catch and fix link rot before it significantly impacts your SEO and user experience.
While adding rel="nofollow" to broken outbound links prevents passing link equity to a dead page, it does not fix the underlying user experience issue. The better approach is to either replace the broken link with a working one or remove it entirely. Use nofollow as a temporary measure while you find a replacement.

Suggested Workflow

Use this tool as part of the Quick Page Audit Workflow.

  1. Scan your most important pages for broken links
  2. Fix or remove broken internal links
  3. Replace broken external links with working alternatives
  4. Set up 301 redirects for any moved or deleted pages
Recommended:After fixing broken pages, monitor your backlinks for drops with linkcheck.app — free tracking for up to 5,000 backlinks with drop alerts and recovery notes.
Reviewed Jun 2026 · Sources and limitations

Review details: 2026-06-10 · Marc LaClear · v1.0

Reference sources:

Known limits:

  • Checks are based on publicly fetchable HTML, response headers, and browser-side input. They do not use private Google Search Console, analytics, or ranking data.
  • Scores and warnings are diagnostic aids, not guarantees of ranking improvement or Google indexation.
  • Pages blocked by robots.txt, login walls, bot protection, heavy JavaScript, or network timeouts may return incomplete results.
  • Validate critical fixes with official Google tools such as Search Console, Rich Results Test, Lighthouse, and your own crawl data.

Report an issue with this tool