Broken Link Checker

Find and fix broken links so visitors and rankings keep their momentum. Our free broken link checker crawls a page (or site), reports every dead link with its HTTP status code, and shows you exactly where each one lives so you can fix or redirect it fast.

How to use the Broken Link Checker

1. Enter your URL.
2. Start the scan.
3. Review broken links flagged with 404, 410, and other error codes.
4. Fix or 301-redirect each broken link.

How fixing broken links strengthens SEO

Working links keep crawl budget focused, give readers a clear path onward, and keep link equity flowing to the pages that earn it. Regularly finding and fixing 404s keeps your site crawlable, preserves authority, and improves user experience, all of which support better rankings.

Reading the results

• 200, healthy.
• 301 / 302, redirecting. Fine externally, worth fixing internally so crawlers do not hop.
• 404 / 410, gone. Redirect it or remove the link.
• 403, the destination blocked an automated request. Check it manually before assuming it is broken.
• 5xx, server-side failure at the destination, often temporary.
• 0 / timeout, no response inside the limit. Usually a dead host or an aggressive firewall.

What clean links do for a page

Dead internal links waste crawl budget and strand any authority pointing at the missing page. Dead external links signal an unmaintained page to both readers and reviewers, and in link building they are the fastest way to lose a placement you paid for. Checking key pages quarterly takes minutes.

Fixing them properly

Redirect a removed URL to the closest genuine equivalent, not to the homepage, a mass redirect to the root is treated as a soft 404. If no equivalent exists, let it 410 and remove the internal links pointing at it. For dead external references, either find the archived version or swap in a current source.

Internal redirects are worth cleaning too

A 301 works, but each hop loses a little efficiency and makes your internal linking harder to reason about. When you change a URL, update the links that point at it rather than relying on the redirect forever. Run the redirect checker on anything returning 301 here to see whether it is one hop or a chain.

How often to check

Quarterly on money pages and top blog posts, immediately after any migration or replatform, and any time a page loses rankings with no other explanation. Resource and “best tools” pages rot fastest because they link out the most.

Limits

We check one page per run and cap the number of links tested so the scan finishes quickly. Some destinations deliberately block bots and will report 403 even though they load in a browser, always confirm those by hand.

Key features

• Detects internal and external broken links
• Shows HTTP status codes
• Flags redirect chains
• Exportable report
• Free and unlimited

Frequently asked questions

What causes broken links?

Deleted pages, changed URLs, typos, or external sites going offline.

How do I fix a broken link?

Update the link, restore the page, or set a 301 redirect to a relevant live URL.

How often should I check for broken links?

Monthly for most sites, weekly for large or fast-changing sites.

Related free tools

Redirect Checker · 301 Redirect Map Generator · Google Index Checker. See all of our free SEO tools.

Want the links and rankings handled for you?

Our team runs the outreach, earns the placements and reports every live link. Explore our link building services or tell us your target pages for a plan.