What Is a Broken Link Checker?
A Broken Link Checker is an SEO and website maintenance tool that scans a website to find links that no longer work or return error responses. It can identify broken internal links, broken external links, dead URLs, 404 errors, and other link-related problems that may affect website usability and technical SEO.
Broken links can appear when pages are deleted, URLs are changed, websites are redesigned, external resources are removed, or redirects are incorrectly configured. Even when a website looks healthy, outdated links can remain hidden across older blog posts, category pages, product pages, and other sections.
A Free Broken Link Checker makes it easier to discover these issues without manually opening every link on your website. By finding problematic URLs, you can decide whether to update, remove, redirect, or replace them.
A dead link checker is another common term for a broken link checker. It helps identify links that point to unavailable pages, invalid destinations, or URLs that return error responses.
How Does a Broken Link Checker Work?
A broken link checker works by crawling pages on your website, finding hyperlinks, and checking whether their destinations are accessible.
The basic process is:
Enter website URL → Start scan → Find links → Check responses → Review issues
The scanner begins with the website URL you provide and analyzes available pages and hyperlinks. It checks the destination of each discovered link and identifies URLs that return errors or cannot be reached.
The results can help distinguish between working links and problematic links, including common issues such as 404 Not Found, server errors, invalid URLs, and other inaccessible destinations.
A broken link does not always mean the page itself is permanently unavailable. Temporary server problems, redirects, blocked requests, or external website changes can also affect link checks. For this reason, results should be reviewed before making permanent changes.
Online Broken Link Checker
An online broken link checker lets you scan a website or webpage for links that may no longer work without installing desktop software. Enter the URL you want to analyze, run the scan, and review the reported working, broken, redirected, and skipped links.
Internal and External Broken Link Checker
A broken link checker can be used to identify both broken internal links and broken external links. Internal links point to pages within your own website, while external links point to resources on other websites. Checking both types helps you find outdated URLs, missing pages, and inaccessible destinations that may need review.
Broken internal links can sometimes make important website pages harder to discover. You can also use our Free Orphan Page Checker to identify pages that have no internal links pointing to them and improve your website’s internal linking structure.
Examples and Use Cases
Example 1: Finding Broken Internal Links
Imagine your website has hundreds of blog posts and several older articles link to pages that have since been deleted.
Instead of manually checking every article, run your website through the checker. The results can help you identify internal links pointing to unavailable pages so you can update them with relevant working URLs.
Example 2: Checking a Website After a Redesign
A website redesign often changes page structures, URLs, navigation, or content.
After launching the redesigned website, scan it for broken links. This can help uncover old URLs that were removed or internal links that were not updated during the migration.
After changing your website URLs or completing a website migration, use our Migration Redirect Tester to verify redirect behavior and identify incorrect or broken URL destinations.
Example 3: Finding 404 Links
Suppose several pages return 404 Not Found errors after a URL structure change.
The checker can help identify links pointing to those unavailable pages. You can then decide whether to update the links or create appropriate redirects where necessary.
Example 4: Checking External Links
A blog may contain links to research, references, tools, or external resources that later become unavailable.
Use the checker to find external URLs that no longer work. You can then replace them with current, relevant resources or remove them when appropriate.
Example 5: eCommerce Website Maintenance
Product and category pages can change frequently on online stores.
A broken link scan can help identify links pointing to discontinued products, removed categories, or outdated URLs so you can maintain a smoother shopping experience.
Example 6: Technical SEO Audits
SEO professionals can include broken link checking as part of a technical SEO audit.
The results can help identify navigation problems, outdated internal links, crawl-related issues, and URLs that require further investigation.
You can also use a Schema Validator to check your website’s structured data and identify markup issues that may need correction.
When reviewing technical SEO issues, you can also use a Canonical Checker to verify that important pages have the correct canonical URL and avoid potential duplicate-URL problems.
For broader technical SEO maintenance, you can also check your XML sitemap to make sure important URLs are included and accessible to search engines.
Broken link analysis is an important part of a structured website audit because it helps identify navigation and accessibility issues. Learn more about our AI SEO Audit Methodology to understand how different website quality and technical SEO factors can be evaluated systematically.
Step-by-Step: How to Use the Free Broken Link Checker
Step 1: Enter Your Website URL
To find broken links on a website, enter the URL of the website you want to analyze and start the scan.
Use the correct website address so the scanner can begin crawling the relevant pages and links.
Step 2: Start the Scan
Click the scan or analyze button to begin checking your website.
The tool starts examining pages and the links found within them.
Step 3: Let the Website Crawl
Allow the checker to complete its scan.
Depending on the size and structure of the website, the number of pages and links can affect how much information needs to be analyzed.
Step 4: Review the Broken Links
Once the scan is complete, review the reported issues.
Look at the broken URL, source page, status or error information, and whether the link is internal or external.
Step 5: Prioritize Important Issues
Start with broken internal links on important pages.
A broken link on a high-traffic landing page or important conversion page may deserve attention before an outdated link on an old article.
Step 6: Fix the Links
Depending on the issue, update the link, remove it, replace it with a relevant resource, or implement an appropriate redirect when a URL has permanently moved.
Step 7: Run the Scan Again
After making your changes, run another scan.
A second check helps confirm that the broken links have been resolved and that your updates did not introduce additional problems.
A broken link check should be included in your regular website maintenance process. Follow our AI SEO Audit Checklist to review important technical SEO issues, identify website problems, and maintain a healthier website.
Regular website audits can help identify technical SEO issues that affect site quality and accessibility. Learn about AISEOgic’s broader auditing approach in its AI SEO audit platform announcement, and explore more SEO tips on the AISEOgic YouTube channel.
Understanding Your Broken Link Checker Results
The results show which links require attention and provide information that can help you determine the appropriate fix.
Working Links
A working link successfully reaches its destination.
These links generally do not require action, although you should still ensure that the destination is relevant and useful to visitors.
404 Not Found
A 404 link checker helps identify links that lead to URLs returning an HTTP 404 Not Found response, so you can locate and fix links pointing to missing pages.
If you need to investigate missing pages more closely, you can also use the 404 Checker to check individual URLs for 404 Not Found responses.
A 404 response generally means that the requested resource could not be found.
Common causes include deleted pages, changed URLs, incorrect links, or missing redirects.
If an important internal link returns a 404, update the link to a relevant working page or implement an appropriate redirect when the original URL has permanently moved.
410 Gone
A 410 response indicates that a resource has been intentionally removed and is no longer available.
Review whether links pointing to the removed resource should be deleted, replaced, or updated.
5xx Server Errors
Server errors indicate that the destination server encountered a problem handling the request.
Do not immediately treat every 5xx result as a permanent broken link. Temporary server problems can produce these responses, so the URL may require additional checking.
Redirect Issues
Redirects can be useful when pages move, but incorrect or excessive redirect chains can create unnecessary navigation and technical problems.
Review redirected links and make sure they ultimately lead to the intended, relevant destination.
Invalid URLs
A broken URL checker can help identify links that point to invalid, incorrectly formatted, or inaccessible URLs.
An invalid URL can result from incorrect formatting, spelling mistakes, missing characters, or improperly constructed links.
Correct the URL and verify that the destination is accessible.
Fixing broken links helps visitors navigate your website and allows crawlers to reach the intended pages more reliably. To learn how to prepare your website content for large language models and AI-powered discovery, read our guide to Large Language Model Optimization (LLMO).
How to Fix and Use Broken Link Results
Finding broken links is only the first step. The next step is deciding what action makes sense for each URL.
Update the Broken Link
If the destination has moved to a new URL, replace the old link with the current relevant URL.
This is usually the simplest solution when the new page provides the same or closely related information.
Add a Redirect
If a page has permanently moved and the old URL still receives links or visitors, consider implementing an appropriate permanent redirect.
Make sure the redirect points to the most relevant replacement page rather than an unrelated destination.
Remove Irrelevant Links
If the linked resource no longer exists and there is no useful replacement, remove the link instead of forcing users toward an unrelated page.
Replace External Links
If an external resource has disappeared, find a relevant and trustworthy replacement when one exists.
Avoid replacing a useful reference with a low-quality resource simply because it is available.
Fix Incorrect URLs
Typos and incorrect URL structures should be corrected directly in the source page.
Recheck After Fixing
After completing your updates, scan the website again to confirm that the reported issues have been resolved.
For WordPress website owners, identifying technical SEO problems is only the first step; resolving them is equally important. Explore our WordPress SEO Audit Fixer Plugin to learn more about identifying and addressing common WordPress SEO issues.
Broken Links and SEO
Broken links can create poor navigation experiences and make it harder for users to reach the information they expect. They can also interfere with the discovery and crawling of pages when important internal links lead to unavailable URLs.
Google recommends making links crawlable and using clear internal linking so that Google can discover pages and understand their relationships. Reviewing broken internal links is therefore a useful part of technical SEO maintenance.
Fixing a broken link does not automatically improve rankings, but keeping important internal links functional helps maintain a more usable and crawlable website.
For Google’s guidance on crawlable links and internal linking, see Google Search Central’s Link Best Practices.
If you want to identify other technical SEO issues beyond broken links, use our Free SEO Audit to review your website and discover additional optimization opportunities.
Broken Links and Google Search
Broken links should be reviewed as part of website maintenance because links help Google discover and crawl pages. If an important internal link points to a missing or inaccessible URL, updating the link or directing users to a relevant replacement can improve the site’s navigation and make the intended page easier to discover.
A broken link does not automatically mean that a webpage will lose rankings. The appropriate fix depends on what happened to the destination URL. If a page has permanently moved, a relevant permanent redirect may be appropriate; if the resource no longer exists and has no suitable replacement, the link may need to be removed or updated.
For more information about Google’s crawling and indexing process, see Google Search Central’s crawling and indexing documentation.
Broken Link Checker: Important HTTP Status Codes
A broken-link audit commonly involves checking the HTTP response returned by a linked URL. A 404 Not Found response means the requested resource could not be found, while a 301 permanent redirect indicates that a page has moved permanently. Server-side 5xx responses indicate that the server encountered an error processing the request.
When a page has permanently moved to a relevant replacement, Google recommends using a permanent redirect. When a page no longer exists and has no suitable replacement, returning a genuine 404 response is appropriate.
Broken Link Checker Best Practices
Scan Your Website Regularly
Schedule regular checks, particularly for websites that publish or update content frequently.Check After URL Changes
Whenever URLs are changed, review internal links and redirects to make sure existing navigation still works.Monitor External Links
External websites can change or remove pages without notice. Periodically review important external references.Use Redirects Carefully
When URLs permanently change, use appropriate redirects and update internal links where possible instead of relying on redirects for every internal reference.Check After Migrations
Website migrations can create large numbers of broken links. Perform a complete scan after moving to a new platform, domain, or URL structure.Keep Internal Linking Relevant
Do not simply replace a broken URL with any working page. Choose a destination that is genuinely relevant to the original content and user intent.Broken Links and AI Search Optimization
Broken-link checking can support AI SEO, GEO, AEO, and LLMO by helping keep important website content accessible and connected through functional links. While broken links are not a direct ranking factor for AI search engines, maintaining a technically sound website helps users, search crawlers, and automated systems reach and understand your content.
For AI search optimization, use a broken link checker to identify unavailable URLs, broken internal links, outdated external references, redirect issues, and other link problems. Review and fix important issues as part of your broader technical SEO and AI search optimization process.
For a broader review of AI-search readiness, you can also use the AI Search Readiness Checker to evaluate technical SEO, content structure, and other signals that may affect how a webpage is understood by search systems.
A broken link checker cannot guarantee that a website will be cited or recommended by ChatGPT, Google AI features, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, or other AI-powered search systems. AI visibility depends on many factors, including content quality, relevance, authority, accessibility, technical SEO, and how well the information satisfies the user’s query.
FAQ
1. What is a Broken Link Checker?
A Broken Link Checker is an SEO tool that scans your website to identify broken, dead, or invalid links. It helps ensure visitors and search engines can access your content without encountering errors.
2. Why are broken links bad for SEO?
Broken links create a poor user experience and make it harder for search engines to crawl your website. Fixing them helps improve crawlability, website quality, and overall SEO performance.
3. Does this tool check both internal and external links?
Yes. The tool scans both internal and external links to identify broken URLs, missing pages, invalid redirects, and 404 errors, helping you maintain a healthy website.
4. What types of errors can this tool detect?
The Broken Link Checker detects 404 Not Found errors, broken internal links, broken external links, invalid URLs, redirect issues, and inaccessible web pages.
5. How often should I check my website for broken links?
It’s recommended to scan your website regularly, especially after publishing new content, redesigning pages, or updating URLs. Regular checks help keep your website optimized and user-friendly.
6. What is a dead link checker?
A dead link checker is a tool that finds links pointing to unavailable pages, invalid destinations, or URLs returning error responses. It is another common term for a broken link checker.
7. How do I find broken links on my website?
To find broken links on your website, enter the website URL into a broken link checker and run a scan. Review the reported URLs and HTTP responses, then update, remove, redirect, or replace links that are no longer valid.
8. Can a broken link checker find 404 errors?
Yes. A broken link checker can identify links that lead to URLs returning a 404 Not Found response. These links should be reviewed to determine whether the destination should be restored, replaced, redirected, or removed.
9. Should I fix every broken external link?
You should review broken external links and fix important ones when a relevant replacement is available. If an external resource is no longer available, you can remove the link or replace it with a relevant and trustworthy resource.
10. When should I use a Broken Link Checker?
You should use a Broken Link Checker when auditing a website, after a redesign or migration, when updating older content, or when you suspect that links may point to missing or inaccessible pages. Regular checks can help you identify link problems before they create a poor user experience.
11. Is a Free Broken Link Checker safe?
A reputable online Broken Link Checker should be designed to analyze publicly accessible URLs without requesting unnecessary sensitive information. Avoid submitting private, authenticated, or confidential URLs to online scanning tools unless you understand how the service handles the submitted data.
12. Is a Broken Link Checker better than checking links manually?
A Broken Link Checker can be more efficient than checking links manually because it can scan many links and identify response problems systematically. Manual review is still useful after a scan because you need to decide whether each broken link should be updated, removed, replaced, or redirected.
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