Check Your Website for Broken Links: A Technical SEO Guide
A website's integrity is often compromised when broken links are present, causing frustration and disarray to users. These broken links can be the result of outdated information, incorrect URLs, or technical issues. Broken links occur when a user attempts to navigate from one webpage to another, but the link is no longer valid or does not exist. This can happen due to various reasons such as website migrations, deleted content, or changes in URL structures. Additionally, broken links can be caused by errors in web development, outdated software, or corrupted files. As a result, users may encounter error messages, page loading issues, or even complete loss of access to certain pages. Identifying and fixing broken links is essential for maintaining a website's usability and overall online presence.
What Are Broken Links?
How to Check for Broken Links Using
To check for broken links using a browser, start by opening a link on your website and waiting for it to load. If the page fails to open or loads slowly, you've likely got a broken link. A quicker way is to use your browser's built-in debugging tools - most browsers will display an error message if a link has failed to load. Alternatively, you can also use online tools specifically designed for finding broken links on websites, such as a simple website scanner that can crawl your site and identify any dead or invalid links.
Practical Steps
To begin checking your website for broken links, it is recommended that you use a combination of automated tools and manual testing. Start by using a link checker tool or browser extension to scan your entire website for dead links, which can help identify the most common issues first. Next, manually test each link by copying and pasting it into a new tab or window to see if it redirects correctly or displays an error message. It is also helpful to use a screenshot analysis tool to visualise any broken links on your site, making it easier to pinpoint and fix problems. Regularly testing for broken links can help maintain the integrity of your website's content and ensure that users have access to all relevant information.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do broken links hurt SEO?
They rarely cause a direct penalty, but they waste crawl budget, harm user experience and can leak the value of inbound links, so they are worth fixing.
How often should I check for broken links?
A monthly check suits most small sites. Larger or frequently updated sites benefit from a scheduled crawl every week or two.
What is the best way to fix a broken internal link?
Correct the link to the right URL where you can, and use a 301 redirect to cover any remaining references to the old address.
Finding Broken Links in Practice
Run a crawl with a tool such as Screaming Frog or an online broken-link checker, then filter for 404 status codes. Google Search Console also lists pages returning errors under its Pages report. Record both internal broken links, which you control directly, and outbound links to third-party sites that have moved or closed. Internal ones are the priority because they waste crawl budget and frustrate visitors.
A Worked Example
A crawl reveals fifteen internal links pointing to an old blog URL that was renamed. Rather than editing each link by hand, the owner adds a single 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one and then updates the most visible links directly. The redirect catches the rest and any external references, restoring a smooth path for both users and crawlers.
Broken Link Checklist
- Fix internal broken links first by correcting the target or adding a redirect.
- Update or remove outbound links to pages that no longer exist.
- Set up a helpful custom 404 page for anything you cannot recover.
- Re-crawl after fixes to confirm the errors are gone.
Preventing Broken Links in the First Place
Fixing broken links is easier than never creating them, but a few habits keep the count low. Whenever you rename or delete a page, add a redirect immediately rather than later. Before changing a URL structure, map the old addresses to their new homes so nothing is left stranded. When you link to external sites, prefer stable, authoritative sources that are less likely to vanish. Finally, schedule a regular crawl so that any breakage from third-party changes or accidental edits is caught within weeks rather than discovered by a frustrated visitor months down the line.
As you optimise your site with EnlightenIt, review your XML sitemap regularly with a sitemap generator or crawler so search engines can crawl every important page. — Editor, EnlightenIt