Broken Links and SEO: The Ultimate Guide to Finding and Fixing Dead Links
TL;DR
Broken links can hurt the user experience of your site and negatively affect SEO. Learn how to find, fix, and monitor dead links with our free tool.
Table of Contents
Broken links can hurt the user experience of your site and negatively affect your SEO efforts.
Imagine clicking a link to read an article, download a file, or buy a product, only to be greeted by a "404 Page Not Found" error. It is frustrating. It breaks your flow. And if it happens enough times, you might just leave the site and never come back.
What is a broken link?
A broken link (or "dead link") is a hyperlink on a webpage that no longer works because it points to a web page that has been moved or deleted.
Common HTTP Status Codes for Broken Links:
- 404 Page Not Found: The page does not exist on the server.
- 400 Bad Request: The URL structure is malformed.
- Bad Host: The server name does not exist or is unreachable.
- Bad URL: The URL is missing a protocol (http/https) or has invalid characters.
What causes a broken link?
Links break for many reasons. The web is constantly changing, and what works today might be broken tomorrow.
Top 4 Causes of Dead Links:
- Website Restructuring: Moving pages to new URLs without setting up 301 redirects.
- External Content Removal: Linking to a third-party site (like a PDF or article) that the owner deletes.
- Typos: Simple human error when typing the href attribute (e.g.,
htps://instead ofhttps://). - Domain Expiration: The linked website goes offline completely.
Do Broken links hurt SEO?
Indirectly, yes. While a single 404 error won't tank your rankings, a pattern of broken links sends negative signals to search engines.
-
Crawl Budget Waste Googlebot has a limited "budget" for crawling your site. If it wastes time checking dead ends, it might miss your new, valuable content.
-
Poor User Experience (UX) If users click links and find nothing, they "bounce" back to Google. High bounce rates signal that your page is low quality.
-
Lost Link Equity Internal links pass authority (PageRank). If a link is broken, that authority evaporates instead of flowing to other pages.
How to find and resolve broken links
Manual checking is impossible for anything larger than a 5-page site. You need automation.
Step 1: Use a Crawler
Use our Free Broken Link Checker. Just enter your URL, and we will crawl your page to find every internal and external link. We check the status code of each one in real-time.
Step 2: Assessment
Once you have the list of errors, verify them. Sometimes a "404" is actually a temporary server glitch. Visit the link yourself to confirm it is dead.
Step 3: Fix or Redirect
- Typo? Correct the spelling in the HTML.
- Moved content? Set up a 301 Redirect from the old URL to the new one. This preserves the SEO value.
- Deleted content? Remove the link entirely, or link to a relevant alternative resource.
Prevention is Key
Link rot is natural, but maintenance is a choice. Make it a habit to audit your important pages once a month.
Don't let dead links turn your website into a graveyard. Check for broken links now.
Was this article helpful?
Comments
Loading comments...