Broken Link Checker Tool Online

How the Broken Link Checker Works

This tool scans a single webpage and verifies every link on it. Here's the process:

1. Enter a URL — paste the address of any webpage you want to check. The tool fetches its full HTML source.
2. Extract all links — it finds every <a href> tag on the page, resolving relative URLs to absolute ones and separating internal from external links.
3. Check each link — every link gets an HTTP request (up to 150 links, checked concurrently). The tool records the status code and response time.
4. Report results — broken links (4xx, 5xx, connection errors) are flagged and shown first, with a summary of total, broken, internal, and external link counts.

Why Broken Links Hurt Your Website

Broken links are one of the most common — and most easily fixable — issues on websites. Here's why they matter:

• Wasted crawl budget — search engines allocate a limited crawl budget to your site. Every broken link that Googlebot follows is a wasted crawl. On large sites, this can significantly reduce how many of your real pages get indexed.
• Lost link equity — if backlinks from other sites point to a page that returns 404, the ranking value those backlinks carry is lost entirely. A simple 301 redirect recovers that equity.
• Poor user experience — visitors who click a link and land on a 404 page lose trust in your site. Research shows that 88% of online users are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience.
• Broken internal linking — internal links distribute PageRank throughout your site. Broken internal links create dead ends that prevent both users and crawlers from reaching important content.
• Reputation damage — for businesses, agencies, and professionals, broken links signal neglect. Clients and partners may question the quality of your work if your own site has dead links.

After finding broken links, use the Redirect Checker to trace redirect chains, the HTTP Status Code Checker to bulk-verify your URL status codes across the site, and the Internal Link Analyzer to see the full picture of which pages link to each other (and which are orphaned with no inbound links).

How to Fix Broken Links

Once you've found broken links, here's how to handle each type:

• Internal 404s — set up a 301 redirect from the broken URL to the correct destination. If the page was intentionally removed, redirect to the closest relevant page or the parent category.
• External 404s — find the current URL of the resource (check the site's navigation or use Google). Update your link to the new address. If the content is gone permanently, remove the link or replace it with an alternative source.
• Server errors (5xx) — these are typically temporary. Recheck after a few hours. If the error persists, the external site may have a problem — consider linking to an alternative resource.
• Timeout / Connection errors — the server may be overloaded or blocking automated requests. Verify manually in your browser before removing the link.
• Prevention — schedule regular broken link checks (monthly for small sites, weekly for large ones). Implement proper redirect rules during any URL change or site migration.

For comprehensive SEO maintenance, combine broken link checking with the Sitemap Checker to ensure your sitemap only contains live URLs, and the Robots.txt Tester to verify crawler access.