Broken Link Checker

Last updated: What’s new

Scan any webpage for broken links with a free dead link checker and 404 checker in one. Find dead URLs, 404 errors, and server failures on both internal and external links, all in one check.

Enter a page URL to check all its links:

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 100 links, with bounded concurrency). 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:

  • Crawl efficiency, broken links waste requests and make navigation harder. Crawl-budget tuning mainly matters for very large or frequently changing sites; repair links for users without treating every 404 as an indexing crisis.
  • Useful destinations, repair broken internal links and redirect a removed page only when a relevant equivalent replacement exists. A 301 is a permanent canonical signal, not a guaranteed recovery of rankings or traffic.
  • Poor user experience, visitors who click a link and land on a 404 page lose trust in your site, and many will not come back 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, fix the source link. Redirect the old URL if an equivalent replacement exists; intentionally removed content can correctly return 404 or 410 instead of an unrelated category redirect.
  • 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.

What’s new

  • CSV exports protect text cells from spreadsheet formulas, unfinished scans remain partial, and failed requests show readable explanations.

Next steps

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Broken Link Checker: FAQ

What links does this checker inspect?
It fetches one public page, extracts unique HTTP and HTTPS URLs from anchor elements, resolves relative links, and reports the anchor text, internal or external classification, final response status, and response time. Mail, telephone, data, JavaScript, fragment, and same-page links are skipped.
What counts as broken in the results?
A final HTTP status of 400 or higher is marked broken. Connection failures, DNS errors, refusals, resets, invalid URLs, and eight-second timeouts are recorded with status code 0 and are also marked broken. Verify access-controlled or rate-limited links before removing them.
Does the report show redirects as broken?
No. Link requests follow redirects and the report uses the final response status. A link that redirects successfully to a response below 400 is treated as working. This tool does not display the intermediate redirect chain, so use the Redirect Checker when you need to inspect each hop.
Does this checker crawl the entire website?
No. It checks links found in the returned HTML of one submitted page and does not follow internal links to discover additional pages. Repeat the scan for important templates or use a site crawler for full-site coverage.
How many links are checked and why can the totals differ?
The endpoint checks up to the first 100 unique links and stops after about 45 seconds to keep each scan lightweight. Total links found can be higher because duplicate destinations are consolidated, the checking list is capped, or the time limit is reached. The result separately shows found, checked, internal, external, and broken counts.
Why can a working link be reported as 403, 429, or timeout?
Some sites block automated HEAD requests, rate-limit scanners, require cookies, or respond differently by region or user agent. The checker retries a 405 response with GET, but other access controls can still produce a false failure. Open the URL normally and check it from another network before changing content.
How do I fix broken links?
Update an internal link to the current destination or add an appropriate server redirect when the old URL should remain supported. For an external link, find a current authoritative replacement or remove the reference. Retest the source page after publishing the change.
What data is sent during a broken link scan?
The submitted public page URL is sent to the Web Aloha API. The server fetches its returned HTML and requests up to 100 extracted public links. The form asks for no account credentials or personal data, and the endpoint contains no application-storage step for the page, HTML, or results.