How to Find Broken Links on Your Website
Broken links are one of those silent killers in SEO. They sit on your pages, turn visitors away, and quietly drag your rankings down — all without you noticing. If you have never done a proper broken link audit, you are likely losing traffic every single day.
In this guide, I will show you exactly how to find broken links on your website, which tools actually work, and what to do once you find them.
Let’s get into it.
What Are Broken Links?
A broken link is any hyperlink that no longer leads to a live, working page. When someone clicks it, they usually land on a 404 error page — “Page Not Found.”
Broken links can happen for several reasons:
- The destination page was deleted or moved
- The URL was changed without a redirect
- The external website shut down
- There was a typo in the link when it was first added
Both internal links (linking within your own website) and external links (pointing to other websites) can break over time.
Why Broken Links Hurt Your SEO
Before we talk about how to find broken links, it is worth understanding why this matters so much.
Search engines like Google crawl your website by following links. If they hit a broken link, the crawl stops dead at that point. That means pages behind that broken link might never get indexed.
Here is how broken links affect your site:
| Impact Area | How Broken Links Cause Damage |
|---|---|
| Crawlability | Google wastes crawl budget on dead pages |
| User Experience | Visitors hit dead ends and leave immediately |
| Link Equity | PageRank cannot flow through a broken link |
| Bounce Rate | Users bounce when they land on 404 pages |
| Domain Authority | Too many errors can signal a poorly maintained site |
If you want to understand how Google allocates crawl resources to your site, read this detailed breakdown of what is crawl budget in SEO — it directly connects to why broken links are so damaging.
Types of Broken Links You Need to Know
Not all broken links look the same. Here are the main types:
404 Not Found — The most common. The page simply does not exist anymore.
410 Gone — The page was permanently removed. More definitive than a 404.
500 Server Error — Something went wrong on the server side. Temporary but still harmful.
301/302 Chains — Not technically broken, but redirect chains slow down crawling and dilute link equity.
Broken Anchor Links — Links pointing to a specific section of a page (#section) that no longer exists.
How to Find Broken Links: 6 Proven Methods
1. Use Google Search Console (Free)
Google Search Console is the first place to check. It is free and comes directly from Google.
Here is how to use it:
- Log in to your Google Search Console account
- Go to Index > Coverage in the left menu
- Click on the “Error” tab
- Look for 404 errors in the list
- Click on any URL to see which pages link to it
This method shows you which broken pages Google has actually tried to crawl. It is reliable, but it only shows errors Google has discovered — not every broken link on your site.
2. Use Screaming Frog SEO Spider (Free up to 500 URLs)
Screaming Frog is the go-to tool for technical SEO audits. It crawls your entire website and flags every broken link it finds.
Steps to find broken links with Screaming Frog:
- Download and open Screaming Frog
- Enter your website URL in the search bar and click Start
- Wait for the crawl to finish
- Click on the “Response Codes” tab
- Filter by “4xx” to see all broken links
- Export the list as a CSV for easy reference
The free version handles up to 500 URLs. For larger sites, you will need the paid license (around $259/year).
3. Ahrefs Site Audit (Paid)
Ahrefs is one of the most powerful SEO tools available. Its Site Audit feature crawls your site like a search engine and gives you a full broken link report.
How to use it:
- Log in to Ahrefs and go to Site Audit
- Set up a new project for your website
- Run a full crawl
- Go to Issues > Links
- Filter for “Broken links” or “404 pages”
Ahrefs also shows you which external sites are linking to your broken pages — useful for reclaiming lost backlinks.
4. Semrush Site Audit (Paid)
Semrush works in a similar way to Ahrefs. After running a site audit, navigate to the “Errors” section and look for broken internal and external links.
The dashboard is clean and user-friendly. It also prioritizes issues by severity, so you know what to fix first.
5. Check for Broken Links Manually (Small Sites Only)
If you have a small blog or website with fewer than 50 pages, you can check links manually.
Use the Check My Links Chrome extension. It is free and quick:
- Install the extension from the Chrome Web Store
- Open any page on your website
- Click the extension icon
- It highlights all links — green for working, red for broken
This is great for a quick page-by-page check, but not practical for larger sites.
6. Use Broken Link Checker Plugin (WordPress Only)
If you run a WordPress site, the Broken Link Checker plugin makes life very easy.
After installation, it runs in the background and monitors all your links automatically. When it finds a broken link, it sends you an email alert.
You can also edit broken links directly from the plugin dashboard without opening individual posts — which saves a lot of time.
How to Find Broken External Backlinks
Finding broken links on your own site is one thing. But you also need to check if other websites are linking to broken pages on your site.
This is called lost link equity — valuable backlinks that are going nowhere because the page they point to no longer exists.
How to find them:
- Go to Ahrefs > Site Explorer
- Enter your domain
- Click on “Best by Links” and filter by “404”
- You will see a list of broken pages that still have backlinks pointing to them
Once you find these, either restore the original page or set up a 301 redirect to the most relevant live page. This recaptures the lost link equity.
How to Fix Broken Links After You Find Them
Finding broken links is only half the job. Here is what to do next:
| Situation | Recommended Fix |
|---|---|
| Page was moved or renamed | Set up a 301 redirect to the new URL |
| Page was deleted permanently | Redirect to the closest relevant page |
| Broken external link on your site | Update the link or remove it entirely |
| Typo in the URL | Fix the link in the post/page editor |
| Page no longer exists anywhere | Replace the link with a better resource |
When fixing internal links, update them in bulk using tools like Screaming Frog or your CMS’s built-in search. For WordPress users, the Better Search Replace plugin can find and update URLs across your entire database in minutes.
How Often Should You Check for Broken Links?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer, but here is a practical schedule based on site size:
| Website Size | Recommended Audit Frequency |
|---|---|
| Small (under 50 pages) | Every 3 months |
| Medium (50–500 pages) | Every month |
| Large (500+ pages) | Weekly (use automated tools) |
| E-commerce (thousands of pages) | Daily (automated monitoring essential) |
The key is consistency. A broken link that sits for months causes far more damage than one caught and fixed within a week.
Pro Tips for Broken Link Management
Set up 301 redirects proactively. Before you delete or move a page, always set up a redirect first. This prevents the link from ever becoming broken.
Monitor your site after a redesign. Website redesigns are the number one cause of mass broken link events. Always run a full crawl immediately after going live.
Build a link cleanup habit. When you update or delete old content, make it a habit to also update every internal link pointing to that page. This is part of how to optimize blog posts for SEO at a deeper technical level.
Use a redirect management plugin. On WordPress, tools like Redirection or Yoast SEO Premium can automatically detect when you change a URL and create a redirect for you.
Broken Link Building: An Advanced SEO Tactic
Here is a lesser-known strategy. You can actually use broken links on other websites as a link building opportunity.
The idea is simple:
- Find a high-authority website in your niche
- Run their pages through a tool like Ahrefs or Check My Links
- Find a broken external link they have on their site
- Create content on your site that matches what that broken link was pointing to
- Reach out to the site owner and suggest your page as a replacement
This works because you are solving a problem for the webmaster. They get a working link, you get a quality backlink. Win-win.
This kind of strategic content and link approach ties into building topical authority in SEO — when your site consistently covers a topic thoroughly, webmasters are more likely to accept your replacement link.
FAQs:
Q1: What is the fastest free way to find broken links?
Google Search Console is the fastest free option for any website. For WordPress sites, the Broken Link Checker plugin is even easier because it runs automatically in the background.
Q2: Do broken links really affect Google rankings?
Yes, they do. Broken links waste crawl budget, block link equity from flowing, and signal poor site maintenance to Google. Fixing them is one of the most straightforward technical SEO wins available.
Q3: How many broken links are too many?
Even one broken link is worth fixing. However, a handful of 404s on a large site is not a crisis. The real concern is when broken links are widespread, when they affect high-authority pages, or when they are causing crawl errors at scale.
Q4: Should I fix broken external links or internal links first?
Fix broken internal links first. They directly affect how Google crawls and indexes your site. Then move on to broken external links, which affect user experience and trust signals.
Q5: Can broken links get my site penalized?
Google does not issue manual penalties solely for broken links. However, a site with hundreds of broken links, slow speeds, and thin content collectively creates a poor quality signal. It is best practice to keep your site clean.
Q6: Is it okay to just delete a broken link instead of redirecting it?
For internal links, yes — if the content is no longer relevant, removing the link is fine. For pages that have external backlinks pointing to them, always set up a 301 redirect instead of simply deleting. You want to recover that link equity.
Q7: How do I find broken links on a competitor’s website?
Use Ahrefs Site Explorer or Semrush. Enter the competitor’s URL, navigate to their broken pages, and look for opportunities to pitch your own content as a replacement resource.
Conclusion
Broken links are easy to ignore — right up until they start costing you rankings and traffic.
The good news is that learning how to find broken links is not complicated. With tools like Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, and Ahrefs, you can run a full audit in under an hour. Then it is just a matter of fixing what you find and putting a monitoring system in place so problems do not pile up again.
Make broken link audits a regular part of your SEO workflow. Your rankings, your users, and your crawl efficiency will all thank you for it.
Start with a free crawl today — you might be surprised what you find.
