Broken links are one of those problems that accumulate silently over time. Every page you delete without redirecting, every external site that removes a resource you link to, every URL you mistype in a post — they all create broken links that waste Googlebot's crawl budget, lose link equity, and frustrate visitors. Finding and fixing them is one of the fastest technical SEO wins available.

Quick Answer: To find broken links on your website, run your domain through our free broken link checker which crawls every page and reports every URL returning a 404 error. For each broken link, either redirect the broken URL to a relevant live page (if the page was deleted), update the link to the correct URL (if it was a typo), or remove the link entirely (if the destination no longer exists). Fix internal broken links first — they waste your crawl budget and lose your own link equity.

Step 1: Run a full broken link scan of your website

The fastest way to find every broken link on your site is to use our free broken link checker:

  1. Go to our broken link checker
  2. Enter your website's homepage URL
  3. Click Scan
  4. Wait for the scan to complete — it crawls every page on your site, following every link
  5. Download or review the report showing every broken URL and which pages contain those links

The report shows you two critical pieces of information for every broken link: the URL that is broken (returning a 404 or error) and the page on your site that contains the link to it. Both pieces are needed to fix the problem efficiently.

Step 2: Also check Search Console for crawl errors

Google Search Console captures additional broken link data from Googlebot's perspective:

  1. Open Search Console
  2. Go to Coverage → Not Found (404)
  3. Click on any URL to see which pages on your site link to it

Search Console is particularly valuable for finding broken links that only Googlebot follows — links in XML sitemaps, links in less-visited page templates, and historical links from pages that have since been updated.

Step 3: Triage broken links by type — internal vs external

Broken links fall into two categories with different priority levels:

Internal broken links (your site links to your own deleted or moved page) — highest priority. These waste your crawl budget, lose internal link equity, and create a poor user experience. Fix these first.

External broken links (your site links to another site's page that has moved or been deleted) — moderate priority. These hurt user experience and signal poor site maintenance to Google, but do not waste your crawl budget directly.

Step 4: Fix internal broken links

For each internal broken link, choose the right fix based on the situation:

Situation A: You deleted a page that had real SEO value (backlinks, rankings, traffic)

  1. Restore the page if the content is still relevant
  2. Or create a 301 redirect from the deleted URL to the most relevant live page on your site
  3. And update the internal links pointing to it to point directly to the new URL (eliminating the redirect hop)

Situation B: You moved a page to a new URL without redirecting

  1. Set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new URL
  2. Update all internal links pointing to the old URL to point directly to the new URL

Situation C: You have a typo in an internal link

  1. Find the page containing the broken link
  2. Edit the link to point to the correct URL

Step 5: Fix external broken links

For each external link pointing to a dead page on another site:

  • Check whether the page moved — search the title of the page or the main topic to see if it was published at a new URL. If so, update your link to the new URL.
  • Remove the link if no replacement exists — a link to nowhere is worse than no link at all. Delete the anchor text or replace it with a different, live resource.
  • Consider broken link building — if you find an external site linking to YOUR content that is broken, that is a separate opportunity: you have a page that fills the gap, reach out and suggest your URL as the replacement.

Step 6: Set up regular monthly broken link monitoring

Broken links accumulate continuously — as you publish new content, update URLs, and external sites change their pages. Fix them once is not enough; they need monthly maintenance.

  • Schedule a monthly broken link scan using our broken link checker
  • Fix new broken links immediately when found — before they compound
  • After any site migration or major content update, run an immediate scan to catch new issues

Step 7: Prevent future broken links with good site hygiene

  • When deleting any page, immediately set up a 301 redirect from its URL to the most relevant replacement
  • When moving a page, always redirect the old URL
  • Before publishing, check any external URLs you link to are actually live
  • Use descriptive, stable URL structures that you will not need to change later

Summary: How to find and fix broken links

  • Step 1: Run a full site scan with our broken link checker — get every broken URL and which pages contain them
  • Step 2: Also check Search Console Coverage → Not Found for Googlebot-perspective crawl errors
  • Step 3: Triage by type — fix internal broken links first, then external
  • Step 4: Fix internal broken links with 301 redirects, restored pages, or direct URL updates
  • Step 5: Fix external broken links by updating to new URLs or removing dead links
  • Step 6: Schedule monthly scans — broken links accumulate continuously
  • Step 7: Always redirect deleted pages immediately to prevent future accumulation

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