What is a broken link?
What makes a link broken, internal versus external, the real costs (crawl budget, stranded link equity, UX), and the fix: redirect moved pages and repair or remove dead links.
A broken link is a link that points to a page that no longer works — usually one returning a 404 Not Found or 410 Gone, or a URL that errors or no longer resolves. Every site accumulates them over time as pages move, get deleted, or are renamed. A few are harmless; left to build up, they quietly erode both the visitor experience and how efficiently your site is crawled.
What makes a link “broken”
The target does not return a working page. Most often that is a 404 (the page is not found) or a 410 (it is intentionally gone), but a link can also break because of a typo in the URL, a server error, or a domain that no longer resolves. The link still looks like a link — it is clickable — it just leads nowhere useful.
What causes them
The common sources are deleted or moved pages that were not redirected, renamed URL slugs where the old links were never updated, typos in a hand-written href, a restructured site that changed paths wholesale, and, for outbound links, external sites removing pages you had linked to. That last category is why external links break through no fault of your own and need occasional re-checking.
Why they matter
User experience. A dead end frustrates visitors and sends them back to search. Crawl budget. Googlebot spends fetches discovering that links go nowhere — effort that could have gone to real pages. Link equity. An internal link to a 404 passes its authority into a void instead of to a live page that could rank. Quality signals. A site riddled with broken links reads as neglected. And a broken page that returns the wrong status can become a soft 404, confusing Google about what is really there.
Internal versus external broken links
The distinction decides the fix. Internal broken links point within your own site — they are entirely your responsibility and entirely fixable, and they are the ones that waste your crawl budget and strand your link equity, so they come first. External broken links point to other sites that have since removed or moved a page; you cannot fix their end, so you monitor these and update or remove the link when it dies.
How to fix them
For a page that moved, add a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one so existing links keep working. For a broken link inside your own content, correct or replace the URL. For an outbound link to a page that is permanently gone, update it to a live equivalent or remove it. And make sure genuinely missing pages return a proper 404 with a helpful page, rather than a soft 404 that pretends to be fine.
How to check yours
Our broken link checker crawls a page and lists the links that fail, separating the dead ends from the working ones so you can fix them in one pass. The HTTP header checker confirms the exact status code a given URL returns, which is how you tell a true 404 from a page that is broken but wrongly reporting success.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a broken link?
- A broken link is a link pointing to a page that no longer works — typically one returning a 404 Not Found or 410 Gone, or a URL that errors or fails to resolve. The link is still clickable, but it leads nowhere useful. Sites accumulate broken links over time as pages are moved, deleted, or renamed.
- Do broken links hurt SEO?
- Not through a direct penalty — Google doesn't dock rankings for the occasional 404. The harm is indirect: broken internal links strand link equity that should flow to live pages, waste crawl budget on dead ends, and signal a neglected site. Fixing them protects user experience and crawl efficiency rather than lifting rankings directly.
- What is the difference between internal and external broken links?
- Internal broken links point within your own site, so they're your responsibility and fully fixable — and they're the ones that waste your crawl budget and strand your link equity, so fix them first. External broken links point to other sites that removed or moved a page; you can't fix their end, so monitor them and update or remove the link when it dies.
- What causes broken links?
- Common causes are deleted or moved pages that weren't redirected, renamed URL slugs where old links weren't updated, typos in a URL, a restructured site that changed paths, and — for outbound links — external sites removing pages you'd linked to. That last case means external links can break with no action on your part.
- How do I fix broken links?
- For a page that moved, add a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. For a broken link in your own content, correct or replace the URL. For an outbound link to a page that's permanently gone, point it to a live equivalent or remove it. Ensure genuinely missing pages return a proper 404 rather than a misleading soft 404.
- How do I find broken links on my site?
- Use a broken link checker, which crawls a page and lists the links that fail, separating dead ends from working links. To confirm the exact problem, an HTTP header checker shows the status code a URL returns, letting you distinguish a true 404 from a broken page that wrongly reports success.