Free Broken Link Checker

Why Broken Links Hurt Your SEO

Broken links (links that lead to 404 error pages) damage your website in multiple ways. They waste Google's crawl budget, create poor user experience, and can cause you to lose link equity from valuable backlinks pointing to dead pages.

Google has confirmed that sites with many broken links may be seen as lower quality. Regular broken link audits should be part of your SEO maintenance routine.

• Broken links waste crawl budget on 404 pages
• Users who hit dead ends are likely to bounce
• Inbound links to broken pages lose their SEO value
• Fix broken links with 301 redirects to preserve link equity

How to Fix Broken Links

After identifying broken links, you have several options depending on the situation:

• Update the URL if the page moved to a new location
• Set up a 301 redirect using the .htaccess redirect generator
• Remove the link if the destination no longer exists
• Replace with an alternative link to similar content

For a comprehensive check of all SEO issues (not just broken links), run a full SEO audit.