Check My Website for Broken Links Using Free Tools

Introduction: Why Broken Links Are a Big Deal

If you have a website – whether it is a personal blog, a small business site, or a large online store – broken links are one of the most common problems you will encounter. A broken link is simply a link that no longer works. When someone clicks on it, instead of reaching the intended page, they land on an error screen, usually something that says “404 Not Found.”

Think of your website like a library. Every link is a sign that points visitors to a specific book or shelf. Now imagine that some of those signs point to shelves that no longer exist, or to books that have been moved without updating the sign. Visitors get confused and frustrated. The same thing happens on a website with broken links.

Broken links are a problem for several important reasons:

• They hurt your visitors’ experience. People come to your website looking for help or information. If they click a link and get an error, they often leave your site and never come back.
• They damage your search engine rankings. Google and other search engines crawl your website by following links. When they find broken links, it signals poor website maintenance, which can push your site lower in search results.
• They make your website look unprofessional. Even one broken link can make a visitor question whether they can trust the content on your site.
• They can cause you to lose revenue. For online stores, a broken product page or checkout link could mean a lost sale.

The good news is that you do not need to be a web developer or a technical expert to find and fix broken links. There are excellent free tools available that can scan your entire website and show you exactly which links are broken. In this guide, we will walk through six of the best free tools, explaining how each one works, how to use it step by step, and when it is the right choice for your needs.

1. Google Search Console

What Is Google Search Console?

Google Search Console (often shortened to GSC) is a free service provided directly by Google. It is designed to help website owners understand how their site performs in Google Search. While it does many things – from showing which keywords bring visitors to your site, to alerting you about mobile usability issues – one of its most valuable features is its ability to identify crawl errors, which include broken links.

Google Search Console is unique because it shows you broken links from Google’s perspective. In other words, it tells you which pages Google could not access when it last crawled your website. This is extremely valuable because these are the exact errors that affect your Google search rankings.

How to Set Up Google Search Console

If you have not yet set up Google Search Console for your website, you will need to do so before using it to find broken links. Here is a simple step-by-step process:

1. Go to search.google.com/search-console and sign in with a Google account.
2. Click on “Add Property” and enter your website’s URL.
3. Verify ownership of your site. Google offers several methods for this, including adding a small snippet of code to your website’s homepage, uploading an HTML file to your server, or verifying through your domain provider. Choose whichever method is easiest for you.
4. Once verified, Google will begin collecting data about your website. Note that it may take a few days for data to appear.

Finding Broken Links in Google Search Console

Once your website is verified and Google has had time to crawl it, you can find broken links by following these steps:

5. Log in to Google Search Console and select your property (your website).
6. In the left-hand menu, look for the “Indexing” section and click on “Pages.”
7. Here you will see a list of reasons why some pages on your site are not indexed. Look for entries such as “Not found (404)” or “Soft 404.” These represent pages that Google tried to visit but could not find.
8. Click on any of these error types to see a list of specific URLs that are returning errors.
9. You can also check the “Coverage” report for a broader overview of which pages have issues.

Understanding the Results

When you look at the list of broken pages in Google Search Console, you might see two types of issues. The first type is pages on your own website that no longer exist but are still being linked to from other pages on your site. The second type is pages that other websites are trying to link to on your site, but which no longer exist.

Both types are important to fix. For pages that are gone permanently, you should either recreate the content or set up a “301 redirect” – which automatically sends visitors from the old broken URL to a relevant new page.

Pros and Cons of Google Search Console

• Pros: It is completely free, directly from Google, requires no software installation, and gives you Google’s exact view of your site’s health.
• Cons: It only shows links that Google has already crawled. It does not give you a real-time scan of your entire site, and it can take time to reflect recent changes.

Pro Tip: Google Search Console is best used as an ongoing monitoring tool. Set a reminder to check it once a week so you catch new broken links quickly before they affect your search rankings.

2. Broken Link Checker

What Is Broken Link Checker?

Broken Link Checker is a user-friendly online tool that allows you to scan a website for broken links without installing any software. You simply visit the website, enter your URL, and the tool does all the work. It is one of the most beginner-friendly options available, making it a great starting point for people who are new to website maintenance.

There are a few versions of Broken Link Checker available online. One of the most popular is the web-based tool at brokenlinkcheck.com. There is also a well-known WordPress plugin with the same name, which is discussed separately below.

How to Use the Online Broken Link Checker Tool

10. Open your web browser and go to brokenlinkcheck.com.
11. In the main text box on the homepage, type or paste your website’s full address. For example: https://www.yourwebsite.com
12. Click the “Find broken links” button.
13. The tool will begin crawling your website. For a small site, this may take just a minute or two. For larger sites with many pages, it could take longer.
14. Once the scan is complete, you will see a list of all broken links found on your website.

Understanding the Results

The results page will typically show you the following information for each broken link:

• The URL of the page on your website where the broken link was found.
• The actual broken link itself (the destination URL that is no longer working).
• The HTTP status code – for example, a 404 error means the page was not found, while a 500 error means there was a server problem.
• The anchor text, which is the visible clickable text of the broken link.

This information makes it easy to locate exactly where on your website the problem exists and what needs to be fixed.

The WordPress Plugin Version

If your website is built on WordPress, you may want to consider the Broken Link Checker WordPress plugin. It integrates directly into your WordPress dashboard and continuously monitors your site for broken links in the background.

To use it, log in to your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins, search for “Broken Link Checker,” install and activate it. Once active, it will automatically scan your content and notify you by email whenever a new broken link is found. You can also edit or unlink broken links directly from the plugin’s settings page without having to go into each post or page manually.

Pros and Cons of Broken Link Checker

• Pros: Very easy to use for beginners, no installation required for the web version, provides clear and actionable results, free to use.
• Cons: The free version of the web tool may have limitations on the number of pages it can scan. Very large websites may require a paid plan. The WordPress plugin can slow down your site if not properly configured.

Pro Tip: If you use the WordPress plugin, go into its settings and reduce the crawl speed to minimize any impact on your website’s performance. You can also schedule it to run during low-traffic hours.

3. Screaming Frog SEO Spider (Free Version)

What Is Screaming Frog SEO Spider?

Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a desktop software application that you download and install on your computer. It is one of the most powerful and widely used SEO tools in the world, trusted by digital marketing professionals, SEO experts, and website developers alike. While it has a paid version with unlimited features, the free version is remarkably capable and can scan up to 500 URLs on your website – which is more than enough for most small to medium-sized websites.

The tool is called a “spider” because it works the same way search engine bots do: it crawls through your website by following every link it finds, moving from page to page just like a spider moving across a web. As it crawls, it collects data about every URL, image, script, and link on your site.

How to Download and Install Screaming Frog

15. Visit www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/ in your web browser.
16. Click the download button. The tool is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
17. Once downloaded, open the installer file and follow the on-screen instructions to install it on your computer.
18. Launch the application. You do not need to enter any license key to use the free version.

How to Use Screaming Frog to Find Broken Links

19. Open Screaming Frog SEO Spider on your computer.
20. In the search bar at the top of the application, type your website’s full URL and press Enter or click “Start.”
21. The tool will begin crawling your website. You will see the progress bar filling up and URLs appearing in the main window as it scans.
22. Once the crawl is complete, look at the tabs at the top of the results area. Click on the “Response Codes” tab.
23. In the filter dropdown, select “Client Error (4xx)” to see all 404 and other client error responses. These are your broken links.
24. You can also click the “Inlinks” tab at the bottom of the screen for any selected URL to see exactly which pages on your site are linking to that broken URL.

What the Results Tell You

Screaming Frog provides a highly detailed report. For each broken link, you can see the full URL of the broken page, the status code, the page where the broken link lives, and the anchor text used for the link. You can export all this data to a spreadsheet by going to File and clicking Export. This makes it easy to share the report with a developer or work through the fixes systematically.

Other Useful Features of the Free Version

While finding broken links is one key use, Screaming Frog’s free version also lets you check for missing page titles and meta descriptions, identify duplicate content, find pages with missing header tags, and review redirects to make sure they are working correctly.

Pros and Cons of Screaming Frog Free Version

• Pros: Extremely detailed and accurate, trusted by SEO professionals, works on your local computer so no data is sent to third-party servers, supports export to spreadsheets.
• Cons: Limited to 500 URLs in the free version, requires software installation, can be slightly more complex for absolute beginners compared to web-based tools.

Pro Tip: After running a crawl, use the “Filter” dropdown under Response Codes to quickly isolate just the broken links. Then use the “Export” feature to save the list as a CSV file and work through fixing each one.

4. W3C Link Checker

What Is the W3C Link Checker?

The W3C Link Checker is a free online tool maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which is the international organization that sets the technical standards for the web. Because it comes from the organization that literally defines how the internet should work, it carries a high level of credibility and accuracy.

The W3C Link Checker is particularly useful for developers and website owners who want to verify links on a specific page in detail. It is thorough and technically precise, checking not just for broken links but also for redirects, anchors, and other technical link issues that other tools might miss.

How to Use the W3C Link Checker

25. Open your browser and go to validator.w3.org/checklink.
26. In the “URI” field, enter the full URL of the page you want to check. Note that this tool typically checks one page at a time, not your entire site at once.
27. You have a few optional settings you can adjust. You can check the box for “Check linked documents recursively” to have it follow links and check those pages as well, though this can take much longer.
28. You can also set the “Depth” option to control how many levels of links the tool follows from your starting page.
29. Once you have entered your settings, click “Check.”
30. The tool will process the page and return a detailed report.

Understanding the W3C Link Checker Report

The W3C Link Checker categorizes its findings clearly. Links are marked as broken if they return error codes. It also shows redirects, noting when a link is being forwarded from one URL to another. This is useful because even though redirects work, too many redirect chains can slow down your website. The tool also flags anchors, which are links that jump to specific sections of a page, if those sections no longer exist.

One important feature is that the W3C Link Checker attempts to access links multiple times before declaring them broken, which reduces the number of false positives. A false positive is when a tool incorrectly marks a working link as broken.

When to Use the W3C Link Checker

The W3C Link Checker is ideal for situations where you need to check a small number of specific pages in detail. For example, if you have just updated a key landing page or blog post and want to make sure all the links on that page are working correctly, this tool is perfect. It is also a great choice if you need a technically precise report to share with a developer.

Pros and Cons of W3C Link Checker

• Pros: Free, highly accurate, from a trusted source, checks for multiple types of link issues including redirects and anchors, no installation required.
• Cons: Best suited for single-page checks rather than full-site scans, can be slow for pages with many links, the interface is more technical and may feel less intuitive for beginners.

Pro Tip: Use the W3C Link Checker alongside a full-site tool. Let another tool like Screaming Frog or Broken Link Checker identify which pages have issues, then use W3C to do a deep and thorough check of those specific problem pages.

5. Dead Link Checker

What Is Dead Link Checker?

Dead Link Checker is another straightforward online tool that focuses specifically on finding broken links – often called “dead links” – across your website. It is designed to be simple and accessible, requiring no technical knowledge to use. You enter your website URL, and the tool crawls your site and reports back with any broken links it finds.

Dead Link Checker is available at www.deadlinkchecker.com and can be used completely free of charge for most purposes. It offers both a single-page check and a full-site check, giving you flexibility depending on how thorough you need the scan to be.

How to Use Dead Link Checker

31. Visit www.deadlinkchecker.com in your web browser.
32. On the homepage, you will see a text field where you can enter your website URL. Type or paste your URL into the field.
33. Choose whether you want to check a single page or your entire website using the available options.
34. Click the “Check” button to begin the scan.
35. The tool will start crawling your website and display results in real time as it finds broken links.
36. When the scan is finished, you will have a complete list of all dead links found.

Understanding the Results

Dead Link Checker presents its results in a clear, easy-to-read format. For each dead link, it shows the page where the broken link is located, the destination URL that is broken, and the HTTP status code. It color-codes results, typically using red to highlight broken links, which makes it very easy to see at a glance how many problems you have and where they are.

One useful feature of Dead Link Checker is that it attempts to distinguish between genuinely broken links and links that may have just been temporarily unavailable at the time of the scan. This helps you focus on real, persistent problems rather than chasing temporary server hiccups.

The Multi-Page and Scheduled Check Features

Dead Link Checker offers an option to check multiple URLs at once by entering them as a list. This is helpful if you have multiple websites or if you want to check several specific sections of a large site. There is also a feature that allows you to schedule regular automatic checks, so you can have the tool scan your site every week or month and send you a report by email. This scheduled check feature is particularly useful for staying on top of link maintenance without having to remember to do it manually.

Pros and Cons of Dead Link Checker

• Pros: Very beginner-friendly, real-time results display, free for basic use, option to schedule automated checks, supports checking multiple pages at once.
• Cons: The free version may have limits on how many pages it checks per scan. Some advanced features may require a paid account. Not as detailed or technically thorough as Screaming Frog.

Pro Tip: Take advantage of the scheduling feature. Setting up a monthly automated check means you will never go months without realizing you have broken links building up on your site.

6. Xenu’s Link Sleuth

What Is Xenu’s Link Sleuth?

Xenu’s Link Sleuth is a free downloadable software tool for Windows computers that has been around for a very long time – in fact, it has been a favourite of web developers and SEO professionals since the late 1990s. Despite its age, it remains a reliable and effective tool for finding broken links on websites.

The name might sound quirky, but Xenu is simply the name the developer chose, and “Link Sleuth” describes exactly what the tool does: it acts like a detective, investigating every link on your website to find the ones that are broken.

How to Download and Install Xenu’s Link Sleuth

37. Search for “Xenu Link Sleuth” in your browser, or go to home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html.
38. Download the installation file from the official page.
39. Open the downloaded file and follow the installation wizard to install the program on your Windows computer.
40. Once installed, open Xenu’s Link Sleuth from your Start menu or desktop shortcut.

How to Use Xenu’s Link Sleuth to Find Broken Links

41. Open the application. You will see a simple, clean interface.
42. Click on “File” in the top menu, then select “Check URL.”
43. A dialog box will appear. Enter your website’s full URL in the field provided.
44. You have the option to check external links (links that go to other websites) or limit the check to just your own site’s internal links. For a complete check, leave both options enabled.
45. Click OK to start the scan. Xenu will begin crawling your website and you will see links appearing in real time in the main window.
46. Broken links are highlighted in red, making them very easy to spot among the results.

Understanding and Saving the Results

As Xenu crawls your site, you will see a constantly updating table showing each URL, its status (OK or broken), and the HTTP status code. Once the scan is complete, you can generate a detailed HTML report by going to File and clicking “Create Report.” This report opens in your web browser and gives you a nicely formatted list of all broken links, the pages they were found on, and their status codes. You can save this report as a file to refer back to later.

Why Xenu Is Still Worth Using

You might wonder why anyone would use software from the 1990s when modern online tools are available. The answer is that Xenu is extremely fast, handles large websites very well, and is completely free with no limitations on the number of URLs it can check. For people running larger websites with thousands of pages, Xenu can be significantly faster than some online tools. It is also entirely private – all processing happens on your own computer.

Pros and Cons of Xenu’s Link Sleuth

• Pros: Completely free with no URL limits, fast and efficient, generates a detailed HTML report, handles large sites well, no data is sent to external servers.
• Cons: Only available for Windows, interface looks dated compared to modern tools, not actively updated with new features, may occasionally trigger antivirus warnings (it is safe but scans network activity extensively).

Pro Tip: When using Xenu on a large website, click on a broken link in the results to see at the bottom of the screen which page on your site is linking to it. This saves time hunting for the source of the problem.

Comparing the Six Tools: Which One Should You Use?

Now that we have covered all six tools in detail, you might be wondering which one is the right choice for your specific situation. The honest answer is that different tools are better suited to different needs. Here is a quick breakdown to help you decide:

Use Google Search Console if…

You want to see your website through Google’s eyes and track SEO-related link issues over time. It is the only tool that directly reflects what Google’s crawlers have encountered on your site, making it essential for anyone who cares about search engine rankings. Use it as your ongoing monitoring tool.

Use Broken Link Checker if…

You want the simplest possible experience and just need a quick scan without installing anything. It is ideal for beginners and for small websites. The WordPress plugin version is a great fit for blog owners who want automated monitoring built directly into their site.

Use Screaming Frog Free Version if…

You need a detailed, professional-grade report and your website has fewer than 500 pages. It is the most powerful free tool available and is used by professional SEO consultants worldwide. It is also the best choice if you need to export data to a spreadsheet for tracking and reporting.

Use W3C Link Checker if…

You need to do a thorough technical check of a specific page rather than your whole website. It is particularly useful before launching a new page or after making changes to key content, to ensure every link is working correctly.

Use Dead Link Checker if…

You want an easy-to-use online tool that also offers scheduling features. Setting up automatic monthly scans means you can maintain your site’s link health without constant manual effort.

Use Xenu’s Link Sleuth if…

You are a Windows user with a large website and need a fast, unlimited free tool. Its speed and lack of URL limits make it ideal for large sites, and the HTML report it generates is detailed and easy to read.

How to Fix Broken Links Once You Find Them

Finding broken links is only half the job. Once you have your list, you need to fix them. Here is a straightforward process for doing that:

Step 1: Prioritize the Broken Links

Not all broken links are equally important. Start by fixing broken links on your most-visited pages, your homepage, and any pages that rank well in search engines. These have the highest impact on both your visitors and your SEO.

Step 2: Determine the Cause

For each broken link, figure out why it is broken. Common reasons include the destination page was deleted, the URL was changed without updating the link, the external website you linked to has gone offline, or you made a typo when adding the link.

Step 3: Choose the Right Fix

• If the page still exists but the URL changed: Update the link to the new correct URL.
• If the page was deleted from your own site: Either restore the page, create a new page with similar content, or set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the most relevant existing page.
• If the link points to an external site that is gone: Remove the link or replace it with a link to a similar, currently active source.
• If it was a typo: Simply correct the URL.

Step 4: Document Your Changes

Keep a simple log of the broken links you found, what caused them, and how you fixed them. This helps you track your progress and provides a reference if the same issue occurs in the future.

Step 5: Scan Again to Confirm

After making your fixes, run another scan with your chosen tool to confirm that the broken links have been resolved and that no new ones have appeared.

Preventing Broken Links in the Future

While fixing broken links when you find them is essential, prevention is even better. Here are some practical habits that will help you keep broken links to a minimum going forward:

• Check links before publishing new content. Whenever you write a new article, create a new page, or update existing content, make sure every link you add is working before you publish.
• Be careful when renaming or deleting pages. Whenever you change a URL or remove a page from your website, update or remove any internal links that pointed to it. If other websites link to that page, set up a 301 redirect so those links do not become broken.
• Avoid linking to unstable external sources. Some websites go offline or restructure their content frequently. Be selective about the external sites you link to, and prefer reputable, established websites.
• Schedule regular link audits. Use one of the tools described in this guide to run a complete scan of your website at least once a month. Catching broken links early prevents them from affecting your SEO or visitor experience for long.
• Use a monitoring plugin or service. For WordPress users, the Broken Link Checker plugin monitors your site continuously in the background. For other platforms, tools like Dead Link Checker’s scheduled scan feature can automate this process.

Conclusion

Broken links are a common but completely manageable problem. With the six free tools covered in this guide – Google Search Console, Broken Link Checker, Screaming Frog SEO Spider, W3C Link Checker, Dead Link Checker, and Xenu’s Link Sleuth – you have everything you need to find and fix broken links on any website, regardless of its size or platform.

Each tool has its strengths, and you do not need to use all of them. Start with the one that feels most comfortable for your level of experience and your website’s size. Google Search Console is an essential foundation for anyone serious about SEO. For quick manual scans, Broken Link Checker or Dead Link Checker are excellent choices. If you want the most detailed results and are comfortable downloading software, Screaming Frog and Xenu are outstanding free options. And for checking specific pages with technical precision, W3C Link Checker is hard to beat.

The most important thing is to start. Do not wait until your visitors are complaining about errors or until your search rankings drop. Run a scan today, fix what you find, and set up a regular schedule to keep your website healthy and professional.

A website with clean, working links is not just better for SEO – it creates a better experience for every person who visits it. And in the end, that is what really matters.

About the Author

Jay Patel is the Founder of XSquareSEO, a full-service SEO agency with experience in on-page SEO, eCommerce SEO, link building, technical SEO, SaaS SEO, and local SEO. For more information, feel free to contact us. 

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