If you have ever clicked on a link and been greeted by a frustrating “404 – Page Not Found” error, you have already encountered a broken link. It is one of those small but surprisingly damaging issues that affects websites of all sizes – from personal blogs to large e-commerce platforms. Broken links make a website look unprofessional, frustrate visitors, and – perhaps most importantly – hurt your search engine rankings.
In this article, we will explain exactly what broken links are, why they happen, how they damage your SEO, and – most importantly – what you can do to fix them. Whether you are a beginner just starting out with your first website or a seasoned digital marketer looking for a refresher, this guide has everything you need to understand and tackle broken links once and for all.
Table Of Contents
1. What Are Broken Links?
A broken link is a hyperlink on a web page that no longer works. When someone clicks on it, instead of being taken to the intended destination, they encounter an error message – usually a 404 error, which means the page cannot be found. Broken links are also called dead links or link rot.
Think of a link as a bridge between two web pages. When that bridge is intact, users and search engines can travel from one page to another without any problem. But when a link is broken, the bridge collapses. The user ends up stranded, and search engine crawlers cannot move forward either.
Broken links can occur anywhere on a website – in the navigation menu, within the body of a blog post, on product pages, in the footer, or even within image links. They can point to internal pages (pages within your own website) or external pages (pages on other websites).
Understanding the 404 Error
The most common error you will see when clicking a broken link is the HTTP 404 status code. This is the web server’s way of saying: “I received your request, but I cannot find the page you are asking for.” However, broken links can also trigger other error codes, such as:
- 400 Bad Request – The URL is malformed or invalid.
- 403 Forbidden – The page exists, but the user does not have permission to view it.
- 410 Gone – The page existed before but has been permanently deleted.
- 500 Internal Server Error – Something went wrong on the server side.
- 503 Service Unavailable – The server is temporarily down or overloaded.
Types of Broken Links
There are two main types of broken links:
Internal Broken Links
These are links that point to other pages within your own website. For example, if you have a blog post that links to another article on your website, but you deleted or renamed that article, the link becomes broken. Internal broken links are entirely within your control, which means you can fix them directly.
External Broken Links
These are links that point to pages on other websites. You have no control over external websites, so if a page you linked to gets deleted, moved, or the site shuts down entirely, your link becomes broken. For example, if you link to a news article as a reference and the news site later removes that article, your link will stop working.
2. Common Causes of Broken Links
Broken links do not appear out of nowhere. They almost always happen for a specific reason. Understanding these causes is the first step toward preventing them. Here are the most common reasons why links break:
1. Page Deleted or Removed
This is the most frequent cause. When a web page is deleted – whether because the content was outdated, a product was discontinued, or the site was redesigned – all incoming links to that page instantly become broken. If you linked to that page from anywhere else on your site or from an external source, those links will now lead to a dead end.
2. URL Changed Without a Redirect
URLs can change for many reasons – a site migration, a CMS update, a change in URL structure, or even a simple typo correction. If the old URL is not redirected to the new one (using what is called a 301 redirect), every link pointing to the old URL will break. This is one of the easiest mistakes to make and one of the most common causes of broken links on established websites.
3. Typos in the URL
Something as simple as a misspelled word or an extra character in a URL can result in a broken link. For example, if you type “https://example.com/blgo-post” instead of “https://example.com/blog-post”, the link will not work. Manual entry of links is especially prone to this type of error.
4. External Websites Going Offline
When you link to content on another website, you are dependent on that site staying online and keeping its content at the same URL. If the external website shuts down, goes offline for an extended period, or restructures its content, your link to it will break. This is completely outside your control, but it still affects your users and your SEO.
5. Domain Name Changes
Businesses rebrand, merge, or change ownership all the time, and with that often comes a change in domain name. If a site you have linked to moves from “www.oldname.com” to “www.newname.com” without putting proper redirects in place, every link you have to the old domain will break.
6. Website Migrations Gone Wrong
When a website migrates to a new platform – for example, switching from an old CMS to WordPress, or switching from HTTP to HTTPS – the entire URL structure can change. Without proper redirects mapping old URLs to new ones, hundreds or even thousands of links can break overnight. This is why website migrations require careful planning and thorough post-migration audits.
7. Firewall or Geo-Restrictions
Sometimes a link is not truly broken everywhere, but it is inaccessible to certain users due to geo-blocking, firewall restrictions, or country-based content regulations. A user in one country may be able to access a page just fine, while someone in another country gets an error. These are sometimes called “soft” broken links.
8. Expired or Moved Resources
Links to downloadable files like PDFs, videos, images, or documents can also break if those files are moved to a different folder, renamed, or deleted from the server. Similarly, links to external resources like YouTube videos, social media posts, or press releases can break if the content creator removes them.
3. The Impact of Broken Links on SEO
Broken links are not just a minor annoyance – they can have a real and measurable negative impact on your website’s search engine optimization (SEO). Let’s break down exactly how they hurt your rankings and overall online presence.
1. Crawl Errors and Wasted Crawl Budget
Search engines like Google use automated programs called bots or crawlers to explore websites and index their content. These crawlers follow links to discover new pages and update their understanding of your site’s structure. When a crawler hits a broken link, it encounters an error and cannot follow that path any further.
Every website has a “crawl budget” – a limit on how many pages Google will crawl and index during each visit. If your site has many broken links, crawlers waste valuable crawl budget following dead ends instead of discovering and indexing your useful content. Over time, this can result in important pages being missed or not updated in search results.
2. Loss of Link Equity (Link Juice)
In SEO, the term “link equity” (often called “link juice”) refers to the value and authority that passes from one page to another through hyperlinks. When a reputable website links to one of your pages, that page gains credibility in the eyes of search engines. This helps it rank higher.
Now, if that linked page no longer exists (resulting in a 404 error), all of that link equity is lost. It simply disappears into a dead end rather than flowing through your site and boosting your rankings. This is particularly damaging when high-authority sites are linking to your broken pages.
3. Poor User Experience Signals
Google pays close attention to how users behave on your website. When visitors land on a broken page, they almost always leave immediately – a behavior known as “bouncing.” A high bounce rate signals to search engines that your site is not delivering a good experience to users.
Over time, consistently poor user experience signals can cause Google to lower your site’s overall ranking. Users who cannot find what they are looking for are also less likely to return to your site, reducing your traffic and engagement metrics over time.
4. Damage to Domain Authority
Domain authority is a measure of how trustworthy and credible a website is in the eyes of search engines. A website riddled with broken links gives the impression of being poorly maintained and unreliable. Search engines factor this into their ranking algorithms. Consistently having broken links across your site can gradually erode your domain authority, making it harder for all of your pages to rank well – not just the ones with broken links.
5. Negative Impact on Indexing
Pages that cannot be reached by crawlers because all paths leading to them are broken links may not get indexed at all. If a page is not indexed, it will not appear in search results – period. This means all the effort you put into writing and optimizing that content goes to waste.
6. Broken Backlinks Are Especially Harmful
Backlinks – links from other websites pointing to yours – are one of the most powerful ranking factors in SEO. But if those backlinks point to pages that no longer exist on your site, they become worthless. Worse, if your competitors have working pages with strong backlinks and yours are broken, you fall further behind in the rankings without even realizing it.
4. Impact of Broken Links on User Experience
Beyond SEO, broken links have a direct and immediate impact on the people visiting your website. User experience (UX) is critically important for keeping visitors engaged, building trust, and converting visitors into customers or readers.
Frustration and Loss of Trust
When a user clicks a link and ends up on an error page, it breaks the flow of their browsing experience. Imagine reading an article that references an important study, clicking the link to learn more, and being met with a “Page Not Found” error. It is frustrating. If this happens multiple times on the same site, users lose confidence in the website and are unlikely to return.
Lost Conversions and Revenue
For e-commerce websites, broken links can be directly tied to lost revenue. If a link to a product page is broken, a potential customer cannot complete their purchase. If a call-to-action button leads to a 404 page, the entire conversion funnel collapses at that point. Even one broken link in a checkout flow can cost a business significant sales.
Negative Brand Perception
Broken links signal to users that a website is not being actively maintained. This is particularly damaging for professional businesses, law firms, medical practices, financial institutions, or any organization where credibility and trust are paramount. A broken link on a company website can make a potential client question whether the business is still operating or cares about quality.
5. How to Find Broken Links on Your Website
The first step to fixing broken links is finding them. Manually checking every link on a large website would take forever, but thankfully, there are tools and methods that make this process quick and straightforward.
1. Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free tool provided by Google that every website owner should use. It gives you a direct view of how Google sees your site. Under the “Coverage” or “Pages” report, you can find pages that are returning 404 errors. Under “Links,” you can identify which external sites are pointing to broken pages on your website.
Google Search Console is especially valuable for finding broken backlinks – links from external websites pointing to dead pages on your site. Since these links represent lost SEO value, finding and reclaiming them is an important part of any SEO strategy.
2. Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Screaming Frog is a desktop-based website crawler that mimics how search engines crawl your site. It visits every page, follows every link, and reports back on the HTTP status code of each one. You can quickly identify all 404 errors, broken images, redirect chains, and other link-related issues. The free version allows you to crawl up to 500 URLs, making it suitable for smaller websites.
3. Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz
Premium SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz offer site audit features that can detect broken links both on and off your website. These tools are particularly powerful because they also show you broken backlinks – links from other websites pointing to your dead pages – and can help you track the authority of those lost links.
4. W3C Link Checker
The W3C Link Checker is a free, simple online tool provided by the World Wide Web Consortium. You simply enter your website’s URL, and it checks all the links on that page (and optionally, all linked pages) for errors. It is a great quick-check tool for smaller sites or individual pages.
5. Broken Link Checker Plugins (for WordPress)
If your website is built on WordPress, there are dedicated plugins such as “Broken Link Checker” that automatically monitor your site in the background. They notify you via the dashboard or email whenever a broken link is detected. This is a convenient hands-off approach for website owners who want continuous monitoring without running manual checks.
6. How to Fix Broken Links
Once you have identified broken links, it is time to fix them. The right approach depends on the type of broken link and whether the destination content still exists elsewhere. Here are the main strategies:
1. Update the Link to the Correct URL
If the page has simply moved to a new URL, the easiest fix is to update the link in your content to point to the correct new address. Log into your website’s CMS (like WordPress), find the page or post containing the broken link, edit the link, and save the changes. This is the cleanest solution because it updates the link at the source.
2. Set Up 301 Redirects
A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect that automatically sends users and search engine crawlers from an old URL to a new one. When you delete a page or change its URL, setting up a 301 redirect ensures that anyone who visits the old URL will be seamlessly taken to the new destination – without seeing an error message.
301 redirects are also crucial for preserving link equity. When a 301 redirect is in place, a large portion of the SEO value from backlinks to the old URL is passed on to the new URL. Without the redirect, that value is lost entirely.
On WordPress, you can set up redirects using plugins like Redirection or Yoast SEO. On other platforms, redirects can be set up in the .htaccess file (for Apache servers) or the nginx configuration file.
3. Remove the Broken Link
If a linked resource no longer exists and there is no suitable replacement, the cleanest solution is to simply remove the broken link from your content. While this may result in losing a reference, it is better than leaving a broken link that frustrates users and signals poor maintenance to search engines.
4. Replace With an Equivalent Resource
Rather than simply removing a broken link, consider finding a different, high-quality page that covers the same topic and linking to that instead. This is particularly useful for external links. For example, if you linked to a study that has since been removed, search for the same study published elsewhere, or find a newer, more relevant study and link to that.
5. Recreate the Missing Page
If you accidentally deleted an internal page that had significant incoming links (either internal links or valuable backlinks from other websites), consider recreating that page with fresh, updated content. Then set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. This helps recover lost link equity and restores a resource that users and search engines were expecting to find.
6. Create a Custom 404 Page
While a custom 404 page does not fix broken links, it significantly improves the experience for users who do land on a missing page. A good custom 404 page includes a helpful message, a search bar, links to popular sections of the site, and a clear navigation menu. This gives users a way to continue browsing your site instead of leaving out of frustration.
7. Reclaim Broken Backlinks
This is an advanced but very valuable SEO strategy. Using a tool like Ahrefs or SEMrush, find all the backlinks pointing to broken pages on your site. Then set up 301 redirects from those broken URLs to the most relevant live pages on your site. This allows you to reclaim the SEO value from those backlinks, turning what was a loss into a gain.
7. How to Prevent Broken Links in the Future
Fixing broken links is important, but preventing them from happening in the first place is even better. Here are some best practices that can dramatically reduce the number of broken links your website accumulates over time.
Always Set Up Redirects When Changing URLs
Make it a rule: whenever you change a URL, delete a page, or restructure your website, always put a 301 redirect in place. This should be a non-negotiable step in your publishing and site maintenance workflow. Many SEO teams keep a redirect mapping document that tracks old URLs and where they should point to.
Conduct Regular Link Audits
Do not wait for users to report broken links to you. Schedule regular link audits – perhaps monthly or quarterly depending on the size of your site – using tools like Screaming Frog or a plugin. The earlier you catch a broken link, the less damage it causes. Proactive maintenance is always preferable to reactive repair.
Be Careful With External Links
When linking to external websites, choose established, reputable sources that are less likely to disappear. Avoid linking to individual social media posts or user-generated content that can be deleted easily. Prefer linking to official websites, academic institutions, government sources, or major news organizations where content is more stable.
Plan Website Migrations Carefully
If you are planning a website migration – switching platforms, moving to HTTPS, changing your URL structure, or rebranding – plan it meticulously. Before the migration, crawl your entire site and document all existing URLs. After the migration, verify that every old URL redirects properly to the correct new URL. Test thoroughly before making the new site live.
Use Monitoring Tools
Set up automated monitoring so that broken links are flagged as soon as they appear. Google Search Console will alert you to crawl errors. WordPress plugins can send you email notifications. Third-party monitoring services can check your site daily and alert you to any new issues. The faster you know about a broken link, the faster you can fix it.
8. Broken Links vs. Redirect Chains: What is the Difference?
While fixing broken links, you may encounter another common issue: redirect chains. A redirect chain occurs when a URL redirects to another URL, which then redirects to yet another URL – creating a chain of multiple redirects before the user reaches the final destination.
For example: Page A redirects to Page B, and Page B redirects to Page C. Instead of going directly to Page C, the user (and the search engine crawler) has to follow two hops.
Redirect chains are problematic because they slow down page load times, dilute the link equity being passed through, and can confuse search engine crawlers. Best practice is to have a direct redirect – Page A goes straight to Page C – with no unnecessary stops in between.
When auditing your broken links, also look out for redirect chains and “redirect loops” (where Page A redirects to Page B, and Page B redirects back to Page A, creating an infinite loop that never resolves). Both of these issues should be corrected during any comprehensive link audit.
9. Real-World Examples of Broken Link Scenarios
Understanding broken links through real-world scenarios makes the concept easier to grasp. Here are three practical examples that illustrate how broken links appear in practice and why they matter.
Example 1: The Blog Post Update
A food blogger publishes an article about kitchen appliances and links to a specific blender on an online store. A year later, that blender is discontinued and its product page is removed. Anyone who reads the blog post and clicks the link lands on a 404 page instead of the product. The fix: either update the link to a similar, available product or remove the link entirely.
Example 2: The Website Rebrand
A software company rebrands and moves from “www.oldsoftware.com” to “www.newsoftware.io”. Many tech blogs had written reviews linking to the company’s old domain. Without proper redirects, all those high-authority backlinks now lead to a dead site. The fix: set up 301 redirects from the old domain to the new domain so all incoming traffic and link equity is preserved.
Example 3: The CMS Migration
A small business migrates its website from an old platform to WordPress. The old platform used URLs like “/page?id=23” while WordPress uses “/about-us”. Without redirects, every link that had ever been shared on social media, in emails, or on other websites now leads to a 404 error. The fix: create a comprehensive redirect map before migration that connects every old URL format to its corresponding new URL.
10. Broken Link Building: Turning Problems Into Opportunities
Here is an interesting twist: broken links on other people’s websites can actually present an SEO opportunity for you. This strategy is called “broken link building” and it is a legitimate and widely used link-building technique.
Here is how it works: you use tools like Ahrefs or Check My Links to find broken links on high-authority websites that are relevant to your niche. You then create (or already have) a piece of content on your site that covers the same topic as the dead page. Finally, you reach out to the website owner, politely let them know about the broken link, and suggest your content as a replacement.
This approach works because website owners are genuinely grateful when someone helps them find and fix broken links – it improves their site. In return, they have an easy replacement to link to: your content. When done correctly, broken link building can earn you high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites, which significantly boosts your SEO.
Conclusion
Broken links are a natural part of the web’s constantly changing landscape, but they are also entirely manageable. Whether they stem from deleted pages, changed URLs, website migrations, or external sites going offline, broken links can silently damage your SEO, frustrate your visitors, and erode the credibility of your website.
The good news is that finding and fixing broken links is straightforward once you have the right tools and processes in place. Use Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, or a dedicated plugin to audit your site regularly. Fix broken links by updating URLs, setting up 301 redirects, or replacing content with better alternatives. And build habits – like always setting up redirects when changing URLs – that minimize broken links in the first place.
A website free of broken links is a website that search engines trust and users enjoy. It ranks better, converts more visitors, and builds a stronger reputation over time. Start your broken link audit today – your website, your users, and your search rankings will all thank you for it.
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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