Broken links are a normal part of website maintenance, but if they are left unresolved, they can create a poor user experience and make your site harder for search engines to crawl. Visitors may land on error pages, miss important content, or lose trust in your site.
A simple, regular process for finding and fixing broken links can help keep your website tidy, improve navigation, and support better search visibility over time. If you are still learning the basics of technical SEO, a free website SEO audit can be a useful starting point for spotting link issues.
What Broken Links Are
A broken link is any link that no longer leads to a working page. It may point to a page that has been deleted, moved, renamed, or made unavailable. Broken links can appear in internal links, external links, navigation menus, blog posts, footers, or even image references.
There are two common types. Internal broken links point to pages on your own website. External broken links point to pages on other websites. Both matter, but internal broken links are especially important because they can interrupt crawling and weaken your site structure.
Why Broken Links Matter
Broken links do not usually cause instant ranking drops on their own, but they can create several indirect SEO problems. Search engines may waste crawl effort on dead pages, users may leave sooner, and your content may appear less reliable. For businesses, that can mean weaker engagement and fewer conversions.
Broken links can also affect on-page SEO and content quality. If an important article links to outdated resources or missing product pages, the page becomes less helpful. Over time, that can make your content harder to trust and maintain, especially on larger websites, ecommerce stores, and WordPress sites with frequent updates.
How to Find Broken Links
The easiest way to fix broken links is to find them systematically. A website crawl tool can help check internal links across pages, while Google Search Console can highlight crawl errors and pages that are no longer accessible. This is useful for SEO beginners and professionals alike.
For deeper checks, tools such as Screaming Frog SEO Spider can crawl your site and list broken links, redirect chains, and missing pages. Google Search Console is also helpful for spotting indexing and crawlability issues. You can review your coverage and page reports, then compare them with your website structure and important content areas.
If you manage a busy site, it helps to check more than one source. Analytics can show pages with high exit rates, while a link crawler can show exactly where the broken link appears. A practical approach is often better than relying on a single tool. Backlink Works can also be a useful SEO learning resource if you want to build a wider understanding of website optimisation.
How to Fix Broken Links
Once you have identified broken links, the next step is to choose the right fix for each one. There is no single solution for every case, because the best option depends on why the link is broken and whether the destination still matters.
Update the link
If the destination page has moved to a new URL, update the link so it points to the correct location. This is the cleanest fix and usually the best option for internal links, especially when the new page serves the same search intent.
Use a redirect carefully
If a page has been replaced or permanently moved, a relevant redirect can preserve users’ path and help search engines understand the change. Keep redirects purposeful and avoid sending users to unrelated pages. Redirect chains should be avoided because they slow down crawling and can create confusion.
Remove the link
If the linked page no longer exists and there is no good replacement, remove the link entirely. This is often better than sending users to a weak or irrelevant destination. A clean site is easier for both visitors and search engines to use.
Restore or rebuild the page
If the deleted page still has value, consider restoring it or publishing a new version with updated information. This can be especially useful for evergreen articles, local landing pages, and product pages that still match search intent.
Practical Checklist
- Run a crawl of your website to find broken internal links.
- Review Google Search Console for crawl errors and affected URLs.
- Check important pages first, such as key service pages and popular blog posts.
- Update links that now point to moved or renamed pages.
- Redirect old URLs only when the new destination is relevant.
- Remove links that no longer have a useful destination.
- Check menus, footers, sidebars, and author bios, not just body content.
- Re-test the affected pages after changes are made.
Best Practices
A good broken link process is regular, not reactive. Review your site after major content changes, redesigns, migrations, or URL structure updates. This is especially important for ecommerce sites, blogs with large archives, and agencies managing multiple clients.
Keep URLs stable where possible, use clear internal linking, and make sure important pages are easy to reach from within your site. If you are planning a wider SEO cleanup, an audit can reveal broken links alongside indexing issues, duplicate content, and thin pages. For structured guidance on safe and sustainable optimisation, Backlink Works also offers resources on broader SEO support and maintenance.
It is also worth checking whether broken links appear in old content that still attracts traffic. Repairing those pages can protect organic traffic growth by improving user experience and keeping high-value articles useful. If your site uses schema markup, site navigation, or multilingual pages, make sure the corrected links still fit the page’s purpose and language version.
Common Mistakes
- Ignoring internal broken links because the page still loads elsewhere on the site.
- Redirecting everything to the homepage instead of a relevant page.
- Fixing only blog posts while leaving menus, category pages, and footers untouched.
- Assuming a broken external link is harmless because it is not on your own domain.
- Using too many redirects, which can slow down crawling and confuse users.
- Not rechecking pages after a site migration or URL change.
Conclusion
Fixing broken links is one of the simplest ways to improve the quality of a website. It supports better crawlability, keeps visitors moving through your content, and helps search engines understand your site structure more clearly. While it will not solve every SEO problem, it is a practical part of ongoing website optimisation.
If you make broken link checks part of your regular maintenance, you will be better placed to protect search visibility, improve user experience, and keep important pages working as intended.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if a link is broken?
A broken link usually leads to an error page, such as a 404 page, or fails to load the destination properly. You can find them with a site crawl tool, Google Search Console, or by checking pages that users visit most often. Internal links should be reviewed regularly after content changes.
Should I redirect every broken link?
No. Redirect only when there is a closely related replacement page. If the old page has no useful equivalent, removing the link is often the better choice. Redirecting everything to the homepage is not a good practice because it can frustrate users and weaken relevance signals.
Do broken links hurt SEO directly?
Broken links are not usually a direct ranking issue by themselves, but they can affect crawling, internal linking, and user experience. Over time, those problems may make it harder for search engines and visitors to navigate your site efficiently.
How often should I check for broken links?
For most websites, a monthly or quarterly check is sensible, depending on how often content changes. Sites that publish frequently, update product ranges, or undergo redesigns may need checks more often. It is also wise to run a review after major site changes or migrations.
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