Broken Links Checker

Why broken links quietly destroy SEO

Every broken link on your site is a small signal of neglect. Multiply that across hundreds of pages and you get a meaningful ranking penalty plus a worse user experience. Broken link checkers find them all in one pass so you can fix them in batch rather than discovering them one-by-one through user complaints.

Our free tool crawls a URL, follows every internal and external link, and reports the HTTP status of each. 404s, 410s, redirect chains longer than 2 hops, and connection failures all get flagged with the exact source page and link text — making fixes a quick find-and-replace rather than detective work.

What gets checked

• Internal links — links to your own site's pages
• External links — links to other domains (these break frequently as third-party sites change URLs)
• Image src URLs — broken images render as a broken-image icon, hurting perceived quality
• Redirect chains — links that hop through 3+ redirects waste crawl budget and slow page loads
• Anchor links — #section links that target IDs that don't exist on the destination page

Key features

1. Full link inventory in one report

Every link on the page is listed with its HTTP status. Pass results are de-emphasised; failures are at the top with source location and link text.

2. Internal vs external classification

Internal failures usually need fixing. External failures often need replacing with a new working source or removing.

3. Pairs with our SEO toolkit

Use alongside our SEO report for full on-page audit, and our XML sitemap generator after fixing broken links to ensure the cleaned link structure is reflected in your sitemap.

4. No signup, no daily limit

Run on as many URLs as you need.

How to use it

Submit your URL → wait for the crawl → review the failure list → fix in CMS or replace external sources → re-run to verify.

Pros & cons

Pros: Free, unlimited, no signup, classifies internal vs external. Cons: Crawls one URL at a time (not full site recursive crawl); for full-site sweeps use Screaming Frog. Crawl-blocked sites may show false positives.

Who this is for

Bloggers auditing old posts. Agencies doing client site maintenance. SEO specialists tracking link rot. E-commerce site managers verifying product link integrity.

FAQs

How often should I check for broken links?

Internal links: monthly or after major restructures. External links: quarterly — third-party content goes offline regularly.

Why does the tool flag a link that works in my browser?

Common causes: the destination requires login, blocks automated crawlers, or geoblocks our crawler's location. False positives occur but are rare.

What's a redirect chain and why does it matter?

A redirect chain is link A → B → C → final. Each hop adds latency, wastes crawl budget, and can leak link equity. Update the source link to point directly to the final destination.

The bottom line

Broken links are one of the easiest-to-fix SEO issues with disproportionate impact. Run the checker monthly on top traffic pages. Pair with our SEO report and XML sitemap generator for full site hygiene.