Broken Links Checker

Broken Links Checker: Find and Fix Dead Links on Any Page for Free

Every link on a page is a quiet promise to your reader: click here and you'll get somewhere. A broken links checker tests whether those promises still hold. It loads the page you give it, pulls out every hyperlink in the HTML, sends a request to each destination, and reads back the server's answer — then it tells you, in plain language, which links return a clean "OK" and which return a 404, a server error, a dead redirect, or no response at all. The Tools Hub broken links checker tool runs this entire scan in your browser: no software to install, no account to create, no credit card.

The reason this matters is that broken links are invisible to the person who put them there. You wrote the article, you tested the link the day you published, and you moved on. Eighteen months later the resource you linked to has been renamed, the domain has lapsed, or your own CMS quietly changed a slug during a redesign — and you have no idea, because you never click your own old links. Your readers do, though, and so does Google's crawler. This free online checker for broken links closes that gap: paste a URL, get a sorted list of what's healthy and what's rotting, and fix it before anyone else notices.

How to Check for Broken Links

The whole process takes under a minute and needs no technical knowledge to read the results.

1. Open the Broken Links Checker on Tools Hub. It loads instantly in any modern browser on desktop or mobile — there is nothing to download.
2. Paste the page URL you want to scan, including the https:// prefix — for example https://example.com/blog/my-article. You can check your own pages or any public page on the web.
3. Press "Check Links." The tool fetches the page, extracts every hyperlink from the HTML, and tests each one by sending a request and reading the response.
4. Watch the results populate. Each link appears with its status: a green "OK" for working links (HTTP 200), a red flag for broken ones (404, 410, 500, and similar), and a separate note for redirects (301/302) so you can decide whether to update them.
5. Work the red entries first. These are the genuine dead links. The tool shows the exact URL and the status code returned, so you know precisely what to find and fix.
6. Repair, replace, or remove each broken link in your CMS, page editor, or HTML source.
7. Re-run the check to confirm every link now returns a healthy status. A clean scan means the page is ready for visitors and search engines.

Because everything runs on demand, you can repeat this as often as you like. Many editors keep the tool open in a tab and re-scan a page each time they publish an update, so dead links never get a chance to accumulate.

What the Checker Actually Reports: A Worked Example

It is easier to trust the results once you have seen what a real scan looks like. Suppose you run the tool on a "best tools for freelancers" roundup post that contains 24 outbound links. A typical report might come back like this:

• https://yoursite.com/pricing — 200 OK (internal, healthy)
• https://stripe.com — 200 OK (external, healthy)
• http://oldtool.io/features — 301 → https://oldtool.io/features (redirect; http to https, worth updating)
• https://example-app.com/blog/2021-guide — 404 Not Found (post was deleted)
• https://startup-that-folded.com — Connection failed / timeout (domain expired)
• https://bigplatform.com/profile — 403 Forbidden (works in a browser; the host blocks bots — needs a manual check)

From that single pass you learn that 20 of the 24 links are fine, one needs a one-character protocol fix, two are genuinely dead and must be replaced, and one is a false alarm to verify by hand. That is the practical value: instead of opening 24 tabs, you get a triage list. You spend your time on the four links that need attention, not the twenty that don't.

Reading the Status Codes

The server's three-digit reply is the whole story. The checker translates each one so you don't have to memorise them, but knowing the ranges helps you prioritise.

• 200 OK — the link works and the target page exists. These are the entries you want to see.
• 301 / 302 Redirect — the link forwards somewhere else. Not broken, but worth pointing straight at the final destination so users and crawlers skip the extra hop.
• 403 Forbidden — the server reached you but refused the automated request. Often a false positive on big platforms; verify in a browser.
• 404 Not Found — the classic dead link. The server is up, but that specific page is gone. The most common broken result.
• 410 Gone — like a 404, but the server is explicitly saying the page was removed on purpose and will not return.
• 500 / 502 / 503 Server Errors — the destination server failed to respond properly. Sometimes temporary, sometimes a sign the target is down for good.
• Timeout / connection failure — no answer at all. The domain may have expired, the host may be offline, or the address may be malformed.

A genuinely broken link is usually a 404, a 410, a 5xx, or a connection failure. Redirects sit in a grey zone — they work today, but a long chain (link → redirect → redirect → page) slows loading and can eventually snap when one hop in the middle is removed.

Internal versus external links

Internal links point to other pages on the same site. You control these directly and can fix them immediately in your CMS. External links point to other websites — you cannot fix the destination, but you can update, replace, or delete the link on your page. The status code tells you what's wrong; the internal/external split tells you where the fix lives.

Where Broken Links Actually Earn Their Keep

Dead links are a problem you don't see until they cost you something. These are the concrete situations where a quick scan pays for itself:

• Protecting SEO rankings. Search engines read a page full of dead outbound links as a sign of neglect, and internal links that 404 waste crawl budget and break the flow of link equity through your site. Fixing them helps Google trust and rank your pages.
• Saving e-commerce revenue. When a product, category, or checkout link breaks, the customer hits a dead end and leaves. Scanning your store catches these before they cut into sales.
• Auditing old blog posts. Articles you wrote years ago link out to resources that have since moved or shut down. A quick scan revives the value of evergreen content that still pulls traffic.
• Cleaning up after a migration. Redesigns and platform moves are notorious for breaking internal links. A post-migration scan finds the URLs that didn't survive the move.
• Checking affiliate and sponsor links. Affiliate programs change URLs and retire offers constantly. A dead affiliate link earns you nothing and irritates the reader who clicked it.
• Vetting a site before purchase or handoff. Buying a site, taking over a client account, or accepting a project? A broken-link scan is a fast read on how well the site was maintained.
• Verifying landing pages before a campaign. Scan the page so every call-to-action actually goes somewhere before you spend money driving traffic to it.

Edge Cases Worth Knowing About

Most scans are clean and obvious, but a handful of situations trip people up. Recognising them keeps you from chasing problems that aren't there — or missing ones that are.

The "broken in the tool, fine in my browser" link

This is almost always a 403 or a challenge page from a large platform — social networks, big retailers, news sites — that deliberately blocks anything that isn't a regular human browser. The link is fine; the host just doesn't like automated requests. Treat these as "needs manual review," open one yourself, and move on. They are the most common false positive.

Non-page links the scan may surface

Pages often contain links that aren't web pages at all: mailto: addresses, tel: phone numbers, and on-page anchors like #section-2 that jump within the same document. These don't have a server to query in the usual way, so they're not "broken" in the 404 sense — but a mistyped anchor that points to an ID that no longer exists is still a dead jump for the reader. When a same-page anchor looks off, search the page source for the matching id attribute to confirm it still exists.

Redirect chains that hide a failure

A link can report as a redirect and still be a problem. If http://site.com/old redirects to https://site.com/old which redirects to https://site.com/new which finally 404s, the first hop looks like a harmless 301. Follow redirects to their endpoint rather than trusting the first response, and update your link to point at whatever the final live URL turns out to be.

A whole cluster failing at once

When every link to a single domain fails together, the destination site itself is almost certainly down, expired, or blocking bots wholesale — it is rarely a coincidence of separate dead pages. Confirm by opening one of them manually. If the site is genuinely gone, replace all of those links with a working alternative or remove them in one pass.

Getting Accurate, Reliable Results

A link checker is only as useful as the trust you place in it. A few habits keep your scans clean and your conclusions correct.

• Always include the protocol. Paste https://example.com, not just example.com. The leading https:// tells the tool exactly how to reach the page.
• Re-test before you panic. A single timeout can be a momentary server hiccup rather than a dead link. If one link fails, scan again a minute later to confirm.
• Update redirects, don't just note them. A working link buried under three redirects is slow and fragile. Point it straight at the final URL.
• Watch for typos in your own URLs. A surprising share of "broken" links are simply mistyped — a missing letter, an extra slash, or htttp instead of http. The status code points you straight to the culprit.
• Scan after every edit. The best moment to catch a broken link is right after you add it. Make a quick scan part of your publishing checklist.

Scanning a Whole Site, One Page at a Time

The tool checks one page per run, but it tests every link on that page in bulk — a content-heavy article or a resource roundup can hold dozens or hundreds of outbound links, and they're all scanned in a single pass. That already covers most needs, because broken links cluster on link-rich pages: roundups, resource directories, footers, and reference lists.

For full coverage, work through your site in priority order. Start with your money pages — product, pricing, contact, key landing pages — then your highest-traffic blog posts and resource hubs. Keep a short spreadsheet of the URLs you've scanned and the date, so you can rotate through the whole site over time and re-check the busiest pages more often. External links break unpredictably as other sites change, so even pages you haven't edited deserve a periodic re-scan. This page-by-page rhythm is lightweight, costs nothing, and catches the vast majority of broken links where they actually live.

Privacy and Security

Checking links should not mean handing over your data. With the Tools Hub broken links checker there is no sign-up, no email capture, and no account. You paste a public URL and get results — nothing more is asked of you.

The tool only needs the page address you provide. It does not ask you to upload files, install agents, or grant access to your hosting account, your CMS login, or your analytics. Because there is nothing to install, there is no background process running on your computer or your server, and the scan never modifies the page it reads — it is a strictly read-only audit, safe to run on a live production site. That makes it a sound choice for checking client sites, publicly reachable documentation, and any address where you'd rather not bolt extra software onto the site itself. It is, and stays, completely free, with no usage caps designed to push you toward a paid plan.

Tips & Troubleshooting

The tool says a link is broken, but it opens fine in my browser. Why?

This usually happens with large platforms that block automated requests. The site serves a "403 Forbidden" or a challenge page to anything that isn't a regular browser, even though the link works for a human. Treat these as "needs manual review" rather than confirmed dead links, and open them yourself to be sure.

Why are some links marked as redirects instead of OK or broken?

A redirect (301 or 302) means the link technically works but forwards to a different address. It is not broken, but it is worth updating the link to point at the final destination. Long redirect chains slow page loading and occasionally break later, so cleaning them up is good housekeeping.

Can I check a page that requires a login?

The checker can only see public pages — the same content any visitor would get without signing in. Pages behind a login wall, a paywall, or a members' area cannot be scanned, because the tool reaches them as an anonymous visitor would.

My scan found no broken links. Does that mean my whole site is clean?

It means the specific page you scanned is clean. Other pages may still contain dead links, so work through your important pages one by one for full coverage. A clean result on a single page is good news, not a whole-site guarantee.

How often should I check for broken links?

Scan a page whenever you publish or substantially edit it, and re-check your most important pages every few weeks. External links break unpredictably as other sites change, so periodic re-scans of link-heavy pages are worthwhile even when you haven't touched them.

The page has a lot of links and is taking a while. Is that normal?

Yes. Each link requires its own request to a separate server, and some servers respond slowly. A page with many external links to slow hosts naturally takes longer than a short page. Let it finish — the results are worth the wait.

Related Tools

Once your links are healthy, these other free Tools Hub utilities help you polish the rest of your content and site:

• Meta Tag Generator — create clean title and description tags so your fixed pages present well in search results.
• Word Counter — measure the length of your articles and meta descriptions while you edit.
• URL Encoder / Decoder — clean up and verify messy link parameters before you add them to a page.
• QR Code Generator — turn a verified, working URL into a scannable code for print and offline use.
• Image Compressor — shrink the images on your pages so they load as fast as your newly fixed links.
• Robots.txt Generator — guide search engine crawlers around your site so they spend their crawl budget on your healthy pages.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Broken Links Checker really free?

Yes. The tool is completely free to use with no hidden fees, no trial period, and no usage limits designed to push you toward a paid upgrade. You can scan as many pages as you like, as often as you like, at no cost.

Do I need to create an account or sign up?

No. There is no sign-up and no login. You do not provide an email address or any personal details. Just open the tool, paste a URL, and check your links immediately.

What is a broken link checker used for?

It scans the hyperlinks on a web page and reports which ones are dead, redirected, or returning errors. People use it to protect SEO rankings, fix customer-facing dead ends, audit old content, clean up after site migrations, and verify pages before publishing or sending a campaign.

Can I check any website, or only my own?

You can check any public web page, including your own site, a client's site, or a competitor's page. As long as the page is publicly reachable without a login, the tool can scan its links.

Does it find both internal and external broken links?

Yes. The checker tests every hyperlink it finds on the page, whether it points to another page on the same site (internal) or to a different website entirely (external). You see the status of each one so you know exactly where the fix belongs.

Will using this tool change anything on my website?

No. The checker only reads your page and tests its links — it never modifies your site, your files, or your settings. It is a read-only audit, so it is completely safe to run on a live site.

Is my data kept private?

Yes. The tool only uses the public URL you paste in and does not ask for personal information, file uploads, or access to your hosting or CMS. There is nothing to install, so nothing runs in the background on your machine or server.

How is this different from a paid SEO crawler?

Enterprise crawlers scan an entire site in one automated run and cost a monthly subscription. This free tool checks pages on demand, one at a time, with no cost and no setup. For spot checks, post-edit verification, and vetting individual pages, it is faster and lighter — and you can use it the moment you need it without any commitment.