What Are Broken Links?
A broken link (also called a dead link) is a hyperlink that points to a page or resource that no longer exists. When a user or search engine follows a broken link, they get a 404 Not Found error instead of the expected content.
Broken links can be:
- Internal — links within your site that point to pages you've deleted or moved
- External — links to other websites whose pages have been removed or relocated
Why Broken Links Hurt Your SEO
Wasted Crawl Budget
Search engines allocate a limited crawl budget to each site. Every time Googlebot follows a broken link, it wastes a crawl on a dead page instead of discovering your actual content.
Lost Link Equity
Links pass ranking power (link equity) from one page to another. When a link points to a 404 page, that equity is lost — it doesn't flow anywhere.
Poor User Experience
Users who hit 404 pages are far more likely to leave your site. High bounce rates and low engagement signal to search engines that your site isn't providing a good experience.
Trust and Credibility
A site full of broken links looks neglected. This affects both user trust and how search engines perceive your site's quality.
Common Causes of Broken Links
| Cause | Example |
|---|---|
| Deleted pages | Removed an old blog post without redirecting |
| URL changes | Restructured URLs but didn't set up redirects |
| Typos in links | /about-us linked as /abut-us |
| External site changes | The site you linked to moved or shut down |
| Domain expiration | An external site's domain expired |
How to Fix Broken Links
1. Set Up 301 Redirects
If you've moved a page to a new URL, create a 301 (permanent) redirect from the old URL to the new one. This preserves link equity and provides a seamless user experience.
2. Update Internal Links
For internal broken links, update the link to point to the correct URL. This is better than relying on redirects because it avoids an extra HTTP request.
3. Remove Dead External Links
If an external page no longer exists and there's no suitable replacement, remove the link entirely or replace it with a link to an alternative resource.
4. Create a Custom 404 Page
For links you can't fix or redirect, a well-designed 404 page helps users navigate back to useful content rather than leaving your site entirely.
Finding Broken Links on Your Site
Manually clicking every link on your site isn't feasible. You need a crawler that:
- Follows every internal link recursively across your entire site
- Checks HTTP status codes — flags any link returning 4xx or 5xx errors
- Reports the source page — tells you where the broken link lives so you can fix it
- Identifies the link target — shows you what URL is broken
- Checks external links — verifies links to other websites still work
Kaitico's site crawler follows every link on your site and reports all broken links with their source pages, target URLs, and HTTP status codes. You'll know exactly which pages to fix and what's wrong.