Broken Links, explained properly.
What are broken links?
Broken links, also called dead links, are hyperlinks that no longer lead to a working destination. When a user or search engine follows one, they hit a 404 error page instead of useful content. Picture a book where every third footnote points to a page that has been torn out: frustrating for readers, and a signal to Google that the site is not well maintained.
Why broken links harm SEO
- **Poor user experience.** Dead ends frustrate visitors and increase bounce rate. - **Wasted crawl budget.** Googlebot spends time crawling URLs that return 404s. - **Lost link equity.** Broken internal links stop authority flowing through your site. - **A quality signal.** Sites with many broken links look neglected to Google's ranking systems.
Types of broken links
- **Internal broken links:** links from your site to pages on your own site that no longer exist, most often caused by deleting or renaming pages without a redirect. - **External broken links:** links from your site to pages on other sites that have moved or been removed. Less under your control, but still worth updating or removing. - **Broken backlinks:** links from other sites pointing to deleted pages on your site, which are candidates for link reclamation.
How to find and fix broken links
1. Run a site crawler such as Screaming Frog, Ahrefs Site Audit or Sitebulb to identify all 404s. An SEO audit surfaces them across your site. 2. For broken internal links, update them to the correct URL or 301 redirect the old URL to a relevant live page. 3. For broken external links, update to a working alternative or remove the link entirely. 4. For broken backlinks pointing to dead pages on your site, 301 redirect those URLs to relevant live pages to recover the link equity. 5. Watch for redirect chains created during the fix.
Prevention
A good technical SEO strategy includes regular broken link audits, especially after website migrations or content clean-ups.
Broken Links: common questions.
How often should I check for broken links?
Quarterly is the realistic baseline for most small business sites. After major site changes such as migrations, redesigns or content cleanups, do a full check immediately. Real-time monitoring tools alert you to new broken links as they appear.
Do broken outbound links hurt SEO?
Mildly. Google penalises sites that consistently link to broken or low-quality external content. The fix is simple: update or remove broken outbound links during routine content reviews.
How do I find broken links pointing to my site?
Use Ahrefs, Semrush or Moz to pull all backlinks, then filter for those pointing to URLs returning 404s. Each broken backlink is a redirect candidate: 301 the dead URL to a relevant live page to recover the link equity.
Are broken anchor links a problem?
Anchor links pointing to non-existent fragments are not broken in the same way; they do not return 404s. But they create poor user experience by jumping to unexpected places, so they are worth fixing during content audits.
What clients say about working with us.
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