Broken Link Checker: Find and Fix Dead Links on Your Website

Estimated read time: 8 minutes

You have spent hours building your website. The design looks good, the content is useful, and traffic is slowly growing. But somewhere inside your pages, broken links may be working against everything you have built.

Whether you are a blogger, business owner, marketer, or SEO professional, broken links are something every site eventually deals with. The good news is simple: they are fixable. With the right broken link checker, you can find dead links, repair them, and protect both rankings and visitor trust.

What Are Broken Links?

A broken link, also called a dead link, is any hyperlink that no longer works. When a visitor clicks it, they land on an error page instead of useful content. The most common result is a 404 Page Not Found error.

Broken links are easy to miss because they are usually hidden inside old posts, product pages, footers, navigation menus, or external references. But they can still cause real SEO and user experience problems.

• They damage SEO signals. Search engines crawl websites by following links. Dead ends waste crawl time and make your site look poorly maintained.
• They frustrate visitors. A visitor who clicks a helpful resource and reaches an error page is less likely to trust the site.
• They break content flow. Internal broken links stop users from moving deeper into your website.
• They weaken credibility. External links to removed or outdated resources make otherwise good content feel stale.

What Causes Broken Links?

Before fixing broken links, it helps to know where they come from. Most link problems fall into a few common groups.

Pages Deleted or Moved

This is the most common cause. A page is deleted, renamed, moved to a new folder, or given a new URL, but old links still point to the previous address.

Typos in URLs

One wrong character can break a link. This often happens when URLs are typed manually into HTML, CMS editors, spreadsheets, or older blog posts.

External Websites Going Offline

You may link to a helpful resource today and find that the site is gone next year. You cannot control external websites, but your outbound link still becomes broken.

Website Migrations Without Redirects

Domain changes, HTTP to HTTPS moves, CMS changes, and new URL structures can break many links if proper 301 redirects are missing.

CMS and Plugin Changes

Theme updates, permalink changes, product removals, and plugin settings can alter URLs in ways that create dead links across a site.

Why Every SEO Audit Should Include a Broken Link Check

A proper SEO audit is not just about title tags and keywords. It should also check whether users and search engines can move through your site without running into dead ends.

Broken links matter because internal links pass context and authority between pages. When an internal link is broken, that path stops working. For larger sites, broken links can also waste crawl budget by sending search engines toward URLs that no longer exist.

Use a free website SEO checker or a dedicated broken link scan whenever you publish new content, remove pages, change URLs, or complete a website redesign. For a wider review, run a full SEO audit checklist after fixing the most important link issues.

How to Find Broken Links on Your Website

Option 1: Use a Free Online Broken Link Checker

The fastest method is to use an online broken link checker. Fast Site Check lets you enter your URL, run a scan, and review link problems without installing software.

1. Open Fast Site Check.
2. Enter your website URL.
3. Run the SEO audit.
4. Review broken links and status-code issues in the report.
5. Update, remove, or redirect the broken URLs.

This is ideal for bloggers, small business sites, launch checks, and quick maintenance work.

Option 2: Use Google Search Console

Google Search Console can show indexed URLs and crawl errors. It is useful, but it may not always show the exact page where each broken link was found. Combine it with a dedicated checker for a clearer fix list.

Option 3: Manual Checking

You can click links by hand on a tiny website. For anything larger, manual checking becomes slow and unreliable. A dead link checker is faster and easier to repeat every month.

How to Fix Broken Links Step by Step

Step 1: Categorize the Broken Links

• Internal broken links: links from your pages to other pages on your own site.
• External broken links: links from your pages to other websites.
• Incoming broken links: links from other websites to missing pages on your site.

Step 2: Fix Internal Broken Links First

Internal links are usually the highest priority because you control them. Update the URL if the page still exists, remove the link if the target is no longer useful, or recreate the page if the content is important.

Step 3: Repair External Broken Links

For outbound links, find a replacement resource, remove the link, or use an archived version if the original page was important for context. Keep external references fresh so your content stays useful.

Step 4: Add 301 Redirects for Changed URLs

If a page moved, set a 301 permanent redirect from the old URL to the new one. This helps visitors, preserves link value, and prevents old backlinks from leading to error pages.

Step 5: Monitor Regularly

Websites change. Products get removed, articles are updated, and external pages disappear. Schedule a regular broken link check so new issues do not sit unnoticed for months.

What Makes a Good Broken Link Checker?

• Speed: It should crawl pages quickly, even when a website has hundreds of URLs.
• Accuracy: It should separate real broken links from temporary issues where possible.
• Depth: It should find links beyond the homepage and navigation.
• Clear reporting: It should show both the broken URL and the page where it was found.
• Free access: Basic broken link checks should be available without a heavy setup.

Fast Site Check was built around practical SEO maintenance. It can help you scan pages, find broken links, review on-page SEO, and move from a focused link check into a broader website audit tool workflow.

Broken Link Checker vs Website Audit Tool

A broken link checker focuses on one problem: links that return errors. A website audit tool is broader. It can also review titles, meta descriptions, headings, canonical tags, image alt text, sitemap setup, crawlability, and Core Web Vitals signals.

If you only need to find dead links, start with a focused scan. If you want to understand overall site health, use the full SEO health check and then prioritize fixes from the report.

How Often Should You Check for Broken Links?

Quick Broken Link Checklist

• Run a free broken link check on your site.
• Fix internal broken links first because they affect crawl paths and user flow.
• Update or remove external links pointing to dead pages.
• Set up 301 redirects for changed or deleted URLs that still receive traffic or backlinks.
• Add a recurring reminder to check links monthly.
• Run a full SEO audit to catch other technical SEO issues alongside broken links.

Frequently Asked Questions About Broken Link Checkers

What is a broken link checker?

A broken link checker is a tool that scans your website and identifies hyperlinks that return errors, such as 404 Not Found. It helps you find dead links quickly so you can fix them before they hurt SEO or user experience.

Are broken links bad for SEO?

Yes. Broken links can waste crawl budget, interrupt link equity, frustrate visitors, and signal that a website is not being maintained carefully.

How do I find broken links on my website for free?

Use Fast Site Check's free online broken link checker. Enter your website URL, run the scan, and review the link issues in the report.

What causes broken links?

Common causes include deleted pages, moved URLs without redirects, typos, external sites going offline, website migrations, and CMS updates that change URL structures.

How often should I check for broken links?

Small sites can usually check monthly. Larger sites, blogs, and ecommerce stores should check weekly or every two weeks.

What is the difference between a broken link and a dead link?

They are the same thing. Both terms describe a hyperlink that no longer leads to a working page.