Broken Link Finder

Our Broken Link Finder is a powerful, free online tool designed to help website owners, SEO professionals, and developers find broken links on their websites. Broken links (also called dead links or 404 errors) hurt user experience, damage SEO performance, and waste search engine crawl budget.

This tool automatically crawls your website, extracts all links from each page, checks the HTTP status code of each link, and generates a comprehensive report of broken links. Website crawling is processed securely through our server to find broken links efficiently.

Perfect For:

• SEO Professionals: Identify broken links that hurt SEO performance. Fix broken links to improve search engine rankings and crawl efficiency.
• Website Owners: Find and fix broken links on your website. Improve user experience and maintain website quality.
• Content Managers: Audit website content for broken links. Ensure all links are working and pointing to valid pages.
• Developers: Check for broken links during website development and testing. Verify link integrity after migrations or updates.
• Quality Assurance: Perform link audits as part of quality assurance processes. Identify broken links before they affect users.
• Website Maintenance: Regular broken link checks as part of website maintenance. Keep your website free of broken links.
• SEO Audits: Include broken link checking in comprehensive SEO audits. Identify technical SEO issues affecting rankings.
• Migration Projects: Verify links after website migrations or domain changes. Ensure all links are updated and working.

Key Features:

• Website Crawling: Automatically crawl websites starting from any URL. Follows internal links to discover pages and links.
• Broken Link Detection: Identify broken links returning 4xx (client errors) or 5xx (server errors) status codes. Detects 404, 403, 500, and other error codes.
• Internal & External Links: Check both internal links (within your domain) and external links (to other websites). Configure which links to check.
• HTTP Status Codes: Show HTTP status code for each link. Understand why links are broken (404 Not Found, 403 Forbidden, etc.).
• Link Status Summary: Get summary statistics including total links, broken links, status code distribution, and crawl statistics.
• Progress Tracking: See real-time progress as the tool crawls your website. Monitor pages crawled and links checked.
• Configurable Limits: Set maximum pages to crawl (1-100). Control crawl depth and scope for different website sizes.
• Redirect Following: Option to follow HTTP redirects when checking links. Get accurate status codes for redirected links.
• Comprehensive Reports: Generate detailed reports with all broken links, their status codes, and where they were found.
• Export Functionality: Copy or download broken links reports for documentation and fixing. Share reports with team members.
• Privacy-First: Website crawling is processed securely. Your URLs are not stored or logged.
• No Registration: Use the tool immediately without creating an account. No limits, no fees, completely free.

Broken Link Best Practices:

• Regular Audits: Perform broken link audits regularly (monthly or quarterly). Catch broken links before they affect users and SEO.
• Fix Immediately: Fix broken links as soon as they're discovered. Broken links hurt user experience and SEO performance.
• Use 301 Redirects: For moved or deleted pages, use 301 redirects to point to new locations. Preserve SEO value and user experience.
• Update Internal Links: Update internal links when pages are moved or restructured. Keep link structure consistent.
• Monitor External Links: Regularly check external links as they may break over time. Replace broken external links with working alternatives.
• Create Custom 404 Pages: Create helpful 404 error pages that guide users to working content. Improve user experience even when links break.
• Use Link Monitoring: Set up automated link monitoring to catch broken links early. Receive alerts when links break.
• Document Link Changes: Keep track of link changes and redirects. Maintain documentation for future reference.

How to Use This Broken Link Finder:

1. Enter Starting URL: Type the URL where you want to start the crawl. For example: "https://example.com" or "https://example.com/blog".
2. Configure Options: Set maximum pages to crawl (default: 50), choose whether to check external links, and enable/disable redirect following.
3. Start Crawl: Click "Start Crawl" to begin crawling your website. The tool will crawl pages and check links.
4. Monitor Progress: Watch the progress as the tool crawls your website. See pages crawled and links checked in real-time.
5. Review Results: Review the broken links report including status codes, link locations, and summary statistics.
6. Fix Broken Links: Use the report to fix broken links. Update links, create redirects, or remove broken links.
7. Export Report: Copy or download the report for documentation and sharing with team members.

Understanding Broken Links:

• What Are Broken Links? Broken links are hyperlinks that point to pages or resources that no longer exist or are inaccessible. They typically return HTTP error codes like 404 (Not Found) or 403 (Forbidden).
• Why Do Links Break? Links break when pages are deleted, moved, or renamed; domains expire; external websites remove content; or server errors occur.
• Impact on SEO: Broken links waste crawl budget, create poor user experience, reduce page authority, and signal low-quality content to search engines.
• Impact on Users: Broken links frustrate users, reduce trust, and increase bounce rates. Users are less likely to return to sites with many broken links.
• Common Status Codes: 404 (Not Found), 403 (Forbidden), 500 (Internal Server Error), 503 (Service Unavailable) indicate broken links.

Use Cases & Examples:

Example 1: SEO Audit

You're performing an SEO audit of your website. You use the Broken Link Finder to crawl your site and discover:

• 15 broken internal links (404 errors)
• 8 broken external links (pointing to removed content)
• 3 links returning 403 Forbidden errors

You fix these broken links, improving your SEO performance and user experience.

Example 2: Post-Migration Check

You've migrated your website to a new domain. You crawl the new site and find:

• Several internal links still pointing to old domain URLs
• Some links pointing to pages that weren't migrated
• External links that are still working correctly

You update the broken internal links and set up redirects for missing pages.

Example 3: Regular Maintenance

You perform monthly broken link checks and discover:

• 2 new broken links from recent content updates
• 1 external link that stopped working (external site removed content)
• Overall link health is good (98% of links working)

You quickly fix the broken links, maintaining high website quality.

Related Tools:

• URL Redirect Checker - Track redirect chains and analyze HTTP responses
• Keyword Density Analyzer - Analyze keyword distribution in content
• XML Sitemap Generator - Create XML sitemaps for your website
• Robots.txt Generator - Create and validate robots.txt files
• SSL Certificate Checker - Check SSL certificate expiration and validity

Frequently Asked Questions

💡 Pro Tip: Set up regular broken link audits (monthly or quarterly) to catch broken links early. Use the export functionality to track broken links over time and measure improvement. For large websites, consider running multiple crawls starting from different sections (homepage, blog, products, etc.) to get comprehensive coverage.