Broken Link Checker
Find & Fix 404s Before They Kill Rankings
Scan any webpage for broken links, 404 errors, and redirect chains. Broken links damage user experience, waste crawl budget, and signal poor site quality to Google. Find them all in seconds.
Broken Link Scanner
Enter a URL or paste a list of links to check their status
| # | URL | Status Code | Type | Issue |
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🔗 Replace broken outbound links with quality dofollow links.
Use Linkscope to place relevant links on high-DA sites instead of letting authority leak through dead links.Why Broken Links Hurt Your SEO Rankings
Broken links — hyperlinks that point to pages that no longer exist (returning a 404 error) — create problems on three levels. First, they deliver a poor user experience, increasing bounce rate and reducing time-on-site. Second, they waste Google's crawl budget as bots hit dead ends instead of discovering new content. Third, they cause "link equity leakage" — PageRank flows into 404 pages and disappears rather than being distributed across your site.
A single broken link rarely causes noticeable harm, but sites with hundreds of broken links — especially internal ones — signal poor site maintenance to Google, which can contribute to lower rankings over time. Regular broken link audits should be a standard part of technical SEO maintenance.
Types of Link Errors and What They Mean
- 404 Not Found: The page no longer exists. Fix by updating the link to a relevant live page, or implementing a 301 redirect from the old URL to relevant new content.
- 301 Redirect: The page permanently moved. While not technically broken, long redirect chains (3+ hops) waste crawl budget and can lose link equity at each hop.
- 302 Redirect: Temporary redirect — should rarely be used for permanent moves as it doesn't pass full link equity and can confuse Google's indexing.
- 500 Server Error: The destination server is down or misconfigured. Monitor these closely — they may be temporary but indicate infrastructure issues.
- Timeout: The server is too slow to respond. May indicate hosting issues, bot blocking, or slow third-party domains.
How to Fix Broken Links: A Priority Framework
- Fix broken internal links first — they directly impact crawlability and internal link equity distribution
- Update broken outbound links to high-DA sites — losing these links hurts your content's credibility signals
- Implement 301 redirects for any deleted pages that had inbound backlinks from external sites
- Use broken link building as a link acquisition strategy — find broken links on relevant sites and suggest your content as a replacement
Frequently Asked Questions
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