Technical SEO
Broken Link Checker
Paste a URL. We read the page, follow every link, and list the ones that are broken, so you can fix the dead ends that frustrate readers and crawlers.
What the check does, and what a dead link costs
It reads the HTML of the URL you enter, collects the first 30 unique links in document order, and requests each one. A HEAD request goes first because it is cheap, and a GET follows when the server rejects the method, which some do with a 405 or a 403. Redirects are followed, so a link reported as broken is broken at the end of the chain rather than at the first hop. Anything at 400 or above, or unreachable after eight seconds, is listed.
Claiming a ranking penalty for outbound 404s would be invention, and there is no published one. What is observable is plainer. A reader who hits a dead end leaves. An internal link pointing at a URL that no longer exists is a hole in your own structure, so the page it used to point at now has one fewer route in and gets crawled less. And a page whose cited sources have gone means a reader checking your claim cannot.
Thirty links is a cap on cost rather than a judgement about your page. It keeps a free run to a few seconds. Whole-site link checking on a schedule is the paid crawl's job, and it is the only version that catches the link that broke last Tuesday on a page nobody visits.
What each status means
| Status | What happened | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 404 | The URL is gone and the server says so. | Point the link at the page that replaced it, or remove it. Redirect the old URL only if it still receives traffic or links. |
| 403 | The server refused the request. Often a bot filter rather than a real break. | Open it in a browser. If it loads, the link is fine and the destination is blocking automated requests. |
| 410 | Gone deliberately, which is a stronger statement than a 404. | Treat it as permanent. There is no version of that page coming back, so replace the link rather than waiting. |
| 500 to 599 | The destination server failed while answering. | Re-run later, since this is usually temporary. A persistent 5xx on your own domain is an outage rather than a link problem. |
| unreachable | DNS failed, the connection was refused, or the request timed out after eight seconds. | Check it by hand. A slow server and an expired domain look identical from an automated request. |
External links break constantly and nobody tells you. The ones worth fixing first are inside your own content, because each is both a reader dead end and a route an engine cannot follow.
Broken link questions
Why does the checker stop at 30 links?
Each link is a network request, and a page with 400 links would turn a free check into a long crawl at our expense. The tool takes the first 30 unique links in the order they appear in the HTML, which on most pages means the navigation plus the top of the content. A full-site version is what the scheduled crawl in the paid product does.
A link works in my browser but shows 403 here.
The destination is blocking automated requests, usually through a firewall or bot protection that keys on the user agent. This is a false positive for readers and a real signal for crawlers, since search and AI crawlers get the same treatment. If the link matters, check whether the destination is worth citing given that engines may not be able to read it either.
Do broken links hurt my rankings?
There is no documented penalty for linking to a page that later died, and engines expect the web to rot. The costs are indirect: readers who bounce, internal link value that flows into nothing, and crawl requests spent on URLs that return errors. Fix them for the reader and the structure, not for a scoring rule.
Should I redirect every 404 to my homepage?
No. A redirect to something unrelated is treated as a soft 404 and confuses readers who expected the page they clicked. Redirect to the closest genuine equivalent when one exists. When nothing equivalent exists, let the URL return a 404 and give the page a useful message with links to the sections that do exist.
Previews the Technical Agent
Fix one page here. Rankfastt crawls your whole site on a schedule and surfaces broken links before your visitors hit them.