Free tool

Broken link checker

By Tiago CostaUpdated on July 01, 2026

Paste a page URL and see which links lead to a 404 error or are down. We check up to 30 links, internal and external, right in your browser and with no sign up.

Page URL

This can take a few seconds. We check up to 30 links on the page.

Quick guide

Everything about broken links

A broken link is a link that points to a page that no longer exists or is down. For the visitor, it ends on a 404 error screen. For Google, it is a sign of a poorly maintained page that can weigh on SEO. The more broken links, the worse the experience and the trust in the site.

What a broken link is

It is an <a href="..."> link whose target responds with an error instead of the expected content. The most common case is status 404 (not found), when the page was removed or the URL has a typo. A broken link also covers 410 (gone), 500 (server error) and a target that simply does not answer (expired domain, host down or a request timeout).

Why broken links hurt UX and SEO

They frustrate visitors: someone who clicks and lands on a 404 loses the thread and tends to leave the site.
They erode trust: many broken links make a site feel abandoned or unreliable.
They waste crawl budget: Google spends crawling on dead URLs instead of your good pages.
They leak authority: an internal link to a dead page throws away the SEO strength it would have passed on.
They hurt indexing: pages full of errors have a lower chance of ranking well.

How to fix broken links

Situation	What to do
The page changed address	Set up a 301 redirect from the old address to the new one
The content was removed for good	Remove the link or point it to a related page that is still live
Typo in the URL	Fix the href to the right address
External site went down	Update the link to an equivalent source or remove it

Internal and external links

Internal links point to your own site and hurt SEO the most when they break, because you control both sides and Google expected to find content there. External links point to other sites and break outside your control, when the target page goes down. It pays to review both: internal ones you fix at the source, external ones you update or remove. This tool checks up to 30 links at a time, internal and external, and shows each one's status.

FAQ

Broken link questions

Is the tool free?

Yes, free and no sign up. Paste the URL and get the list of broken links instantly.

How many links does it check?

Up to 30 links per run. If the page has more, we check the first 30 and tell you it was truncated.

What does a 404 status mean?

404 means the target was not found. Usually the page was removed or the URL has a typo.

Do broken links hurt SEO?

Yes. Broken links worsen the experience, spend Google's crawling on dead URLs and waste the authority that would pass on.

Should I use a 301 or remove the link?

If the page changed address, use a 301 redirect. If the content is gone for good, remove the link or point it to a related, live page.

Is my data stored?

The check runs on demand and the page content is not stored.

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Glossary terms

404 errorThe 404 error is the HTTP status code that a server returns when the requested page is not found at the accessed address. It signals that the URL does not exist (or no longer exists), whether because it was mistyped, removed or had its address changed. On its own, a 404 is normal web behavior, but in excess and on important pages it hurts user experience and SEO.500 errorThe 500 error, or Internal Server Error, is an HTTP status code that signals an unexpected internal failure on the server, something that stops it from delivering the requested page. Unlike a 404 error, which points to a page that does not exist, the 500 means the address exists but something on the server broke along the way. It is a generic error, so it flags the problem without spelling out the exact cause.410 errorThe 410 error, or 410 Gone, is the HTTP status code that tells that a page was removed permanently and will not come back. Unlike the 404, which only says the page was not found right now, the 410 is an explicit signal of definitive removal. Because it is more categorical, it tends to speed up the deindexing of the address in search engines, which makes it useful when you want to take a piece of content out of Google's index for good.External linkAn external link is a link that leaves a page and points to an address on another domain, whether to cite a source, indicate a reference or recommend complementary content. In SEO, these links (also called outbound links) help the reader, give the search engine context about your page's topic and, when they point to trustworthy sites, reinforce the content's credibility. They are the opposite of the internal link, which connects pages within the same site.HTTP status codeAn HTTP status code is the three digit number a server returns for every request made by a browser or a search bot, reporting the outcome of that request. It is organized into five classes: 1xx (informational), 2xx (success, like 200), 3xx (redirection, like 301), 4xx (client error, like 404) and 5xx (server error, like 500). In SEO, these codes tell search engines whether a page can be indexed, was moved or went offline.Internal linkAn internal link is the link that connects two pages within the same domain, taking the visitor from one piece of content to another on the site itself. Besides helping navigation, it distributes authority between pages, helps search engines discover and crawl new content and gives context about the topic of each page through the anchor text used. It is one of the simplest and, at the same time, most underrated on-page SEO tactics.Soft 404A soft 404 is the name Google gives to a page that responds with the success code 200, as if everything were fine, but in practice shows error or empty content, such as a page not found message. The search engine notices the contradiction between what the server says and what the page actually delivers, marks the URL as a soft 404 and avoids indexing it, which wastes crawling and can hurt the site's SEO.Redirect chainA redirect chain is a sequence in which one URL redirects to another, which in turn redirects to a third, and so on, before reaching the final destination. Each extra hop adds load time, spends crawl budget and dilutes the authority passed by links. Ideally any URL should redirect only once, straight to the final address, with no intermediate steps.

See the glossary