Broken link

If a user or crawler loads the URL and does not get a working page, the link is broken. That includes 404 and 410, server errors, domains that expired, and redirects that end on an error page.

It is not just the blue text. A broken image src, stylesheet or script URL is also a broken link in practice, but this page focuses on page links you click or crawl.

• Internal broken links: links between your own pages. They waste crawl and send visitors to dead ends, for example /guides/geting-started from /guides that 404s.
• External broken links: links from your page to other sites. They date the page and hurt trust. If /blog/tools links to a guide on an expired domain, fix or remove it.
• Broken backlinks: other sites link to a URL of yours that no longer exists. This wastes links you earned. A redirect to the closest live page recovers that value.

Start with your own errors. Search Console's Page indexing report lists your 404s. Click a 404 URL and you will see examples of pages that link to it if Google found any during crawl.

Run a crawler on your site to list every internal link to those 404s and any other non 200 targets. Export the source page and anchor so you can fix at the source.

Check external links on your pages with the same crawl, filtered to non 200 external targets. Prioritise links on pages that still get traffic, like /pricing or /blog/compare-x-vs-y.

For broken backlinks, use link tools. They list backlinks to dead URLs so you can decide a redirect target. Use your server logs or analytics to see if those dead URLs still get hits.

1. 1

   Internal broken links

   On the source page, update the href to the correct live URL or remove the link. If the target URL changed, add a 301 redirect from the old permalink to the new one. Example: /guides/getting-started replaces a mistyped /guides/geting-started, and the old path 301s to the correct guide.

2. 2

   External broken links on your pages

   Find a current, relevant replacement and update the link, or remove it. If it must stay, add a note to the text so users are not misled. Example: swap a dead vendor doc to its new docs homepage.

3. 3

   Broken backlinks to your site

   Map each dead URL to the closest still relevant page and add a 301. If no close match exists, redirect to the nearest parent category like /blog, not the homepage unless that is the true equivalent. Then, if the topic deserves a page again, recreate it at the old URL.

After changes, recrawl the site section and request indexing for key fixed pages in Search Console. Check the Links report for any rise in links to your live targets.

• Chaining redirects. One 301 hop is fine, long chains slow users and can fail. Update the source link instead.
• Redirecting everything to the homepage. This is a poor match and can show as soft 404. Pick the closest page or recreate the content.
• Letting 404s grow. Set a monthly crawl. Add broken link checks to your release checklist before shipping new pages.
• Fixing only the status code. If a redirect lands on an error page, it is still a broken link as of 2026.
• Forgetting feeds and emails. Update links in navigation, sitemaps, footers, onboarding emails and help widgets.