# Broken link checker Every link on one page, fetched and answered: the ones that 404, the ones that redirect, the ones that time out, with the words each link carries so you can find it in the page. A broken link is a visitor lost and a crawler sent nowhere, and on a small site each one is easy to find. Updated 2026-09-14 ยท Source: https://porteur.ai/tools/broken-link-checker ## What it checks The tool reads one page, takes up to a hundred and fifty links from it, internal and external, and requests each one eight at a time: a HEAD request first, a small GET when the server refuses HEAD. Each link gets a status, the number of hops it went through, the address it finally landed on, and the time it took. Broken links (an error, or no answer) come first, with the words the link carries on the page, so you can find the sentence; redirecting links come second, with where they land, because a link on your own page that redirects is a hop you can remove by pointing at the final address. The counts separate your own site from elsewhere, and the list copies as tab-separated text. ## Why broken links matter more than their number A link that answers 404 is a dead end for a person and for a crawler. For the person, the page promised something and gave an error; a share of them leave the site. For the crawler, it is a page discovered through your link that does not exist, which is a small signal that the site is not maintained. The links that hurt most are your own: an internal link to a page you moved or removed sends your own visitors, and your own standing, nowhere. Redirected links are the quieter cost. Each one works, one hop later, and each hop is a wait; a page whose links all redirect is a page whose author never updated it after a move. Point the links at the final address and the hops disappear. ## How to read the result - **The verdict** counts the broken links, on your site and elsewhere, and the redirecting ones. Broken on your own site is the first fix; broken elsewhere is a link to update or drop. - **Broken** lists each failing link with its status, the words it carries on the page, and where it points. No answer means the host did not respond in eight seconds or is not public. - **Redirecting** lists the links that work one hop later, with the address they land on and the number of hops. On your own pages, change the link to the final address. - **403 or 429** on an external link often means the site refuses requests from tools, not from people; open it in a browser before changing anything. - **Show all** lists every link with its answer and the time it took; **Copy the list** puts the problems on the clipboard, one a line, for a ticket or a spreadsheet. ## What to fix, in order 1. **Your own links first** Internal links marked broken are entirely in your hands: fix the address or restore the page. 2. **Then the redirects on your own links** Replace each with the final address. A site that moved keeps working through redirects for years; the links still deserve updating. 3. **Then external links that are gone** Find the page that replaced it, or link to an archived copy, or cut the sentence. 4. **Add the redirect the other way** If the broken internal link is to a page you removed, other sites may link to it too. A 301 from the old path to the closest live page keeps those. > Links from other sites to pages of yours that are gone are the expensive version of this, and this tool does not see them: it reads the links on your page, not the links to it. The free check reads those. ## Limits One page a run, a hundred and fifty links, sixty seconds. Links behind a sign-in, links in menus drawn by script after load, and links a server hides from bots are not read or answer differently. Ten runs an hour from one address, because each run is up to a hundred and fifty requests to other people's servers. ## Questions ### Do broken links hurt SEO? A few do not move rankings. Many, especially internal ones, waste the crawl and send visitors to errors, and a site full of them reads as unmaintained. Fix your own first. ### Why does a link show 403 but works in my browser? The server refuses automated requests and serves people. Common on large sites and on anything behind a bot filter. The link is fine. ### Can this check a whole site? No, one page at a time. Run it on the pages that matter most, or on the sitemap checker's sample. The free check reads up to two hundred pages of a site with their links. ### What about links to my pages from other sites that are broken? Those are broken backlinks: links pointing at pages of yours that no longer answer. This tool does not see them; the free check reads them and names the page each links to. ### Why does the tool show the anchor text? So the link can be found in the page. A URL alone says where the link points; the words say where it sits, in which sentence or which menu, which is what you need to edit it. Links carried by an image or an icon show as having no words. ## Read next - [Broken backlinks: the links you are losing to pages that are gone](https://porteur.ai/guides/broken-backlinks): Links point to deleted pages, wasting authority. Learn how to find broken backlinks, map redirects, when to restore pages, and what not to redirect. - [Internal linking for a small site: which pages link to which](https://porteur.ai/guides/internal-linking-for-seo): Decide which pages rank. Build hubs, write clear anchors, fix orphans, and crawl your site to map links you control. - [Orphan pages: finding the pages nothing links to](https://porteur.ai/guides/orphan-pages): Find orphan pages on your site, why they happen, how to compare crawl, sitemap and Search Console, and what to do: link, merge, redirect or remove. - [Redirect checker](https://porteur.ai/tools/redirect-checker): Follow a URL's redirects hop by hop: each status and destination, the time each took, the kind of hop, meta and script redirects, one rule to replace it. - [Sitemap checker](https://porteur.ai/tools/sitemap-checker): Read a sitemap the way a crawler does: what it lists, how it is dated, whether robots.txt names it, and whether thirty of its addresses answer 200. - [Backlink](https://porteur.ai/glossary/backlink): A backlink is a link from another site to yours. See what counts, how to check links, dofollow vs nofollow, and what a small site can expect. - [GEO tools: what they measure and what you can check yourself](https://porteur.ai/guides/geo-tools): What GEO tools really measure, how they sample prompts, and a simple monthly method to track AI answers yourself and act when rivals win. - [Broken link](https://porteur.ai/glossary/broken-link): A broken link sends people and crawlers to an error. See the types, where to find them, and the exact fixes for a small site. This reads the links on one page. The free check reads the links to your site: the pages other sites still link to that answer nothing, and the sites that link to your rivals and not to you. Free check: https://porteur.ai/