Why broken links matter
A link that leads to a 404 is a dead end for the visitor and a wasted path for crawlers. One or two will not sink a page, but they make a site look neglected, and broken internal links stop search engines from finding the pages behind them. Outbound links rot over time as other sites move or shut down, so pages that were fine at launch collect broken links quietly.
How this checker tests a link
For each unique http(s) link on the page, up to 60, we send a HEAD request and follow up to 5 redirects. Many servers answer HEAD badly, so if we get an error status we try again with GET before calling it broken. Each link has 6 seconds; the whole run stays under about 25 seconds.
Results fall into four groups:
- Broken. 404, 410, 5xx, or no answer at all (timeouts, DNS failures, refused connections).
- Restricted. 401, 403, 429 or 999. The link probably works in a browser, but the site blocks automated checks. LinkedIn and some social sites do this. Check these by hand.
- OK. 2xx or 3xx that resolved. Links that redirected are marked so you can update them to the final URL and save visitors a hop.
- Unchecked. Skipped for time or because the address is not public.
Fixing what you find
- Internal 404s first. Fix the link, or add a 301 redirect from the old URL if other sites link to it too.
- External 404s. Find the new location of the content, link to an archived copy, or remove the link.
- Redirects. Update links to point straight at the final URL, especially http to https redirects.
Limits
This checks one page at a time, not a full site crawl, and it reads links in the HTML, not ones added by JavaScript. For a single URL's full redirect path, use the redirect checker. To see the rel attribute on each link, use the dofollow checker.