How to view broken links on your website
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Broken links are URLs on your website that lead to pages which no longer exist, returning a 404 error or similar failure response. To find them, use a crawler such as Screaming Frog, Google Search Console's Coverage report, or a free tool like Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. Each scans your site and lists every broken link with its source page.
Key takeaways
A broken link returns a 404 (Not Found) or 410 (Gone) HTTP status code, signalling to both visitors and search engines that the destination no longer exists.
Google Search Console is free and shows broken URLs that Google has actually tried to crawl, making it the most practically useful starting point for most small business owners.
Screaming Frog's free tier crawls up to 500 URLs and identifies broken internal and external links in a single pass.
Broken links damage SEO by wasting crawl budget and interrupting the flow of link equity between pages.
Fixing a broken link takes one of three actions: restore the missing page, redirect the old URL to a relevant live page with a 301 redirect, or remove the link from the source page entirely.
What counts as a broken link?
A broken link is any hyperlink that, when followed, fails to load a valid page. The most common result is a 404 error, meaning the server found nothing at that address. A 410 error means the page is explicitly gone. Both tell search engine crawlers and human visitors the same thing: there is nothing here.
Broken links fall into two categories. Internal broken links point from one page on your site to another page on the same site that no longer exists. External broken links point from your site to a third-party page that has been removed or moved. Both matter, though internal ones are generally more damaging to your own SEO.
Why do broken links appear in the first place?
The most common cause is a page being deleted or renamed without setting up a redirect. A product discontinued, a blog post moved to a new URL structure, a website migration that didn't carry over all the old addresses — any of these leaves the old links pointing at nothing.
External links break when the third-party site you linked to changes or removes a page. You cannot control that, but you can monitor for it and remove or replace dead outbound links when they appear.
How to find broken links: the main options
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is the logical first stop for any small business owner. Navigate to the Index section, open the Pages report (previously called Coverage), and look for pages flagged with a 404 or "Not found" status. These are URLs Google tried to crawl and failed to reach.
The advantage here is real-world data. If Google's crawler has hit a dead end on your site, that URL is genuinely costing you in crawl budget and potentially in rankings. This is distinct from a theoretical scan, because you're seeing what actually happened during Google's most recent crawl.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Screaming Frog is a desktop crawler that visits every URL on your site in the same way a search engine bot does. The free version handles up to 500 URLs, which covers most small business websites comfortably.
Once the crawl finishes, filter the Response Codes tab to show 4xx errors. Screaming Frog lists the broken URL, its HTTP status code, and the exact source page containing the link. That source page is where you go to fix things.
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is free for site owners who verify their domain. It flags broken internal links and broken external links separately, and it also shows which external sites are linking to 404 pages on your site — a particularly useful view for recovering lost link equity through redirects.
Online link checkers
Tools such as Broken Link Checker (brokenlinkcheck.com) or Dead Link Checker work without any software installation. Enter your domain, let the tool run, and download the results. These are useful for a one-off check but tend to miss complex JavaScript-rendered pages and are not a substitute for a full crawl.
Tool | Cost | Best for | Limitation |
Google Search Console | Free | Seeing what Google has actually encountered | Only shows crawled URLs, not every link |
Screaming Frog (free) | Free up to 500 URLs | Full site crawl including source pages | 500 URL cap on free tier |
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools | Free (verified owners) | Internal and external broken links plus backlink data | Requires domain verification |
Broken Link Checker | Free | Quick one-off checks, no install needed | Misses JavaScript-rendered pages |
What to do once you've found the broken links
List every broken URL alongside the source page that contains the link.
Check whether the missing page should still exist. If so, restore it.
If the page has genuinely moved, set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one.
If the page is permanently gone and no equivalent exists, remove or update the link on the source page.
For broken external links, either update to a working equivalent source or remove the link altogether.
Re-crawl or resubmit the affected pages in Google Search Console to prompt Google to re-index the corrected state.
Is it worth fixing broken links if your site is small?
Yes. A small site often has fewer pages but proportionally more link equity concentrated in each one. A single broken internal link on a site of 20 pages represents a greater share of the navigational structure than on a site of 2,000 pages. Broken links also create a poor user experience, which is reason enough to fix them regardless of SEO considerations.
As part of a broader SEO programme, broken link auditing is a lower-effort, higher-return task. The technical SEO work that keeps a site healthy extends well beyond broken links, but this is a good place to start.
Frequently asked questions
How often should I check my website for broken links? For most small business websites, a monthly check is sufficient. Run a crawl after any significant site change — a redesign, a URL restructure, or a content deletion — regardless of your regular schedule, because these events are the most common source of new broken links.
Do broken links affect my Google ranking? Broken links do not trigger a direct ranking penalty, but they cause two indirect problems. They waste crawl budget, meaning Google may not reach all your pages in a single crawl. They also interrupt the flow of internal link equity, which affects how well linked pages perform in search.
Can broken links on other websites affect my site? If an external website links to a page on your site that no longer exists, that backlink delivers no value. Setting up a 301 redirect from the old URL to a relevant live page recovers the benefit of that inbound link. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools shows which of your pages receive external links that currently return errors.
What is the difference between a 404 and a 410 error? A 404 means the server cannot find the page at that address but does not confirm whether it is permanently gone. A 410 means the page has been explicitly and permanently removed. Google treats 410s as a stronger signal to de-index the URL faster, whereas 404s may be rechecked a few times before removal.
Should I fix broken external links as well as internal ones? Yes, though they are a lower priority than internal broken links. Outbound links to dead pages make your content look outdated and can reduce the perceived quality of your page. Replace a dead external link with a working equivalent source, or remove it if no good replacement exists.
Written by the Revolve team — a digital marketing agency based in Banbury, delivering SEO, AEO and paid advertising for small and mid-sized UK businesses.
Last updated: 21 September 2026
