How to Find Broken Links

Broken links — also called dead links — are hyperlinks that point to web pages or resources that no longer exist or are inaccessible. When a user clicks on a broken link, they encounter an error page (most commonly a 404 Not Found or 410 Gone). Broken links can be internal (pointing to other pages on your own site) or external (pointing to other websites).

Beyond the 404 error, links can also be considered "broken" if they return 5xx server errors, timeout, or redirect through too many hops. Any link that doesn't successfully deliver the user to the intended content is a broken link.

Broken links create a poor user experience. Visitors who click a link expecting useful content and encounter a 404 page are likely to leave your site — increasing your bounce rate and reducing conversions. For e-commerce sites, a broken product link is a lost sale.

Broken links also harm SEO. Search engine crawlers use links to discover and index your content. When they find broken links, it wastes their crawl budget and signals that your site is poorly maintained. A high number of broken links can negatively impact your search rankings. External broken links (pointing to other domains) also reduce your site's credibility and authority.

Regular link checking is essential for any website that wants to maintain a professional reputation, good user experience, and strong search performance.

WebCheckly offers two powerful ways to detect broken links:

Page Link Check (single page): Enter any URL and WebCheckly will crawl all links on that page, checking each one for availability, status code, and response time. Results stream in real-time so you see issues as they're found.

1. Go to the WebCheckly homepage and enter your target URL.
2. pages.guides.brokenLinks.s3Step2
3. WebCheckly extracts all links (a tags, img tags, scripts, stylesheets) and checks each one.
4. Results show status code, response time, IP address, and TLS status for each URL.

Full Site Link Check (entire website): For a comprehensive scan, use the full site crawl feature. WebCheckly will discover all pages, endpoints, and resources across your domain, checking every link it finds. This is ideal for large sites with hundreds or thousands of pages.

Continuous Broken Link Monitoring: Set up a broken link monitor to automatically check your site on a schedule. You'll receive alerts when new broken links are detected, so you can fix them before users encounter them.

• Run scans regularly: Schedule weekly or monthly broken link scans. Websites change constantly, and a link that worked yesterday may be broken today.
• Prioritize internal links: Internal broken links are entirely within your control — fix them immediately. They confuse users and waste crawl budget.
• Set up 301 redirects: When removing or moving pages, implement proper 301 redirects to the new location so users and search engines are directed correctly.
• Monitor external links: External sites can remove content or change URLs without notice. Use periodic scanning to catch broken outbound links.
• Use a custom 404 page: While fixing broken links is the goal, a well-designed 404 page with navigation options helps retain users who encounter errors.

WebCheckly's link checking tools give you complete control over your website's link health. The real-time Page Link Check provides instant results for single-page audits, while the Full Site Link Check crawls your entire domain for comprehensive coverage. For ongoing maintenance, continuous broken link monitoring alerts you the moment issues arise. Combined with WebCheckly's other features like SEO compliance, SSL checking, and performance monitoring, you get a complete picture of your website's health in one platform.