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Broken Link Checker: find the dead links on your page.

Enter a page URL and we will check up to 100 links, images and files on it one by one. See broken links, redirects and unverifiable URLs in seconds.

Why do broken links matter?

A broken link returns an error such as 404 when opened. For visitors it is a dead end: they click, see an error and often leave. For search engines it is wasted crawling, and broken internal links cut off the value that should flow to your own pages.

The older a page, the bigger the problem. Sites you link to shut down, change their URLs or remove content. This is called link rot, and you will not notice it without checking regularly.

What does this tool do?

  • Opens your page and collects its links, images, scripts, stylesheets and iframes.
  • Sends a light HEAD request to each one; if it fails, the result is confirmed with a full GET request. This filters out false errors from servers that handle HEAD badly.
  • Does not follow redirects; it shows where they go, so you can point the link straight at the final URL.
  • Separates internal and external links, and shows how many times a link appears on the page.

How to read the results

  • Broken: an error such as 404, 410 or 500, or no response at all. Update or remove the link.
  • Redirect: the link works but goes somewhere else. Replacing it with the final URL makes the page faster and avoids redirect chains.
  • Unverified: the site refused the request with 401, 403, 429 or LinkedIn’s 999. This usually means the site blocks automated checks, not that the link is broken; open it in a browser to be sure.

How to fix broken links

  • First look at internal links; they are fully under your control. If a page moved, update the link and add a 301 redirect from the old URL.
  • Then move on to external links. If the source moved, find the new one; if it is gone, link to its copy on web.archive.org or remove the link.
  • Finally fix broken images and files; they hurt page speed and layout.

Limitations

The tool checks one page and up to 100 URLs per page, starting with in-text links, then images and files. It cannot see links added later by JavaScript. Results are cached for 15 minutes.

Which tags and attributes are scanned, and the GET fallback when a HEAD request fails, are adapted from Justin Beckwith’s open-source linkinator (MIT licence). Thanks for the work.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Short answers about broken links.

Do broken links hurt SEO?

There is no direct penalty, but there are indirect effects: they spoil the visitor experience, waste search engines’ crawl budget and cut off value that should flow to your internal pages. Keeping internal links healthy matters most.

Does “Unverified” mean the link is broken?

Usually not. LinkedIn, Instagram and sites behind firewalls often refuse automated requests with 403, 429 or 999. Open the link in a browser; if it loads, it is fine.

Can I scan my whole site?

This tool checks one page. To crawl a whole site, use a desktop tool such as Screaming Frog or linkinator’s command-line version, or enter your most important pages here one by one.

Is it free, and do you store the URL?

It is free with no sign-up. Results are cached for 15 minutes and then deleted; nothing is stored permanently.