A study by Semrush found that 42 percent of websites have broken internal links. That is nearly half of all sites on the web leaking ranking potential through dead-end URLs. The problem gets worse over time as content is updated, pages are reorganized, and external sites change their URL structures.

Finding and fixing broken links is one of the highest-impact, lowest-effort technical SEO tasks you can perform. Unlike complex algorithm changes or content strategy overhauls, broken link fixes are straightforward and their impact is immediate. Once you set up a system for regular monitoring, the process becomes almost automatic.

This guide covers everything from understanding why broken links damage your SEO to implementing redirects in various platforms. We will use our Internal Link Analyzer and Redirect Chain Checker as diagnostic tools alongside Google Search Console and Screaming Frog.

Why Broken Links Hurt Your SEO

Broken links cause damage through three distinct mechanisms. Understanding each one helps you prioritize which broken links to fix first and which fixes will produce the biggest improvement.

The cumulative effect is significant. A site with 100 broken internal links and 50 broken inbound links could be losing thousands of dollars per month in organic traffic. The fix for most of these is a five-minute 301 redirect. The return on investment for broken link fixes is among the highest of any technical SEO activity.

Types of Broken Links

Not all broken links are the same. Each type requires a different identification method and fix strategy.

Step-by-Step: Finding Broken Links

Use multiple tools to build a complete picture. Each tool catches different types of broken links, and relying on a single tool will leave gaps.

Method 1: Google Search Console

Google Search Console is the most authoritative source for broken link data because it shows what Google itself has encountered while crawling your site.

1. Open Google Search Console and navigate to Pages (formerly Coverage)
2. Click on Not indexed to see pages Google found but did not index
3. Look for Not found (404) entries
4. Click each URL to see referring pages (where the broken link lives)
5. Export the full list for systematic fixing

Method 2: Screaming Frog Crawl

Screaming Frog is the industry standard for comprehensive site crawls. The free version crawls up to 500 URLs, which is sufficient for small to medium sites.

1. Download and install Screaming Frog SEO Spider
2. Enter your domain URL and start the crawl
3. When complete, go to Response Codes tab and filter by Client Error (4xx)
4. Switch to the Inlinks tab to see which pages link to each broken URL
5. Export to CSV for analysis and fixing

Method 3: Our Internal Link Analyzer

Our Internal Link Analyzer scans your site structure and identifies broken internal links, orphan pages (pages with no internal links pointing to them), and pages with excessive internal links. It also shows your internal PageRank distribution so you can see where link equity flows across your site.

Method 4: Browser Developer Tools

For quick spot-checks on individual pages, use your browser DevTools to see failed requests:

1. Open Chrome DevTools (F12) and go to the Network tab
2. Reload the page
3. Filter by status codes: look for 404 entries in red
4. These show broken resource links (images, scripts, stylesheets) and API calls

Fixing Broken Links with 301 Redirects

A 301 redirect is the correct solution when content has moved to a new URL or when you need to capture link equity from broken inbound links. The 301 tells search engines that the move is permanent and that all ranking signals should transfer to the new URL.

Apache .htaccess Redirects

# Single page redirect
Redirect 301 /old-page /new-page

# Redirect with full URL (useful for domain changes)
Redirect 301 /blog/old-post https://example.com/blog/new-post

# Pattern-based redirects using RewriteRule
RewriteEngine On

# Redirect an entire directory
RewriteRule ^old-section/(.*)$ /new-section/$1 [R=301,L]

# Redirect all URLs with a specific parameter
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=123$
RewriteRule ^product$ /products/widget-name? [R=301,L]

# Redirect non-www to www
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Nginx Redirects

server {
    # Single page redirect
    location = /old-page {
        return 301 /new-page;
    }

    # Redirect entire directory
    location /old-section/ {
        rewrite ^/old-section/(.*)$ /new-section/$1 permanent;
    }

    # Regex redirect for pattern matching
    location ~ ^/blog/(\d{4})/(\d{2})/(.+)$ {
        return 301 /blog/$3;
    }
}

Next.js Redirects

For Next.js applications (like this website), redirects are configured in the next.config.ts file:

import type { NextConfig } from 'next'

const nextConfig: NextConfig = {
  async redirects() {
    return [
      // Simple redirect
      {
        source: '/old-blog-post',
        destination: '/blog/new-blog-post',
        permanent: true, // 301 redirect
      },
      // Wildcard redirect for entire section
      {
        source: '/old-section/:slug*',
        destination: '/new-section/:slug*',
        permanent: true,
      },
      // Redirect with path parameter
      {
        source: '/products/:id(\\d+)',
        destination: '/shop/product/:id',
        permanent: true,
      },
      // Redirect based on query parameter
      {
        source: '/search',
        has: [{ type: 'query', key: 'category', value: 'seo' }],
        destination: '/blog/seo',
        permanent: true,
      },
    ]
  },
}

export default nextConfig

WordPress Redirects

For WordPress sites, the Redirection plugin is the most reliable option. It provides a GUI for creating redirects and automatically logs 404 errors so you can catch new broken links as they appear. For larger sites, managing redirects at the server level (Nginx or Apache) is more performant than PHP-based plugin redirects.

When to Update Links Instead of Redirecting

Redirects are not always the best solution. In several scenarios, directly updating the link is the better approach:

For large Next.js codebases, you can find all instances of a broken URL using a simple search across your source files. In smaller projects, a find-and-replace across your content files handles this efficiently. Our Internal Link Analyzer maps every internal link on your site, making it easy to identify every page that contains a specific broken URL.

Finding and Fixing Redirect Chains

Redirect chains happen when one redirect leads to another. For example: /old-page redirects to /renamed-page which redirects to /final-page. Each hop adds latency (typically 50 to 200 milliseconds) and Google may drop a small percentage of link equity at each step. Use our Redirect Chain Checker to identify these on your site.

# Problem: Redirect chain (3 hops)
/old-page     -> 301 -> /renamed-page
/renamed-page -> 301 -> /new-section/page
/new-section/page -> 301 -> /final-page

# Fix: Update all redirects to point directly to final destination
/old-page         -> 301 -> /final-page
/renamed-page     -> 301 -> /final-page
/new-section/page -> 301 -> /final-page

Redirect Loops

A redirect loop is worse than a chain. It occurs when page A redirects to page B, which redirects back to page A. The browser will try to follow the loop several times before giving up and displaying an error. This makes the page completely inaccessible to both users and search engines.

# Redirect loop (broken)
/page-a -> 301 -> /page-b
/page-b -> 301 -> /page-a
# Browser error: ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS

# Fix: Remove one of the redirects and decide which URL is canonical
# Keep /page-b as the canonical URL:
/page-a -> 301 -> /page-b
# Delete the /page-b -> /page-a redirect entirely

Common causes of redirect loops include conflicting rules in .htaccess and server config files, HTTP-to-HTTPS redirects that conflict with www-to-non-www redirects, and CMS plugins that create redirects without checking for existing rules. Always test your redirects after adding them using a tool like our Redirect Chain Checker or the curl command line utility:

# Follow redirects and show each hop
curl -IL https://example.com/old-page

# Expected output for a clean redirect:
# HTTP/2 301
# location: https://example.com/new-page
# HTTP/2 200

Preventing Broken Links from Occurring

The best approach to broken links is preventing them in the first place. Build these practices into your workflow to minimize the number of broken links that appear on your site.

Create Redirects Before Deleting Pages

Before removing any page from your site, check whether it has inbound links (both internal and external). Use Google Search Console and your backlink tool of choice. If the page has backlinks, create a 301 redirect to the most relevant replacement page before deleting the original. This should be a required step in your content management workflow.

Use Relative URLs for Internal Links

Relative URLs like /blog/seo-guide are less prone to breaking than absolute URLs like https://example.com/blog/seo-guide because they survive domain changes, protocol changes (HTTP to HTTPS), and subdomain changes without modification.

Set Up Automated Monitoring

Schedule a weekly or monthly crawl with Screaming Frog or a similar tool to catch new broken links before they accumulate. Many tools can email you a report automatically. For continuous monitoring, services like Little Warden or ContentKing check your site daily and alert you the moment a new 404 appears.

Build a Custom 404 Page

When broken links do occur, a well-designed 404 page minimizes the damage by keeping users on your site. Include a search bar, links to your most popular content, and a clear message that the page has moved:

export default function NotFound() {
  return (
    <div className="min-h-screen flex items-center justify-center">
      <div className="text-center max-w-lg px-6">
        <h1 className="text-6xl font-bold text-gray-900 mb-4">404</h1>
        <p className="text-xl text-gray-600 mb-8">
          This page has moved or no longer exists.
        </p>
        <div className="space-y-4">
          <a href="/" className="block bg-indigo-600 text-white
            px-6 py-3 rounded-lg font-semibold hover:bg-indigo-700">
            Go to Homepage
          </a>
          <a href="/blog" className="block text-indigo-600
            font-medium hover:text-indigo-800">
            Browse Our Blog
          </a>
          <a href="/free-seo-audit" className="block text-indigo-600
            font-medium hover:text-indigo-800">
            Get a Free SEO Audit
          </a>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  )
}

A good 404 page reduces the bounce rate from broken link encounters by 30 to 50 percent. It also provides an opportunity to capture leads who might otherwise leave your site entirely. For a comprehensive overview of all link-related issues, consider running our full SEO audit which covers broken links alongside 50 other technical factors. You can also start with a free SEO audit to see how your site scores.

Frequently Asked Questions