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February 26, 2026

# What Is Broken Link Checker? A Practical Guide to Broken Links (404 Errors)

A broken internal link doesn't just frustrate one visitor — it's a dead end for crawlers too, cutting off the flow of link equity to whatever page it used to lead to.

Broken Link Checker exists to solve one specific, recurring problem: broken links (404 errors) is easy to get wrong by hand, tedious to check manually across a whole site, and quick to fix once you can actually see it clearly. That's the gap Broken Link Checker fills.

In practice, this usually comes up in one of two situations — you're setting things up correctly from the start on a new page or site, or you're auditing something that already exists and trying to find what's silently broken. Both are worth doing regularly, not just once.

A few things worth keeping in mind:
- Prioritize fixing internal broken links first — they're fully within your control and directly affect crawl efficiency across your own site.
- For broken external links in old content, either update to the current URL, link to an archive.org snapshot, or remove the link entirely.
- Set up a recurring check (monthly for an active site) rather than a one-time audit — links break continuously as other sites reorganize.

It's also worth knowing what commonly goes wrong here. Only checking navigation and footer links while ignoring links buried in years of blog content, where most rot actually accumulates. And avoiding these is usually less about effort and more about knowing to check in the first place.

This connects to a few other things worth getting right at the same time — see Meta Tag Generator and Search Intent Cluster Tool for the related pieces of the same technical foundation.

If you want to check this on your own site right now, Broken Link Checker runs directly in your browser, free, with no account required.

Try Broken Link Checker yourself

Everything in this guide runs directly in your browser — no signup, no install.

Open Broken Link Checker →
More on broken links (404 errors)
Broken Link Checker vs. Doing It by Hand: Is It Worth Switching?
A practical look at what Broken Link Checker actually saves you over doing broken links (404 errors) manually, and when manual still makes sense.
Broken Links (404 Errors) FAQ: Questions People Actually Ask
Straight answers to the questions that come up most often about broken links (404 errors).
The Broken Links (404 Errors) Checklist: What to Verify Before You Publish
A short, practical checklist for broken links (404 errors) — the things worth checking every time, not just the first time.
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