Thomas Nedjar
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Thomas Nedjar

Broken link checker: find dead links on a page or a whole site

Free

Broken link checker: find dead links on a page or a whole site

A broken link sends your visitors to an error and wastes Google’s crawl budget. Two ways to find them, depending on whether you want to check one page or an entire site.

Check a page, freeAnalyse a whole site
Linkspreview
3 broken links foundout of 48 links
/ancienne-offre/404
partenaire-externe.com/page404
/ressources/guide-2024/410
Two methods

Depending on what you need to check

A single page

Chrome extension · free, no account

You open the page, you open the side panel, the broken links are listed straight away.

  • Broken links on the page detected
  • Highlighted directly in the page
  • Button to jump to the faulty link
  • Filters for internal, external, nofollow
Install the extension

A whole site

Desktop crawler · free up to 500 URLs per site

The crawler walks through every page and reports each dead link along with the page that contains it.

  • Broken internal and external links
  • 4XX and 5XX statuses, unresponsive pages
  • Redirects, chains and loops
  • Source page of every faulty link
Discover the crawler
Why it matters

What a broken link actually costs

The visitor stops

They hit an error page halfway through their journey. On a product page or a checkout, that is a lost sale.

Crawl budget is wasted

Google spends its budget on dead URLs instead of discovering your useful pages.

Internal linking breaks

A broken internal link cuts the flow of authority to the page it was meant to strengthen.

The site looks neglected

Dead links left on a shop or a content page chip away at trust.

Method

How to fix them, in the right order

1

Find them

A single page with the extension, or the whole site with the crawler. For each dead link, note its status and the page that contains it.

2

Prioritise

Start with broken internal links and with pages that bring traffic or conversions. A dead external link on a rarely visited page can wait.

3

Fix case by case

The page moved: update the link and set a 301 redirect from the old URL. The resource is gone: remove the link or point to the closest equivalent. Do not redirect everything to the homepage, that is treated as a soft 404.

4

Check again

Run the check again after fixing. On a living site, a regular pass stops dead external links from piling up.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How do I check the broken links on a page?
With the Chrome extension SEO Cartograph On-page: open the page, then the side panel. The Links tab detects broken links, highlights them and offers a button to jump to the faulty link. Free and no account needed.
How do I find the broken links across a whole site?
You need a crawler that walks through the pages one by one. The desktop crawler reports broken internal and external links with the source page of each, free up to 500 URLs per site after signing up.
Broken internal or external link, is it equally serious?
No. A broken internal link is worse: it comes from you, it cuts your internal linking and wastes the crawling of your own site. A broken external link depends on a third-party site. It hurts the experience, but it can be fixed as you go.
Do broken links hurt rankings?
There is no direct penalty for a dead link. The effect is indirect but real: crawl budget spent on worthless URLs, internal linking cut off, visitors leaving.
Should every 404 be redirected to the homepage?
No. Redirecting everything to the homepage is treated as a soft 404 and achieves nothing. Redirect to the closest equivalent when one exists, otherwise leave a genuine 404, which is a legitimate response.

Start with the page in front of you

The extension lists broken links in seconds, with no account to create.

Install on Chrome, free
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