How to Find Broken Links on Your Website (Free, No Sign-Up)
A broken link is a link pointing to a page that no longer exists or has moved. They hurt you three ways: users hit dead ends, Google's crawler wastes your crawl budget on them, and they signal poor site maintenance, which is why most audit tools list them first.
Why links break
You deleted or renamed a page and forgot to update old links. An external site you linked to moved or shut down. A typo snuck into the URL. None of these show up in your editor, only in a crawl.
How to find them free
Run any URL through the free Broken Link Checker. It checks every link on the live page, reports which return 404s and which redirect, and works without an account. For a full migration instead of one page, generate a 301 map with the Redirect Map Generator so no URL moves without a destination.
What to do with what you find
Fix internal links by updating them to the final destination, not the redirect. For external links, replace dead sources with live ones. For moved pages, keep the 301 in place for at least a year, and log the old and new URLs in your redirect map.
How often to check
After every site edit, after any migration, and quarterly otherwise. Saved reports in a free InRankSEO account track whether your broken link count is falling. While you are fixing links, check your canonical tags too.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do broken links hurt SEO?
Users hit dead ends, Google's crawler wastes crawl budget on them, and they signal poor site maintenance.
How often should I check for broken links?
After every site edit, after any migration, and quarterly otherwise.
How long should I keep a 301 redirect?
Keep a 301 redirect in place for at least a year, and log the old and new URLs in your redirect map.
Put these tactics to work
Run InRankSEO's free SEO tools to audit your site, research keywords, and track your visibility across Google and AI search.
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