Broken Link Checker
Find broken links on any webpage.
How to use Broken Link Checker
Paste Your URL
Enter the complete webpage URL (including https://) into the text input field labeled 'Enter Website URL'. Click the blue 'Check Links' button to begin scanning.
Wait for Scan Results
The tool analyzes every link on the page. A progress bar displays the scan status. Processing typically takes 10-30 seconds depending on the number of links detected.
Review Broken Links Report
Results display in a table showing Status (200, 404, timeout), URL, Link Text, and Response Time. Red rows indicate broken links (4xx, 5xx errors). Click 'Download Report' button to export as CSV.
Filter and Analyze Results
Use the 'Filter by Status' dropdown to show only broken links, redirects, or timeouts. Click any URL to preview the broken resource or identify which page links to it.
Related Tools
Broken link checker: find and fix dead links on any webpage
Broken link checker: find and fix dead links on any webpage
A broken link checker scans every link on a webpage and reports which ones return errors, so you can fix 404s and dead links before they hurt your SEO or frustrate visitors. Use the free ToolHQ broken link checker to scan any page right now.
A broken link checker is a network tool that fetches a webpage, extracts all its hyperlinks, requests each one, and returns the HTTP status code for every link. Any link returning a 4xx or 5xx status code, or timing out, is flagged as broken.
Every website accumulates dead links over time. External pages get deleted, domains expire, and URLs change without redirects being set up. Internal pages get moved or merged and the old links are forgotten. Each broken link is a small SEO signal against your page and a frustrating dead end for any visitor who clicks it. Checking links manually is impractical at scale. A broken link checker does in seconds what would take hours by hand.
Key takeaways
- Scans all links on a page and reports the HTTP status code for each
- Identifies 404 Not Found, 410 Gone, 500 server errors, and timeout failures
- Works on internal links, external links, and anchor links in one pass
- Only the URL you enter is queried, no personal data is stored
- Free, instant, no account required
What broken links are and why they matter
A broken link is a hyperlink that no longer leads to a valid, accessible resource. From a technical standpoint, any link that returns a non-200 HTTP status code is potentially broken. The most common broken link status codes are:
- 404 Not Found: the server received the request but found no resource at that URL. This is the most common broken link error, typically caused by deleted pages, moved content without a redirect, or typos in the URL.
- 410 Gone: the server explicitly indicates the resource was permanently removed. Like 404, but stronger: it tells crawlers the resource will not return.
- 500 Internal Server Error: the server encountered an error processing the request. This may be temporary or indicate a persistent server problem.
- 503 Service Unavailable: the server is temporarily unable to handle the request. Usually temporary, but worth monitoring.
- Timeout: the server did not respond within a set time window. May indicate a slow server, network issue, or that the domain no longer resolves.
The W3C Link Checker defines a rigorous set of link validity rules that go beyond just HTTP status codes, including checking for malformed URLs, anchor targets, and encoding issues.
Why broken links affect SEO. Search engines crawl your site by following links. Broken internal links waste crawl budget and create gaps in how Googlebot maps your site's structure. Broken external links are a weaker signal but still indicate low content maintenance. Pages with many broken links may receive lower quality assessments.
Why broken links affect user experience. A visitor following a link to a 404 page has a negative experience. If that link was in a critical navigation path, it can cost you a conversion. High bounce rates from dead-end pages compound over time.
When to run a broken link check
After publishing new content. Any time you link to external resources or other pages on your site, a quick check confirms all links are reachable at the time of publication.
During a site audit. A periodic full-site link audit catches links that broke since the last audit. For actively maintained sites, a monthly check on high-traffic pages is a sensible baseline.
Before a site migration. When moving a site to a new domain or CMS, checking links before and after the migration reveals which links need to be updated as part of the migration process.
When external sites change. Links pointing to external resources are out of your control. A news article you linked to two years ago may have been deleted, moved behind a paywall, or replaced with a different page. Checking external links periodically keeps your content accurate.
After content updates. When you rewrite or restructure a page, links to other sections, images, or related resources can break if URLs change. Checking immediately after an update catches these quickly.
Mini-story: James, a 41-year-old content manager at a B2B software company in Edinburgh, inherited a content library of 300 articles from a previous team. He had no idea how many broken links had accumulated over three years. He ran the top 50 articles through the broken link checker and found that 38 of them had at least one broken external link. Several linked to competitor blog posts that had been deleted, news articles behind paywalls, and tool pages that no longer existed. He prioritized fixing the 12 articles with more than three broken links and replaced each dead link with a current, relevant source. His editor confirmed the pages felt noticeably more trustworthy and current after the update.
Check your page for broken links now
How to use the broken link checker: step by step
Enter the URL. Paste the full URL of the page you want to check. Include
https://. The checker fetches that specific page.Run the check. The tool requests the page, parses all
<a href>links, and sends a HEAD or GET request to each one.Review the results. The output lists all links found on the page with their HTTP status codes. Links returning 200 are healthy. Anything else needs attention.
Focus on 4xx errors first. 404 and 410 errors are the most actionable. These links are definitively broken and need to be replaced or removed.
Investigate 5xx and timeouts. Server errors and timeouts may be temporary. Note them and re-check after a few hours. Persistent 500s or timeouts on external sites indicate the resource is no longer reliably accessible.
Fix or replace broken links. For internal broken links, update the URL or set up a redirect. For broken external links, find an equivalent current resource and update the link, or remove the link if no equivalent exists.
What to do with each type of broken link
Broken internal links (404 to your own pages). These are the highest priority. A visitor clicking an internal link that 404s has no way to continue on your site through that path. Fix options:
- If the page was moved: update the link to the new URL, or set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one.
- If the page was deleted: either restore it, replace the link with a related page, or remove the link entirely.
Broken external links. These point to resources on other domains that no longer exist. Fix options:
- Search for the same resource at a new URL (the site may have reorganized).
- Replace with an equivalent resource from a different authoritative source.
- If no equivalent exists, remove the link entirely rather than linking to a dead page.
Redirected links. Links that redirect (301 or 302) are not broken but represent an inefficiency. Update the link directly to the final destination to reduce unnecessary redirect hops. The redirect checker traces the full chain so you know exactly where to point the updated link.
Mini-story: Lisa, a 30-year-old freelance SEO consultant in Toronto, was doing a site audit for a small online retailer. The client's product guide pages were underperforming in search rankings despite having strong content. She ran the guide pages through the broken link checker and found that each page had 3-5 broken external links pointing to product manufacturers, industry associations, and specification documents that had moved or been deleted. She replaced each broken external link with a current, authoritative equivalent. In the following quarter, four of the six guide pages she fixed improved their average ranking position by 3-7 places. The better external link profile contributed to the pages being treated as more authoritative.
Browse all network tools on ToolHQ for a full suite of site health checks. Pair the broken link checker with the SSL checker and the redirect checker for a thorough page audit.
Frequently asked questions
What is a broken link?
A broken link is a hyperlink that no longer leads to an accessible resource. Most commonly, broken links return a 404 Not Found error, meaning the linked page does not exist at that URL. Other broken link types include server errors (500), gone responses (410), and timeouts.
How do broken links affect SEO?
Broken internal links waste crawl budget and create gaps in how search engines map your site structure. Pages with many broken links may be viewed as poorly maintained. Broken external links signal outdated content. Fixing broken links is a routine part of technical SEO maintenance.
How often should I check for broken links?
For actively updated sites, checking high-traffic and high-value pages monthly is a reasonable baseline. After any content update, migration, or site restructure, check the affected pages immediately. Older evergreen content benefits from a quarterly check since external links break over time without any action on your part.
What is a broken anchor link and why is it harder to detect?
An anchor link points to a specific section within a page using a fragment identifier, the #section-name part at the end of a URL. For example, example.com/guide#installation-steps should scroll the browser to a heading with the id installation-steps. A broken anchor link happens when the target section has been renamed, removed, or the heading id was changed. The problem: the page itself returns a 200 OK status because it still exists. A standard link checker sees 200 and marks it as healthy, even though clicking the link lands visitors at the top of the page rather than the intended section. The W3C Link Checker is one of the few tools that validates anchor targets specifically. For anchor link accuracy, check key navigation links manually or use a checker that validates fragment targets.
Does the checker find broken images and media?
A broken link checker primarily checks <a href> hyperlinks. Some tools also check <img src> and other resource links. Check the tool's documentation to confirm which link types are scanned.
Is my URL stored when I use the checker?
Only the URL you enter is queried to find and check its links. No personal data is collected or stored.
The short version
A broken link checker scans every link on a page and reports which ones are dead, giving you a precise list to fix rather than a vague problem to investigate. ToolHQ's free checker covers internal and external links, reports exact status codes, and only needs the page URL to run.
Paste a URL, get the broken links list, fix what matters.
For a complete site health check, use the SSL checker to verify certificates and the redirect checker to trace redirect chains. Browse all network tools on ToolHQ.