You click a link in a blog post you trust, and instead of the page you expected, you land on a “404 Not Found” error. You hit the back button, and you probably do not click another link on that site. That small moment is why broken links matter, and why learning how to find broken links on a website free is one of the best maintenance habits a site owner can build. In this guide, you will learn what broken links are, why they cost you visitors and rankings, how to find every one of them without paying for a tool, and how to fix each type the right way.
What Is a Broken Link?
A broken link is any hyperlink whose destination no longer works. Clicking it takes the visitor to an error page instead of the content they wanted. The most common error is 404 Not Found, which means the page does not exist at that address. A 410 Gone means the page was deliberately removed and will not return. A 5xx error means the server itself failed to respond. And sometimes the domain no longer resolves at all, which means the whole website is gone.
Broken links come in three kinds, and each one needs a different fix.
Internal broken links point to pages on your own website that have moved, been renamed, or been deleted. These are the most important to fix, because you control both ends of the link, and because they damage your own site’s structure.
External broken links point to other websites whose pages have moved or disappeared. You cannot fix the destination, but you can update or remove the link on your page. A page full of dead outbound links looks neglected, even if it still reads well.
Broken backlinks are links on other websites that point to your deleted pages. You cannot edit those links yourself, but you can redirect the dead address on your site to a live page, which recovers the value those links were sending you.
There is one more type worth knowing: the soft 404. That is a page that shows a “not found” message to visitors but returns a 200 OK status code to search engines, telling them the page exists when it does not. Soft 404s are worse than real 404s, because they confuse search engines and waste crawling on pages that should not be indexed.
Why Broken Links Matter
Google has said for over a decade that 404 errors are a normal part of the web and that a few of them do not harm how the rest of your site ranks. That is true, and it is also the reason many site owners ignore broken links entirely. The real costs are smaller than the old SEO myths claim, but they add up.
Lost visitors. A reader who hits a dead end usually leaves. If the link was in your navigation or in a popular post, that dead end costs you real traffic and real trust. People judge a site by how well it works, and a site full of dead links feels abandoned.
Wasted crawling and lost link value. Googlebot follows your internal links to discover pages, so every dead internal link sends the crawler to a page that does not exist and can leave real pages undiscovered. Internal links also pass ranking strength between your pages, and a broken internal link drops that strength on the floor. When another site links to a page you deleted, the value of that backlink is lost unless you redirect the dead address to a live page.
Weakened site structure. Internal links are how search engines understand which pages matter and how they relate. Broken links cut those paths and leave pages orphaned, which means pages with no working links pointing to them. Orphaned pages are hard for both visitors and search engines to find.
Method 1: Google Search Console (Free)
Start here, always. Google Search Console is free, it uses Google’s own crawl data, and it shows you the dead URLs Google has actually tried to open. If you have not set it up yet, verify your site first, then come back to this step.
Step 1: Log in to Search Console and open the Pages report under Indexing.
Step 2: Look for the row called Not found (404) under “Why pages aren’t indexed.” Click it to see the list of dead addresses. Also check the Soft 404 and Server error (5xx) rows, which catch the problems a plain 404 list misses.
Step 3: Click any URL in the list and use the URL Inspection tool to see which pages link to it. Those are the internal links you need to fix.
Search Console has two limits to know. It only shows 404 addresses from roughly the past month, it lists no more than 1,000 rows, and the data lags a few days behind reality. It also only covers URLs Google has crawled, not a live crawl of every link on your site. That is why you should pair it with a crawler, which is the next method.
If you run a small blog, Search Console alone may be enough for a first pass. But for a full picture, combine it with one of the methods below. Bing Webmaster Tools offers a similar free report, and its Site Explorer can be filtered by HTTP status, which is a useful second opinion.
Method 2: Screaming Frog (Free up to 500 URLs)
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a desktop application that crawls your website the way a search engine does and reports the status code of every link, image, and resource it finds. The free version covers up to 500 URLs, which is plenty for a small or medium site. It runs on Windows, macOS, and Ubuntu.
Step 1: Download Screaming Frog from screamingfrog.co.uk and open it.
Step 2: Enter your website address in the bar at the top and click Start. The crawl usually takes a few minutes.
Step 3: When it finishes, open the Response Codes tab and filter by Client Error (4xx). Every broken link appears here, with its status code. Click any broken URL, then open the Inlinks tab at the bottom: it lists every page on your site that links to the dead address, so you know exactly where to fix it.
Step 4: Export the results to a spreadsheet. That export becomes your fix list: one row per broken link, with the source page and the dead destination.
The paid licence costs about 149 pounds a year and removes the 500-URL cap. For a small site you will likely never need it. The free version also checks images and other resources, which catches broken image links that a page-only checker would miss.
Method 3: Free Online Link Checkers
If you do not want to install anything, online checkers scan a page or a small site from the browser. They are the fastest option for a quick check.
BrokenLinkCheck.com crawls up to 3,000 pages for free. Enter your site address, wait a few minutes, and you get a report of every broken link it found, with the page each one sits on.
Dead Link Checker at deadlinkchecker.com produces a broken link report in the browser, with no installation and no account needed. It is a good choice for a quick check of a small site.
W3C Link Checker is the oldest free option, maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium. It scans a single page or a small site on demand. It is slower than the others, but it is thorough and completely free.
Ahrefs free broken link checker scans one page at a time and lists broken, redirected, and blocked links with their status codes. It is handy when you only need to check a single important page, such as your homepage or a popular post.
Online checkers are best for one-off scans and small sites. For regular monitoring of a larger site, a desktop crawler or a scheduled audit tool works better, because online checkers need to be run by hand each time.
Method 4: WordPress Plugin (With a Warning)
The Broken Link Checker plugin is the best-known WordPress option. It monitors your site and reports broken links from your dashboard, and the modern version runs the heavy scanning on its own cloud servers rather than hammering your hosting.
Even so, most SEO guides recommend against running a broken link plugin permanently, because plugins add load to your site and can slow down the admin area. For most sites, a monthly crawl with Screaming Frog or an online checker does the same job with no ongoing cost to performance. Use a plugin if you want automatic monitoring on a large site and accept the trade-off.
Method 5: The Manual Check (Small Sites)
If your site has only a handful of pages, the manual check is free, fast, and surprisingly effective. Open your site on your phone and tap every link in the menu, the footer, and each button. On a five-page site, this takes about ten minutes.
Pay special attention to social icons. Many sites have a Facebook or Instagram icon in the footer that points to the platform’s homepage instead of the site’s own profile, or to an old username that no longer exists. Tap each icon and check that it opens your own profile. Then click through your ten most visited posts and check the links inside them, since older posts are the worst offenders.
How to Fix Broken Links the Right Way
Finding broken links is only half the job. Each one needs the right fix, and the right fix depends on what happened to the destination page.
Update the link. If the destination page moved to a new address, change the link to point to the new address. This is the best fix whenever the content still exists somewhere. It keeps the link useful and preserves the reader’s journey.
Add a 301 redirect. If a page on your own site moved or was merged into another page, set up a 301 redirect from the old address to the closest matching live page. This fixes every link pointing at the old address at once, including backlinks from other sites that you cannot edit. In WordPress, the free Redirection plugin handles this, or your SEO plugin may include redirect tools.
Remove the link. If the destination is gone for good and there is no good replacement, delete the link. Keep the surrounding sentence readable: either rewrite it so it works without the link, or remove the whole sentence if it only existed to support the link.
Return a real 404 or 410. When a page is truly gone with no replacement, let it return a proper 404. If the content was deliberately removed and will never return, a 410 Gone is better, because Google de-indexes 410 pages faster than 404s. What you should not do is redirect every dead page to your homepage. Google treats that as a soft 404, and visitors find it confusing.
Reclaim broken backlinks. When other sites link to a page you deleted, check whether the page had backlinks worth saving. If it did, redirect the dead address to the closest live page on your site and you recover most of that link value.
| Situation | Best Fix |
|---|---|
| Page moved to a new URL on your site | 301 redirect to the new URL |
| Page merged into another page | 301 redirect to the merged page |
| External page moved | Update the link to the new address |
| External page gone, no replacement | Remove the link or replace it with a live source |
| Page deliberately removed forever | Return a 410 Gone status |
| Backlinks point to a deleted page | 301 redirect to the closest matching live page |
After fixing, verify your work. Re-run the crawler or re-check the URL in Search Console and confirm the dead addresses are gone. Search Console data lags a few days, so give it a week before deciding a fix did not work.
How to Stop New Broken Links Appearing
Broken links are not a one-time project. Pages move, sites close, and URLs change every week. The goal is to catch new ones within days, not months.
Monthly for active sites. Run a full crawl once a month, or once a quarter for a small blog that rarely changes. Add the check to your maintenance calendar so it actually happens.
Weekly Search Console glance. Check the Pages report once a week for new 404s from Google’s crawl. It takes two minutes and catches problems early.
Always after a change. Run a full check within 48 hours of a redesign, a CMS migration, or any URL structure change. These are the moments when most broken links are created, and catching them fast protects your rankings.
Be careful when renaming URLs. Every time you change a slug, set up a redirect from the old address on the same day. Most broken internal links are created by someone renaming a page and forgetting the redirect. For a deeper walkthrough with screenshots, Kinsta’s guide to finding and fixing broken links covers the same methods in detail.
Keeping a site healthy is the same kind of routine as keeping any project organized as it grows. Sites that are checked regularly stay clean, and the checks themselves get faster each time because there is less to fix.
FAQs
Do broken links hurt SEO?
Not by themselves. Google says 404 errors are a normal part of the web and do not, on their own, harm how the rest of your site ranks. The real costs are indirect: broken internal links waste crawl budget, cut off pages from your internal link structure, and frustrate visitors. On a site with many broken links, those costs add up. Fixing them removes crawl waste and restores link flow, which supports better indexing and ranking.
What is the best free tool to find broken links?
Google Search Console is the best free starting point, because it shows the 404 URLs Google actually tried to crawl. For a full crawl of your own site, Screaming Frog is free up to 500 URLs and finds every broken internal and outbound link with its source page. For a quick check without installing anything, BrokenLinkCheck.com scans up to 3,000 pages free. Most site owners get the best results by combining Search Console with Screaming Frog.
How often should I check for broken links?
Monthly is a good default for most sites, plus a check right after any redesign, migration, or URL change. Small blogs can manage with a quarterly check. Large or frequently updated sites benefit from weekly Search Console checks and a monthly full crawl. Sites that link out heavily, such as resource directories, should check more often because external pages disappear without warning.
What is the difference between a 404 and a 410 error?
A 404 means the page was not found at that address, but it might come back. A 410 means the page has been deliberately removed and will not return. Google de-indexes 410 pages faster than 404s, so use a 410 when content is permanently gone. For most cases, a plain 404 is fine.
How many broken links are too many?
There is no magic number. A handful of 404s on a large site is normal. The problem starts when broken links appear on important pages, in navigation, or in your most visited posts. One broken link on your homepage matters more than fifty broken links on old, low-traffic pages. Fix the important ones first, then work through the rest.
Should I use a plugin or check manually?
For a small site, a monthly manual crawl with Screaming Frog or an online checker is enough and adds no load to your site. A plugin makes sense if you want automatic monitoring on a large site and you accept the small performance trade-off. Either way, the important part is the routine: check regularly, fix what you find, and verify the fixes.
Conclusion
Finding broken links for free is straightforward: start with Google Search Console to see what Google already found, run Screaming Frog for a full crawl, and use an online checker when you need a quick answer. Then fix each link properly: update it, redirect it, or remove it. Do that once a month, and again after every redesign or migration, and your site will stay clean, crawlable, and trustworthy for both visitors and search engines.
