I found out about broken links on my website in an embarrassing way.
A reader sent me a message saying she clicked a link in one of my articles and got a "404 Page Not Found" error. She had been trying to read a resource I recommended. Instead, she hit a dead end and left my site frustrated.
I went back and checked. That broken link had been sitting there for weeks. I had no idea. And if one reader found it by accident, Google had already found it long before she did.
That was the day I started checking my website for broken links regularly. If you have never done this, your site probably has a few broken links right now — and Google is already aware of them.
This guide will explain what broken links are, why they hurt your website, and how to find and fix them before they become a real problem.
What Is a Broken Link?
A broken link is any link on your website that leads to a page that no longer exists or cannot be reached. When someone clicks it, instead of landing on useful content, they see an error — usually a "404 Not Found" page.
Broken links happen for simple reasons. A page you linked to has been deleted. A website you referenced has changed its URL. You type a web address incorrectly when writing a post. Or you move pages around on your own site and forget to update the links pointing to them.
Any of these can create a broken link. And broken links are more damaging than most website owners realise.
Why Broken Links Hurt Your Website
There are three ways broken links damage your site, and all three matter.
They frustrate your visitors. A reader who clicks a broken link feels let down. They came to your site looking for something helpful. Instead, they got an error page. Many of them will not try again. They will simply leave and not come back.
They waste Google's crawl budget. Google sends bots to crawl your website regularly. Every time a bot follows a broken link and hits a dead end, that is wasted time and crawl budget. Google has a limited amount of time it spends on any site. The more dead ends it finds, the less of your real content it can reach and index.
They signal a poorly maintained site. When Google finds many broken links on a website, it reads that as a sign the site is not being looked after. A neglected site is less likely to be recommended to searchers. Your rankings can quietly drop because of this, even if your content is good.
I noticed a small but clear improvement in my Google Search Console coverage after fixing broken links on my sites. Pages that were previously not indexed started appearing within a few weeks.
How to Find Broken Links on Your Website
This is where most people get stuck, thinking it requires technical skills or expensive software. It does not.
Go to the Broken Link Finder on Rankests — rankests.com/broken-links-finder
Type your website address into the search box and run the check. The tool scans your website and returns a list of any broken links it finds — showing you exactly which pages they are on and where the broken links point to.
No installation. No account required. Free to use.
Once you have the list, you know exactly where to go and what to fix. It is that straightforward.
Pro Tip: Do not only check your homepage. Run the tool on your most important pages separately — your top blog posts, your tool pages, and your contact page. Some broken links hide deep inside older articles that your homepage scan might miss.
How to Fix Broken Links
Finding broken links is the first step. Fixing them is equally simple once you know what to do.
If the link points to a page on your own website that you moved or deleted, update the link to point to the new correct address. If the page no longer exists at all, either create a redirect from the old address to a relevant new page or remove the link from your content entirely.
If the link points to an external website that has changed or disappeared, you have two choices. Search for the updated URL of the same resource and replace the broken link with the new working one. Or, if the resource no longer exists anywhere, remove the link and replace it with a different source that covers the same topic.
If you have many broken links across a large website, fix the ones on your most-visited pages first. Those pages have the most readers and carry the most SEO weight. Work your way down from there.
After fixing everything, run the Rankests Broken Link Finder again to confirm all the errors are gone before moving on.
Read related articles below:
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How Often Should You Check for Broken Links?
Once is not enough. Websites change constantly — yours and the ones you link to.
I check my websites for broken links every month. It takes less than five minutes and has become a normal part of how I maintain my sites. I catch problems early, fix them the same day, and never have to worry about a reader finding a dead link before I do.
A good habit is to run a broken link check every time you publish new content, and again at the end of every month as a routine sweep. This keeps your site clean and tells Google you are actively maintaining it.
The Conclusion:
Broken links are silent killers for a website. They push visitors away, waste Google's crawling time, and slowly drag your rankings down — all without any obvious warning signs until the damage is already done.
The fix is simple. Check your website now using the free Broken Link Finder at rankests.com/broken-links-finder. Find every broken link on your site, fix them one by one, and make monthly checks a habit.
Google rewards well-maintained websites. A clean, link-healthy site is one of the easiest wins you can give yourself.