Finding and Fixing Broken Links

A link can be perfectly correct the day it is written and still stop working years later, without the page that contains it ever being edited, simply because whatever it pointed at moved, was renamed, or went offline entirely. This is sometimes called link rot, and it accumulates quietly on older content specifically because nobody is actively watching for it.

A broken link is a small but real dent in a visitor's trust in a page, and a page with several of them starts to read as neglected even if the actual content is still accurate. Broken outbound links can also be a minor negative signal for search engines, since a page linking to a lot of dead content looks less carefully maintained than one that does not.

• The linked site restructured its URLs without leaving a redirect from the old address.
• The linked site shut down or changed domains entirely.
• A typo in the original link that nobody noticed since most readers do not click every link.
• An internal link left pointing at a page that was since deleted or moved on your own site.

For an internal broken link, either fix the URL directly or add a redirect from the old address to wherever the content now lives. For an external broken link, check whether the content moved (search for its title) and update the link, or remove it and reference an alternative source if it is genuinely gone. Leaving a broken link in place rarely serves anyone.

Broken Link Checker fetches a page, finds the links on it, and checks a sample of them to see which still resolve. If a link turns out to redirect rather than fail outright, Redirect Checker shows the full chain it follows, which is useful for confirming a redirect actually lands somewhere sensible rather than just existing.