What is Broken Link?

What is a Broken Link?

A broken link is a hyperlink on a webpage that leads to a destination that no longer exists or can’t be reached, typically resulting in a 404 error.

Broken links happen constantly across the web. Pages get deleted, domains expire, URLs change during site redesigns. A study by Ahrefs found that 66.5% of links to sites in the last 9 years are dead. That’s not a small problem — it’s the default state of the web without active maintenance.

Both internal links (within your own site) and external links (to other sites) can break. Internal broken links are entirely within your control. External ones require monitoring.

Why Does Broken Link Matter?

Broken links create problems for both users and search engines.

• Leaked link equity — When an external site links to your page and that page returns a 404, you receive zero ranking value from that backlink
• Wasted crawl budget — Googlebot follows broken internal links, spending its limited crawl allocation on dead ends instead of your actual content
• User frustration — Visitors who click a broken link lose trust in your site, and each dead end increases the chance they’ll leave
• Reduced topical depth — Broken internal links sever the connections between related content that help Google understand your topic clusters

Sites with strong backlink profiles should monitor for broken links weekly.

How Broken Link Works

Why Links Break

The most common cause is content deletion without redirects. Site migrations and URL restructuring are close behind. External links break when the destination site changes or goes offline — something you can’t control but should monitor.

Finding Broken Links

Google Search Console flags broken links through its Coverage report and Links report. Dedicated crawlers like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs Site Audit, and Semrush scan every page on your site and identify both internal and external broken links. For smaller sites, free tools like Dead Link Checker work fine.

Fixing Broken Links

For internal broken links, either update the link to point to the correct URL or set up a 301 redirect from the old URL. For external links pointing to your site that now 404, create a redirect to your most relevant live page. For outbound links to other sites that have broken, replace them with working alternatives or remove them.

Broken Link Examples

Example 1: A blog with outdated resource links A marketing blog published 200 posts over 5 years, each linking to 5-10 external resources. After an audit, 30% of those outbound links are dead. Visitors clicking through find 404 pages on other sites, which reflects poorly on the blog’s credibility.

Example 2: A site migration gone wrong A restaurant chain moves from Squarespace to WordPress and changes every URL pattern. Two hundred inbound links from food bloggers and local directories now point to 404 pages. Without redirect mapping, the site loses its entire backlink profile’s value in one migration.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

SEO mistakes compound just like SEO wins do — except in the wrong direction.

Targeting keywords without checking intent. Ranking for a keyword means nothing if the search intent doesn’t match your page. A commercial keyword needs a product page, not a blog post. An informational query needs a guide, not a sales pitch. Mismatched intent = high bounce rate = wasted rankings.

Neglecting technical SEO. Publishing great content on a site that takes 6 seconds to load on mobile. Fixing your Core Web Vitals and crawl errors is less exciting than writing articles, but it’s the foundation everything else sits on.

Building links before building content worth linking to. Outreach for backlinks works 10x better when you have genuinely valuable content to point people toward. Create the asset first, then promote it.

Key Metrics to Track

Metric	What It Measures	Where to Find It
Organic traffic	Visitors from unpaid search	Google Analytics
Keyword rankings	Position for target terms	Ahrefs, Semrush, or GSC
Click-through rate	% who click your result	Google Search Console
Domain Authority / Domain Rating	Overall site authority	Moz (DA) or Ahrefs (DR)
Core Web Vitals	Page experience scores	PageSpeed Insights or GSC
Referring domains	Unique sites linking to you	Ahrefs or Semrush

Implementation Checklist

Task	Priority	Difficulty	Impact
Audit current setup	High	Easy	Foundation
Fix technical issues	High	Medium	Immediate
Optimize existing content	High	Medium	2-4 weeks
Build new content	Medium	Medium	2-6 months
Earn backlinks	Medium	Hard	3-12 months
Monitor and refine	Ongoing	Easy	Compounding

Frequently Asked Questions

How many broken links are too many?

There’s no specific threshold, but any broken link on a high-traffic or high-authority page should be fixed immediately. A site with hundreds of broken links signals neglect to both users and search engines. Prioritize pages with the most backlinks or organic traffic.

Do broken outbound links affect my SEO?

Broken outbound links don’t directly hurt rankings, but they create a poor user experience that can increase bounce rates. Google’s quality guidelines emphasize linking to working, helpful resources. Fix them as part of regular content maintenance.

How often should I check for broken links?

Monthly is the minimum for most sites. High-volume sites with thousands of pages should run weekly crawls. Set up automated monitoring through Ahrefs, Semrush, or Google Search Console alerts to catch new broken links as they appear.

---

Want to keep your site’s SEO health strong without the manual work? theStacc publishes 30 SEO-optimized articles to your site every month — automatically. Start for $1 →

Sources

• Ahrefs: Study on Link Rot
• Google Search Central: Fix Crawl Errors
• Moz: Broken Links and SEO
• Screaming Frog: How to Find Broken Links