What is Broken Link?
Learn what Broken Link means, why it matters for search rankings, and how consistent content publishing keeps your business visible in Google.
Definition
A broken link is a hyperlink that points to a page or resource that no longer exists, returning a 404 error. Broken links hurt SEO by wasting crawl budget.
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.
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.
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Sources
- Ahrefs: Study on Link Rot
- Google Search Central: Fix Crawl Errors
- Moz: Broken Links and SEO
- Screaming Frog: How to Find Broken Links
From understanding Broken Link to ranking for it
Understanding Broken Link is the starting point. The businesses that actually benefit from it are the ones consistently publishing SEO content. Not just understanding the concept. Most companies know what they should be doing; the bottleneck is execution. theStacc removes that bottleneck by publishing 30 keyword-optimized articles to your site every month, automatically.
See how theStacc worksRelated Terms
A 404 error is an HTTP status code that tells visitors and search engines a page doesn't exist at the requested URL. Fixing 404s protects your rankings.
Backlinks are links from other websites that point to a page on your site. Google treats them as votes of confidence. The more high-quality backlinks a.
Crawl budget is the number of pages a search engine bot will crawl on your site within a given timeframe. Managing it well ensures your most important.
An internal link connects one page of your website to another page on the same domain. Learn why internal linking matters for SEO and how to build an.
Link equity is the ranking value passed from one page to another through hyperlinks. It's a core component of how Google determines page authority and.
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