How to Find and Fix Broken Links on Any Website

A practical playbook · updated October 2026

Broken links are the plumbing leaks of the web: individually small, collectively expensive. A visitor who hits one 404 shrugs; a Google crawler that hits dozens lowers its estimate of your site's quality; a chain of five redirects wastes crawl budget on every visit. Here's a workflow that finds what's broken and keeps it found.

Step 1: Scan wide, not shallow

Spot-checking your homepage tells you almost nothing — most broken links live deep in archives, old blog posts, and forgotten landing pages. You have three realistic options:

Method	Catches	Cost
Google Search Console "Pages" report	404s crawlers found	Free, but lagging (days–weeks) and partial
Desktop crawler (e.g. Screaming Frog)	Everything, thoroughly	Free ≤500 URLs, then paid; install required
Sitemap-based web scanner	Each scanned page's links, with redirect chains	Free to 25 pages, no install

For most sites under a few hundred pages, a sitemap-based scanner is the fastest honest answer. That's why we built LinkPatrol's free scanner — paste your domain, it reads your sitemap, checks the links on each page it scans (up to 25 free), and lists 404s with status codes:

Step 2: Fix in this order

Broken internal links (4xx) — you control both ends. Point them at the correct live URL; if the page is gone for good, 301 it to the nearest equivalent rather than leaving a 404.
Redirect chains — a link that hops 301→301→200 works, but every hop is latency and dilution. Update the source link to the final URL. Our redirect checker lists the full chain.
Broken external links — replace with a live source, or link to an archived copy. Externals rot fastest; they're nobody's job, which is exactly why they stay broken.
Images missing alt text — not a "broken link" strictly, but accessibility + SEO points in the same sweep.

Step 3: Keep it fixed

Every redesign, migration, plugin update, and retired product page re-introduces breakage. Re-run the free scan monthly — it takes seconds. Sites over 25 pages: higher-limit plans are in progress — see plans for status.

Common questions

Does 404 hurt SEO directly? A single 404 doesn't; systemic ones do. Crawlers ration attention — spend it on dead ends and live pages get crawled less.

Should I fix links pointing TO my site too? That's broken link building — worth doing for high-authority pages, and the same scan data helps: find who lists a dead URL similar to yours, pitch your live page as replacement.

How often should I scan? Small sites: monthly. Active sites, pre- and post-migration: daily. Anything you publish touches links — every time.