Broken Link
A hyperlink that points to a web page that no longer exists or is inaccessible, typically returning a 404 error. Broken links harm user experience and are a sign of poor site maintenance.
What is Broken Link?
A broken link is a hyperlink that points to a web page, resource, or domain that is no longer available or accessible. When a user clicks a broken link, they receive an error page—most commonly a 404 Not Found error, but also 410 Gone, 503 Service Unavailable, or other error status codes. Broken links occur for various reasons: the destination page was deleted or moved without proper redirects, the website went offline, the domain expired, or changes were made to the site structure. Broken links are problematic for multiple reasons. From a user experience perspective, they create frustration and hurt trust—users land on error pages expecting content. From an SEO perspective, broken links waste crawl budget as search engine bots try to index non-existent pages, reduce link equity that could flow to valid pages, and signal poor site maintenance. Both internal broken links (within your site) and external broken links (pointing to other sites) matter. Internal broken links harm user experience and crawlability of your own site. External broken links don't directly hurt your site's SEO, but they impact user experience when visitors try to access recommended resources.
Why It Matters for SEO
Broken links negatively impact both user experience and SEO. They contribute to higher bounce rates as frustrated users immediately leave error pages. Google's crawlers waste resources attempting to index broken links, reducing crawl efficiency for your valuable pages. Pages with many internal broken links may receive lower quality scores. Broken external links undermine your credibility and authority—if you're linking to resources that no longer exist, it suggests outdated or low-quality content. Regularly auditing and fixing broken links is essential site maintenance that shows search engines your site is actively maintained and cared for.
Examples & Code Snippets
HTTP Status Codes for Broken Links
# Check HTTP status codes for links
curl -I https://example.com/old-page
HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 1234
Date: Wed, 08 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT
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COMMON ERROR CODES FOR BROKEN LINKS:
404 Not Found
- Page was deleted or URL changed without redirect
- Most common broken link error
- User sees "Page not found" error
410 Gone
- Page intentionally removed
- Tells crawlers to remove from index immediately
- More specific than 404
500 Internal Server Error
- Server error, not a broken link per se
- Temporary issue or permanent site problem
503 Service Unavailable
- Server temporarily down
- Might recover, or could indicate site offline
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EXAMPLE: CHECKING YOUR SITE
curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' https://yoursite.com/page
# Returns 200 (working) or error codeHow broken links manifest as HTTP error responses
Conduct quarterly broken link audits using tools like Screaming Frog, Google Search Console, or Ahrefs. Fix internal broken links immediately by updating URLs or adding redirects. For external broken links, either find updated resources to link to or remove the links entirely. Consider implementing 301 redirects when you move pages rather than leaving broken links.
Frequently Asked Questions
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