How to find broken links on your website: a practical guide for small businesses
Broken links are hyperlinks that point to pages that no longer exist. When a visitor or search engine clicks a broken link, they get a 404 error instead of the content they expected. Over time, these broken links build up as sites are restructured, pages are deleted, and domains are retired.
If your site has too many broken links, two things happen. Visitors get frustrated and leave. And Google sees the broken links as a signal that the site is not well maintained, which can affect your search rankings.
The good news is that finding and fixing broken links is straightforward and costs nothing if you use the right free tools. This guide shows you exactly how.
Check Google Search Console first
Google Search Console is the fastest way to find broken links because Google has already done the hard work of crawling your site and finding every 404 error.
Log into Google Search Console at search.google.com/search-console and select your site property. Go to the Indexing section and open the Pages report. Set the filter to "Not indexed" and look for the reason "Not found (404)". This lists every URL on your site that returned a 404 error, along with which pages link to them.
Click each entry to see the "Linked from" column, which shows which page on your site contains the broken link. That is where you will make the fix.
If you do not see any 404s in the list, either your site is exceptionally well maintained or Google has not crawled it recently. The crawl can take a few days to a few weeks after you publish a new page. Check back after your next crawl cycle.
Run the free Victory Digital SEO report
If you have not connected Google Search Console yet, or if you want a second check, run a free SEO report at https://victory.digital/run-a-seo-report. The report crawls your homepage and a selection of internal pages and flags any broken links it finds, alongside other technical issues like missing meta data and slow page speed.
This is especially useful for a quick check between your regular GSC reviews.
Use a browser extension for spot checks
For a quick on-the-spot check, install a broken link checker browser extension such as Check My Links (Chrome) or Dr. Link Check (Firefox). When you visit a page, the extension highlights every link in green (working) or red (broken), so you can see at a glance whether any links need attention.
This method only checks the page you are currently viewing, so it is best for periodic spot checks rather than a full site audit.
How to fix broken links
Once you have a list of broken links, the fix depends on why the target page is missing.
If the page was moved to a new URL, set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. A 301 redirect tells browsers and search engines that the page has permanently moved, and it passes most of the original page's link equity to the new location. Your web designer or hosting provider can set this up if you do not have access to the server.
If the page was deleted and has no replacement, update the link to point to the most relevant existing page. For example, if a product page was removed, link to the category page instead. If there is genuinely no replacement, remove the link entirely so visitors are not sent to a dead end.
If the broken link points to an external site, check whether the external page has moved. If the content exists at a new URL, update your link. If the external site has taken the page down permanently, find a different authoritative source to link to instead.
How often to check for broken links
For most small business sites, a monthly check is enough. Run through the Google Search Console 404 report once a month and fix whatever has appeared since your last check.
If your site has a blog with regular posts, or if you frequently update service pages, check more often. Every time you publish or update a page, run a quick scan to make sure you did not introduce any broken links.
If you maintain a large site with hundreds of pages, consider using a dedicated crawling tool like Screaming Frog (free for up to 500 URLs) to run a full broken link audit every quarter.
Preventing broken links in the future
The most common cause of broken links is reorganising a site without setting up redirects. Whenever you delete a page, change a URL, or move content to a new location, set up a 301 redirect from the old address. Most content management systems, including WordPress, can handle this automatically with a redirect plugin.
When you link to external sites, check periodically that those pages still exist. External domains change hands, restructure their content, and sometimes disappear entirely. There is not much you can do about that apart from catching it in your monthly scan and replacing the link.
Run a free SEO report at https://victory.digital/run-a-seo-report to check your site for broken links, page speed issues and other technical SEO problems.
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