How to find and fix broken links

A broken link points to a page that returns an error, such as 404 Not Found or 500 Server Error.

Why it matters

Broken links frustrate visitors and make a site look unmaintained. Broken internal links also waste crawl budget and stop link value reaching the pages that need it.

Internal links that go through redirects still work, but every hop adds delay for visitors and crawlers.

How to fix it

1. Run an audit to get the list of broken links and the status code each one returned.
2. For internal links, update the link to the correct URL, or add a 301 redirect if a page has moved.
3. For external links, find the new address of the resource, link to an alternative, or remove the link.
4. Update internal links that redirect so they point directly at the final URL.
5. Re-run the audit to confirm everything is fixed.