Broken link checker

Find the dead links on a page before your readers do. Every unique link is requested and graded by its real HTTP response: 404s, server errors, dead domains, timeouts and redirects.

What each result means

ResultMeaningWhat to do
404 410The page does not exist (410: removed on purpose)Replace or remove the link
500–599The target server failedRetry later; replace if it persists
DNS lookup failedThe domain no longer resolves (often expired)Remove it: expired domains get bought and repurposed
403 429Access denied or rate-limited, often bot protectionOpen it in a browser before deciding
Timed outNo answer within 7 secondsCheck by hand; slow sites lose visitors too
301 → 200Works, but through a redirectUpdate the link to the final URL

Every code above has its own page in the HTTP status code reference, for example 404 Not Found and 403 Forbidden. Already have a list of URLs rather than one page? Paste them into the bulk HTTP status checker.

Why links break

Link rot is ordinary. Pages get renamed during a redesign, a CMS changes its URL pattern, a company is acquired and its domain points somewhere else, or a news site archives old stories behind a new path. A 2024 Pew Research Center study found that about a quarter of web pages that existed between 2013 and 2023 were no longer accessible, and that many government and news pages contained at least one broken link.

Internal links are the ones to fix first: they are fully under your control, and when one breaks it strands a page you own. For outbound links, a redirected link is fine for readers but worth tidying, and a dead one is worth replacing with a working source.

Limits worth knowing

  • One page per run and 150 unique URLs checked; links are checked in batches of 25 with at most 6 requests at a time.
  • The checker never follows links beyond the ones on your page and never submits forms.
  • Links injected by JavaScript after page load are not in the HTML and are not checked.
  • Internal or private addresses (localhost, 10.x, 192.168.x and similar) are refused for safety.

Questions people ask

How do I find broken links on my website?

Enter a page URL above. The checker lists every link, requests each unique target and flags anything that answers 4xx or 5xx, fails DNS, refuses the connection or times out. Run it on your most important pages first: the home page, top landing pages and pages with many outbound references.

Does it crawl my whole site?

No, it checks one page per run, up to 150 unique links. That keeps it fast and polite. For a full-site crawl use a desktop crawler such as Screaming Frog SEO Spider, or the Crawl stats and Pages reports in Google Search Console.

Which status codes count as broken?

404 (not found) and 410 (gone) are definite dead links. 5xx errors mean the target server failed, which may be temporary. 403 and 429 often mean the site blocks automated checks; open those by hand before removing them.

Do broken links hurt SEO?

Google has said broken outbound links are not a direct ranking penalty, but they waste visitors’ clicks, and broken internal links stop crawlers and link equity from reaching the page you meant. Fixing them is cheap housekeeping.

Is this dead link checker free?

Yes, with no sign-up. Each run checks one page and up to 150 unique links, and there is a fair-use allowance per visitor so it stays fast for everyone.

Can it check images and other resources?

It checks links in <a href> elements, the ones visitors click. Broken images, scripts and stylesheets show up in your browser’s developer tools (Network tab) or in a full-site crawler.

What should I do with a broken link?

Update it to the new URL if the content moved, link to an archived copy (for example on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine) or a better source, or remove the link. For your own moved pages, add a 301 redirect so old links keep working.

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