You’ve finally found it: the perfect article. And there, at the bottom, is a link to click that will take you to the answer you’ve been looking for. <\/p>\n
However, after clicking it you’re taken to a 404 page not found screen, and the answer you thought you had located is further away than ever. <\/p>\n
Broken links can lead to an extremely negative user experience on your website, but even more than that they can be incredibly damaging to your SEO<\/a> ranking. <\/p>\n When search engines see that your site is full of links that don’t go anywhere, it will ding your site and you can risk losing the positions you’ve fought for.<\/strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n Broken links are a big problem, but thankfully they can be fixed. In this article, we’ll talk about what broken links are, why they matter to SEO, what they look like and what causes them.<\/p>\n While a 404 error page<\/a> is the most common sign of a broken link, there are a few other ways that error codes might present when a link is broken. <\/p>\n This indicates that the page doesn’t exist anymore on the server, but can serve a purpose for pages that have been deleted.<\/p>\n This type of error indicates that the server doesn’t understand the URL a user is trying to reach.<\/p>\n The host server has either misconfigured the link or is too busy to process the request, so the link is dropped.<\/p>\n The HTTP request from the link has timed out during the link check.<\/p>\n An invalid hostname means that the server with that name no longer exists or is unreachable at the time.<\/p>\n The URL itself was put together wrong and is missing a bracket, has extra slashes, or has other wrong protocols that are breaking the link.<\/p>\n The HTTP code is tagged by the server as violating HTTP spec.<\/p>\n This indicates that the server views the request as empty and is returning the response with no content and no response code.<\/p>\n There are quite a few different things that can cause broken links, and most of them are unintentional consequences that happen when pages are updated or moved or come from small human errors. <\/p>\n Knowing the common causes of broken links can help you be more aware of what to look for when you’re working on your SEO and linking strategies.<\/p>\n A type is a common human error that can occur when words within the link URL are misspelled. <\/p>\n When the link isn’t clearly spelled, the server can’t tell where your link is trying to direct to and will display an error page. <\/p>\n Making sure you double-check the spelling in your URLs<\/strong> can help avoid this issue.<\/p>\n If you have a valid link going to a page but then that linking page is deleted, the link doesn’t have anywhere to direct to and an error message will display. <\/p>\n This is one of the most common reasons behind broken links, so make sure you have a clear linking structure and redirect strategy<\/strong> when you delete a page.<\/p>\n Similarly to typos, when pages are renamed the URL changes and without the new URL being updated in all links, the server doesn’t know how to process those requests and will display an error page. <\/p>\n When a page is renamed, try and make sure that the links to that page are updated accordingly.<\/strong><\/p>\n When you restructure or launch a new site on the same domain, you can have a combination of issues where pages are renamed, deleted, or content is combined. <\/p>\n This means that links to the pages in the old structure won’t be able to link anymore and will need to be updated.<\/strong><\/p>\n What sometimes gets overlooked is how many internal links are scattered in blog posts, resource pages, even in third-party guest articles pointing back to now-missing locations. It\u2019s easy to underestimate the ripple effect of moving one chunk of content, and if you don\u2019t have an inventory\u2014or at least a sensible process for tracking links\u2014you\u2019ll keep discovering broken trails for months. I\u2019ve seen sites launch with fanfare, only to watch analytics flatline after users gave up on the endless dead ends.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just about pages you control directly, either. Let\u2019s say your site was mentioned on an industry hub in 2025, and they linked to an in-depth guide you\u2019ve since renamed or consolidated. Unless you set up a redirect or reach out to update the mention, you\u2019ll be bleeding referral traffic and authority without ever knowing it happened. The web\u2019s memory is pretty bad\u2014humans forget, robots don\u2019t forgive.<\/p>\n When a brand domain changes, which will happen during rebrands or merges, the domain changes and sometimes internal links are forgotten about during the switch. <\/p>\n Having a plan in place for domain name changes<\/strong> is essential to a successful linking structure.<\/p>\n Some links don’t take you to other pages, but instead direct a user to a piece of downloadable content like an eBook, PDF, or Google document. <\/p>\n When those content pieces are removed but the links aren’t, the link has nowhere to go and will display an error.<\/strong><\/p>\n Code itself can also become broken, whether it is HTML, CSS, Javascript, or other plugins. <\/p>\n When the code is broken and needs to be fixed the links won’t work and will instead show errors, so keeping an eye on code is essential.<\/strong><\/p>\n Now that you understand what broken links look like and why they occur, you’ll likely want to get started right away on fixing them. <\/p>\n Before you can do that, however, you first need to know how you can find them. <\/p>\n While you can manually go and click on every link on your site, there are more effective ways of finding broken links.<\/p>\n Google Search Console uses information that its bots have pulled to put together a report that you can access. <\/p>\n This will help you identify any issues that the algorithm has found and can help you determine if Google is noticing broken links during the crawl. <\/strong><\/p>\n However, this will only work for URLs on your site, not any external links you might have.<\/p>\n As a brand, you probably already have a tool that you use for SEO. <\/p>\n These tools will have options to create a <\/strong>site audit<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>or examine the links on your pages, and this can also help you determine where there are broken links on your site. <\/p>\n Some SEO tools<\/a> can also help you determine the cause of the broken link, which can be helpful in your strategies.<\/p>\n Whenever you are adding new pages, combining old pages, moving domains, or restructuring your website it’s important to have a stage in your process for quality assurance. <\/strong><\/p>\n One of the steps to take during that stage is to check all links and make sure that they aren’t broken, or, if they are, how you plan to redirect or change the link so that you don’t have errors when the pages go live.<\/p>\n Fixing broken links is essential to your SEO strategy and making sure that your users have the best possible experience on your site. <\/p>\n Here are some of the best ways to fix broken links and avoid any potential consequences on your website pages.<\/p>\nExamples of Broken Links<\/h2>\n
404 Page Not Found<\/h3>\n
400 Bad Request<\/h3>\n
Reset<\/h3>\n
Timeout<\/h3>\n
Bad Host<\/h3>\n
Bad URL<\/h3>\n
Bad Code<\/h3>\n
Empty<\/h3>\n
What Causes Broken Links?<\/h2>\n
1. Typos<\/h3>\n
2. A Page Has Been Deleted<\/h3>\n
3. A Page Has Been Renamed<\/h3>\n
4. Website Restructuring<\/h3>\n
5. Domain Name Change<\/h3>\n
6. Downloadable Content Links Were Moved<\/h3>\n
7. Broken Code<\/h3>\n
How to Find Broken Links on Your Website<\/h2>\n
1. Google Search Console<\/h3>\n
2. SEO Tools<\/h3>\n
3. Quality Assurance Testing<\/h3>\n
How to Fix Broken Links<\/h2>\n
1. Redirect Pages<\/h3>\n