Unique targets only
Request each destination once even when a template repeats it.
BROKEN LINK AUDIT
What is a broken link check?
A broken link checker fetches the selected page, extracts HTTP and HTTPS links, deduplicates destinations and performs lightweight status checks. 404, 410, 5xx, invalid redirects and persistent connection failures need attention.
A 403 or 429 is not automatically treated as a 404. It means the check was restricted and may involve permissions, rate limiting or firewall policy, so it needs contextual review.
Clear result states
Separate healthy, broken, restricted and unreachable links.
Controlled requests
Limit count, concurrency, timeout and redirects while blocking private targets.
Why do broken links affect SEO and users?
Broken internal links interrupt discovery, waste crawl effort and drive users away. Dead external citations weaken trust. Maintaining useful paths matters more than simply adding more links.
Protect crawl paths
Keep navigation and contextual links leading to valid pages.
Reduce user drop-off
Find 404, server errors and bad redirects before users do.
Spot template issues
Discover repeated broken destinations in navigation, footers or content templates.
How does the broken link checker work?
The tool fetches the source page once, then checks up to 30 deduplicated web links. It prefers HEAD and uses a minimal GET only when HEAD is unsupported.
- 01
Fetch the source once
Validate the public URL and read final HTML.
- 02
Extract and deduplicate
Ignore fragments, email, phone and non-web schemes.
- 03
Check with limits
Use 8-way concurrency, 5-second timeouts and up to 5 redirects.
- 04
Classify results
Separate confirmed failures, restricted access and network errors.
How should broken links be fixed?
Preserve the meaning of a destination. Do not redirect every missing URL to the homepage merely to remove 404 responses.
Update incorrect links
When the page exists, point directly to its final canonical HTTPS URL.
Use 301 for real migrations
Redirect only to a close replacement and remove unnecessary redirect chains.
Allow honest 404 or 410
If no replacement exists, remove internal links and let the status describe deletion accurately.
Separate restrictions from failures
Review 403, 429 and timeouts instead of deleting them as if they were 404s.
Broken link checker FAQ
Is a 403 URL a broken link?+
Not necessarily. It means this request was denied because of permissions, region, bot policy or a firewall. The tool marks it as restricted for manual review.
Why check only 30 unique links?+
The public-tool safety limit controls target load, response time and abuse risk. Repeated destinations are checked once.
Why can results change after refreshing?+
Sites, CDNs, rate limits and networks change. A short cache reduces repeated pressure, and later checks may return a new status.
Are results stored?+
They are not written to the business database or published as history pages. Only a short cache reduces duplicate requests.
Related webmaster tools
Continue auditing link structure, indexability and HTTP responses.