What Is a Broken Link? Impact on SEO, How to Find Them, and Repair Steps

When you run a website, broken links occur before you know it. A link that does not reach the target page when clicked harms the user experience and also affects the site's credibility. You may be told that "broken links lower search rankings," but in reality Google's official stance and the practical interpretation are a bit calmer. This article organizes and explains broken links from the basics of what they are, through their real impact on SEO, how to find them, and the repair steps.

What is a broken link

A broken link refers to a state where clicking a link on a web page does not reach the target page, or the page cannot be accessed. In many cases, a "404 Not Found (the page you are looking for was not found)" error is displayed at the destination. It is also called a dead link.

404 is a status code meaning "not found," indicating that the requested page does not exist on the server. Besides this, cases where a page is not displayed due to trouble with the destination server or an access permission problem are also included in broken links in the broad sense.

Two types of broken links

The broken links a site operator should be aware of can be broadly divided into two types.

• Outbound link breakage: a state where a link from your site to another page (internal or external link) is broken. You can manage and fix it yourself
• Backlink breakage: a state where a backlink directed from another site to your site is broken due to a URL change or deletion on your site's side

Main causes of broken links

Broken links occur for the following reasons. Many happen naturally in the course of daily operation and are difficult to fully prevent, so periodic checking is a prerequisite.

• The destination page was deleted
• The destination URL was changed but the link source was not updated
• The page location changed due to a site renewal or structural change
• A typo or error in the URL when writing the link
• The page was deleted or moved due to the external site's circumstances (in the case of external links)

Impact of broken links on SEO

The relationship between broken links and SEO is often exaggerated. Here, based on Google's official stance, we organize what is a problem and what you don't need to worry too much about.

A 404 error itself does not directly lower rankings

To conclude, even if a 404 error occurs, it does not itself directly lower search rankings. Google explains in its official help, in effect, that generally a 404 error occurring does not affect a site's search performance. A deleted page returning 404 or 410 is treated as a normal state that occurs naturally on the web. Even when a backlink is returning 404, it does not put you at a disadvantage in search results.

Possibility of indirectly harming SEO

On the other hand, leaving broken links unaddressed can indirectly harm SEO. Mainly through the following three paths.

• Degraded user experience: users feel stress at not reaching the information they want, leading to drop-off. For a link to a CV page, it also becomes a lost sales opportunity
• Reduced credibility: many broken links give the impression of being "unmaintained" or "low in credibility," which can be a minus from an E-E-A-T perspective as well
• Reduced crawl efficiency: because crawlers move by following links, many broken links may prevent the site from being crawled properly, potentially lowering crawl efficiency

In other words, the problem with broken links is less "the 404 itself" and more the secondary effects it has on user experience and crawling. You don't need to fear it excessively, but it is desirable to fix rather than leave it.

How to find broken links

Broken links can be found by several methods, from visual checking to dedicated tools. Use them according to the scale and purpose of your site.

1. Check by clicking directly in the browser

The most basic method is to actually click the link in the browser and confirm whether it displays normally. It requires no special tools and even beginners can do it, but because it takes effort on sites with many pages, it suits small sites or page-by-page checks before publishing.

2. Check with Google Search Console

In Search Console, you can check the 404s that Google detected. Opening "Not found (404)" from the admin screen's "Indexing" → "Pages" → "Why pages aren't indexed" lets you check the details of the relevant URLs. However, note that what you can check in Search Console is backlinks and internal links (in-site links); outbound link breakage to external sites cannot be checked.

3. Use a dedicated broken link checker tool

If you want to check the whole site at once, a dedicated tool is efficient. There are options such as online tools that detect broken links inside and outside the site in bulk just by entering a URL (like dead-link-checker.com), desktop apps for large sites (like Screaming Frog SEO Spider), and Ahrefs' broken link checker. If you want to quickly check just the one page being displayed, a Chrome extension (like Check My Links) is also convenient.

4. Automatically monitor with a WordPress plugin

If it is a WordPress site, you can automatically monitor internal and external links with a plugin such as "Broken Link Checker." Because you can receive email notifications when a broken link occurs, it greatly reduces the effort of finding them. It is especially suited to sites with many article additions and rewrites.

Steps to repair broken links

Broken links are not done once found; handling them means repairing them correctly. Handle the broken links you find by judging them with the following three patterns.

1. Fix to the correct URL: for a simple URL typo, or when you know the relocation destination, rewrite it to the correct URL
2. Connect with a 301 redirect: if the page was relocated or consolidated, set a 301 redirect from the old URL to an existing related page to carry over the evaluation and the path
3. Delete or replace the link: if there is no alternative page, delete the link itself or replace it with another related page

Once the fix is done, always re-check and confirm that the broken link has been resolved.

Recover evaluation from backlink breakage with 301 redirects

If a backlink you receive from another site is broken due to a URL change on your site's side, you are left in a state of having lost valuable SEO evaluation. By identifying the broken backlink with a tool like Ahrefs and applying a 301 redirect from that URL to an existing related page, you can recover the lost external evaluation.

How to set repair priorities

If you cannot fix everything at once, setting priorities by the following criteria is efficient.

• Broken links from important pages, such as the top page or CV pages (top priority because they directly affect the user path)
• Broken links that actually have traffic and are being clicked by users
• Broken links on pages that gather many internal links and serve as hubs in the site structure

Internal link breakage often takes higher priority than external link breakage, but external link breakage also harms the article's credibility by preventing readers from reaching reference information, so it should not be left unaddressed.

Operational tips to prevent broken links

Broken links are not done once fixed; it is important to prevent them continuously in the course of operation.

• Systematize periodic broken link checks as a routine, such as monthly or quarterly
• Record pages where you placed external links in a management sheet so they can be handed over when the person in charge changes
• When deleting or relocating a page, update the link source and set a 301 redirect as a set
• Prepare a user-friendly 404 page so that even if a broken link is encountered, you can guide users to alternative content

Summary

A broken link is a state where clicking does not reach the destination, and it is mostly displayed as a 404 error. The 404 itself does not directly lower search rankings, but it can indirectly harm SEO through user experience, credibility, and crawl efficiency. Find them regularly with Search Console or dedicated tools, and handle them with the three patterns of fixing to the correct URL, 301 redirect, and deletion. Systematizing continuous checking rather than one-off checks leads to healthy site operation and the maintenance of SEO evaluation.