Broken Link & Redirect Checker
Crawl a page for broken links (404s) and redirect chains with one click. Free, no API key.
Broken Link Checker for a Single Page
Paste one page URL and we check the links on it: how many were found, how many we checked, a score out of 100, counts of working, redirecting and broken links, then the full list of broken links with status codes and redirects with destinations. Free, no signup.
How do I check the links on a page for free?
Paste the page URL into a broken link checker and it requests each link on that page, reporting the HTTP status it gets back. Ours shows how many links were found and checked, a score out of 100, counts of working, redirecting and broken links, then lists every broken link with its status code and every redirect with its destination.
One page at a time, and we cap the links
Most tools ranking for this term bury the limits in the small print, then ask for your email before showing results. Here is ours in the first paragraph: this checks the links on one page per run, not your whole site, and it checks up to a set number of links each time. The results tell you how many were found and how many were actually checked, so you always know whether you saw everything.
Which broken links to fix first
Our triage order for a client site, not the tool's scoring formula.
What comes back
Three numbers and two lists. The numbers give you the shape of the page; the lists give you the work. Everything appears on screen, so you can copy a broken URL straight into your editor's search box and fix it while the tab is still open.
The counts
Total links found, how many were checked in this run, and how those split into working, redirecting and broken. The gap between found and checked is the cap doing its job, and seeing it stated is the point. There is also a score out of 100 as a quick read.
Broken links with codes
Every link that failed, with the HTTP status it returned. The code matters: a 404 is a page that is gone, a 403 is often a server refusing bots rather than a genuinely dead link, and a 500 means the other end is broken rather than missing.
Redirects with destinations
Links that work but land somewhere other than where they point. Worth reviewing because a redirect today can be a 404 next year, and because internal links pointing at old URLs make visitors wait for a hop you could remove by editing the link.
What each status code means for you
Not every red line is a real problem, and not every problem is yours to fix. Sorting them takes about a minute once you know what the codes mean, and it saves you deleting a perfectly good link because a firewall refused our request.
404 and 410
The page is not there. Google treats all 4xx codes the same apart from 429, and does not use content from them. A 410 says gone on purpose, a 404 says not found. Either is a correct answer for a page you removed; both are dead ends for the visitor who clicked.
403 and 429
Usually a firewall or rate limit rather than a broken page. Plenty of large sites block automated requests, so a link you know works can come back 403. Open it in a browser before you delete it. A 429 means we asked too quickly, not that the page is gone.
5xx and timeouts
The other end is failing or too slow to answer. If it is an external link, check again later before removing it. If it is a link to your own site, you have a server problem that is affecting real visitors too, and that is worth more attention than the link.
What to do with the list
The instinct is to fix everything on the list. The better move is to fix the links that carry traffic and intent first, then clean up the rest next time you touch the page. A broken link in your main navigation costs you far more than a dead footnote in a post from 2019.
Internal links first
A broken internal link is entirely your problem and entirely within your control. It is usually a page you renamed or deleted. Point the link at the live equivalent rather than the homepage, because sending someone to the homepage is a polite way of telling them to start again.
External links: swap or remove
If the source you cited has moved, find the new page and update the link. If the site is gone, remove the link or replace it with a better reference. Do not leave a dead citation sitting in an article you want people to trust.
Broken Link Checker FAQ
Do broken links hurt my Google rankings?
Does this crawl my whole website?
Why does a link that works in my browser show as broken?
Should a removed page return a 404 or a 410?
How many links does it check per run?
Do I need to sign up or install anything?
Other free tools worth a minute
Checking one page is useful. Knowing what to fix across the site is the job.
Our website audit crawls every page, finds the broken links, the redirect chains, the thin content and the local gaps, then puts them in fix-first order. Book a free strategy call to see the scope.
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