Broken Links: Why They Happen, Why They Matter, and How to Fix Them
Few things disrupt a user journey faster than a dead end. That’s exactly what broken links are, invisible roadblocks that frustrate users, damage trust, and quietly chip away at your site’s SEO strength.
Whether you’re building new content or cleaning up old pages, knowing how to spot and fix these link errors isn’t just good housekeeping; it’s foundational to keeping your site healthy, your rankings intact, and your users moving forward.
What Are Broken Links, Really?
At their core, broken links are hyperlinks that lead nowhere, usually ending in a 404 error or some other form of digital shrug. Sometimes the page was deleted. Sometimes the URL changed. And sometimes the destination just isn’t accessible anymore.
But regardless of the cause, the effect is the same: a broken path that stops both users and search engines in their tracks.
Common causes include:
- Deleted pages that still have live links pointing to them
- URLs that were updated without redirecting the old ones
- External sites that moved or removed content you once linked to
And while both internal and external links can break, the fix depends on who controls the destination: you or someone else.
How Broken Links Damage SEO and User Trust
Search engines follow links to discover and understand content. When those links lead to dead ends, two things happen:
- Your site becomes harder to crawl and index
- The flow of link equity, aka ranking power, gets disrupted
Broken internal links weaken your technical SEO, plain and simple. And external ones? They might not hurt rankings directly, but they erode trust fast. Users don’t care whose site broke; they blame yours for the poor experience.
If you want to be seen as a credible source, your content needs to work from top to bottom, and that means no broken paths.
How to Find Broken Links Without Losing Hours
You don’t need to click every single link manually (please don’t). The smarter approach is to run regular crawls using your tool of choice, the kind that checks for broken URLs, flags status codes, and gives you a clean list to work from.
Browser extensions are handy for quick spot checks on individual pages, and your CMS might offer internal reports. But the key is consistency. This isn’t a one-and-done task. Broken links don’t show up all at once; they accumulate over time.
If your site’s been around for a few years, there are probably dozens hiding under the surface right now.
Fixing Internal Broken Links: Reclaim the Flow
When the broken link points to a page on your own site, you’ve got options and control. Start by identifying why the link is broken in the first place. Then pick one of three moves:
- Redirect it. If the original page was moved or merged, use a 301 redirect to point the old URL to the new one. This preserves link equity and prevents dead ends.
- Update it. If you know the new destination, replace the broken link with the correct one. It’s cleaner than relying on redirects and better for crawl efficiency.
- Remove it. If the page no longer exists and has no clear replacement, remove the link entirely. Don’t leave users clicking into voids.
Think of internal links as the roads within your city. Every broken one is a route that stops traffic. Your job is to keep the flow moving.
Fixing External Links: Clean Up the Clutter
External links are trickier; you don’t control the destination, and websites change all the time. But you do control what your content points to. If an external link is broken, you’ve got two choices:
- Find a relevant replacement. If you can locate the same content at a new URL or a comparable resource, swap it in.
- Delete the link. If no replacement exists, remove it. A dead link helps no one and hurts your credibility more than having no link at all.
You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be proactive. Keeping your outbound links clean shows readers (and algorithms) that you care about quality.
How to Prevent Broken Links From Sneaking Back In
Fixing broken links is one thing. Preventing them is where you level up.
Here’s what high-performing teams do:
- Add redirects before deleting any page. Don’t just yank a URL; make sure it points somewhere useful.
- Use stable, descriptive URLs. Short, consistent naming reduces the odds of accidental breakage later.
- Double-check links before publishing. A quick scan or browser plugin can catch issues early, before users ever hit publish.
Your link structure is like the foundation of your content strategy. Cracks form slowly, but the damage spreads fast if you ignore them.
Final Word: Don’t Let Broken Links Quietly Undermine Your Site
Most links don’t make noise. They don’t crash your site or throw big warnings. They just sit there, quietly failing.
But over time, they cost you in SEO rankings, in user trust, and in missed opportunities to move people forward.
Whether it’s a 404, a redirected mess, or a link to nowhere, the fix is the same: clean it up, fix the flow, and protect the experience.
Because links don’t just hurt your content, they chip away at everything your brand stands for.