Question 1

Why do broken links hurt SEO?

Accepted Answer

A broken link is any link that points to a page which no longer loads — usually a 404, a dead redirect, or a server error. Search engines follow links to discover and evaluate your pages, so every broken link is a small dead end: crawl budget spent on a page that isn't there, and link equity that stops flowing instead of reinforcing the pages around it. For visitors, it's a trust signal in miniature — one or two rarely sink a site, but a pattern of them reads as neglect, exactly what search engines' quality signals are designed to pick up on over time.

Question 2

What does this broken link checker actually check?

Accepted Answer

It scans the single page you submit and checks up to 15 unique links found on it — internal and external — for dead or failing responses (404, 410, or 5xx server errors). It doesn't crawl your whole site; for a full multi-page scan, run the complete SEO audit instead.

Question 3

Where do broken links usually come from?

Accepted Answer

They tend to accumulate quietly: a page you deleted, a partner site that changed its URL structure, a product you no longer sell. None of it looks urgent in isolation, which is why it's worth checking periodically rather than only when something looks obviously wrong.

Question 4

How often should I check for broken links?

Accepted Answer

Sites that publish or link out frequently should check monthly. Smaller, mostly-static sites can check quarterly, or whenever you update content.

Question 5

Is this tool really free, and do I need to sign up?

Accepted Answer

Yes — no signup, no credit card. Paste a URL and get results in seconds.

Free Broken Link Checker

What a result looks like

How it works

Frequently asked questions