A broken link, also called a dead link, is a link that points to a page that no longer loads, usually returning a 404 error. Broken links do not trigger a penalty, but they frustrate visitors, waste crawling effort, and strand any backlinks pointing at the missing page. Fix the ones that matter.
Picture it: you update a post from two years ago and click a source you cited. The page is gone. Across your site there might be dozens of these, and a handful of external sites may be linking to a page of yours that no longer exists. Those are different problems with different fixes.
What does "broken link" or "dead link" mean?
A broken link is any link whose destination fails to load. The common cause is a page that was deleted, moved without a redirect, or renamed, so the link now returns a 404 "not found" status. Typos in the URL, a domain that expired and a server that is down produce the same result.
Is a 404 a broken link? A 404 is the error the server returns; the broken link is the link that leads to it. The URL is "dead", the link pointing at it is "broken".
Do broken links hurt SEO?
Not through a penalty, but they cost you in three indirect ways. Google's documentation on HTTP status codes says it does not index URLs that return a 4xx status, and that already indexed URLs returning one are removed from the index. That is a normal outcome for a deleted page, not a sitewide ranking signal, and the same page says these codes have no effect on crawl rate.
The real costs:
Lost backlinks. If another site links to a URL of yours that now returns a 404, that link no longer feeds a live page. This is the broken link problem that matters most for link building.
Worse visits. A visitor who lands on a dead end leaves, so any page that links out to missing pages gives a poor experience.
Wasted crawling. Google keeps revisiting dead URLs, gradually less often. On a small site this is minor; on a large one it adds noise.
How common are dead links?
Very common, and mostly not your fault. Ahrefs sampled 2,062,173 websites and found that 66.5% of the links pointing to them had rotted since January 2013. The leading causes were dropped pages (47.7%) and removed links (34.2%), with redirects and not-found pages making up a smaller share.
The practical lesson: assume links decay. Check your own site on a schedule, and expect some of the sites you cite to disappear.
How do you find broken links?
Use a crawler for broken links on your site and a backlink tool for broken backlinks. The walkthrough is in how to find broken links on your own site. In short:
- Crawl the site with Screaming Frog, Ahrefs Site Audit or Semrush Site Audit and filter for 4xx responses.
- Open the Pages report in Google Search Console and look for "Not found (404)".
- In a backlink tool, list your pages that return 404 and still have referring domains. Those are the ones worth fixing first.
How do you fix a broken link?
Decide per link, not in bulk.
| Situation | Fix |
|---|---|
| Your page moved | 301 redirect the old URL to the new one |
| Page deleted, has backlinks | 301 redirect to the closest relevant page |
| Page deleted, no links or traffic | Leave it as a 404 or 410 |
| Link on your page points to a dead site | Update to a working source or remove the link |
| Typo in the URL | Correct the link |
Do not redirect everything to the homepage. Redirecting to an unrelated page tells visitors and search engines nothing useful. For the effect on link value, see do backlinks to a 404 page count?.
Can you use other people's broken links to your advantage?
Yes. Broken link building means finding a dead page on another site, then offering your own page as a replacement. It is slow, but the pitch is easy to accept because you are fixing a problem for the site owner. The full method is in what is broken link building.
If a link to your site breaks, recovering it is covered in how to recover lost backlinks. On Backlinkster, the submitted link must be an article URL on the member's own domain, a real page path rather than the homepage, and each swap is verified by API. See how it works.
Frequently asked questions
What is a broken link in SEO? A link whose destination no longer loads, usually because the page returns a 404 error. It may be a link on your site to a missing page, or a link from another site to a missing page of yours.
Do broken links hurt SEO? Not directly. Google does not index URLs that return a 4xx status, and that alone is not a sitewide penalty. The harm is indirect: lost backlink value, a worse visitor experience and some wasted crawling.
Is a 404 a broken link? A 404 is the error a server returns for a missing page. A broken link is a link that leads to that error.
How do I check if a link is broken?
Click it, or run curl -I <url> and read the status code. For a whole site, crawl it with Screaming Frog or a site audit tool and filter for 4xx responses.
How do I fix broken links on my website? Redirect moved or deleted pages with a 301 to the closest relevant page, update or remove outbound links that point to dead sites, and correct typos. Leave worthless deleted pages as a 404.
Can I retrieve a dead link? You can restore the page at its old URL, or redirect it to a replacement. The Wayback Machine at web.archive.org can show an old copy so you can rebuild it.
The bottom line
A broken link is a dead end, not a penalty. Fix the ones with backlinks or traffic using a 301 to the closest relevant page, update your own outbound links when sources disappear, and do not lose sleep over low-value 404s.
Related: How to find broken links on your own site · What is broken link building? · Do backlinks to a 404 page count? · How to recover lost backlinks · Do backlinks expire?