Broken links: find them, fix them, avoid redirect chains

Why broken links matter

A visitor who clicks a broken link lands on an error page and often leaves. A missing image leaves an empty space, a missing style sheet can break the layout, and a missing PDF disappoints someone who came for the download. Search engines notice too. Google treats a page that answers with a 4xx status code, except 429, as content that does not exist. Pages that were in the index are removed, and Google crawls them less often over time. Every link to such a page leads nowhere.

Kinds of broken targets

• 404 or 410: the page or file does not exist. Google treats both codes the same way.
• 5xx: the server has an error. Google slows down crawling and keeps indexed pages for a while, but drops them if the error stays.
• No answer: the server cannot be reached, or the domain no longer exists.
• Redirect loop: the redirects lead back to an address that was already in the chain, so the page never loads.
• Soft 404: the page says “not found” or is empty, but the server answers with 200 (success). Search Console reports such pages as soft 404 errors.
• 401 or 403: the target needs a login or blocks automatic checks. Open it in your browser before you call it broken.

Redirect chains

A chain means that a link leads to an address that redirects to another address, which redirects again. Chains often grow over the years: /shop became /store, and later /store became /products. Google writes that Googlebot can follow up to 10 hops, but advises redirecting to the final destination directly. If that is not possible, Google advises keeping the chain short, ideally no more than 3 and fewer than 5 redirects. Each hop adds waiting time for visitors, and according to Google not all browsers support long chains.

To shorten a chain, change every old redirect so that it points straight to the final address, and change your own links to the final address too. Then no click on your website has to pass a redirect at all.

Internal and external links

• Internal links point to your own website. You control both ends, so fix the link itself. A redirect is only the second-best solution, for links you cannot change.
• External links point to other websites. When they break, look for the new address of the same content, or remove the link. Some websites block automatic checks or answer slowly, so check those by hand.
• Images, scripts, style sheets and PDFs count as links too. They break when files are renamed or deleted, often during a clean-up or a move to a new system.

How a link check works

Many link checks read the HTML as the server delivers it. Links that only JavaScript adds, and files that a CSS file names, can be missing from the result. On a large website, a check with limits may read only part of the pages. Look at what was not checked, not only at what was found.

Fix, redirect or remove?

1. 1A typo or an old address in your own link: correct the link.
2. 2The page has moved to a new address: change your links to the new address and add a permanent redirect (301 or 308) from the old one, for bookmarks and links on other websites.
3. 3The content was merged into another page on the same topic: redirect the old address to that page.
4. 4The content is gone and there is no replacement: remove or change the links and let the old address answer with 404 or 410. Google warns that sending many old addresses to one unrelated page, such as the home page, can confuse users and might be treated as a soft 404.
5. 5An external link is dead: link to the new address of the same content, or remove the link.

A routine that keeps the number small

• Check after every larger change: a new menu, deleted pages, a new system or a clean-up of the media library.
• Check regularly, for example once a month on an active website. This is our advice, not a fixed rule.
• Start with the targets that most pages link to. One fix there removes many broken links at once.
• Before you delete a page, look for the links that point to it and decide what replaces it.
• Test the result: open the fixed links and check that each redirect leads to the final address in one step.

Work with Do4U

The Broken link check reads a limited number of pages of your website, starting from the address you enter. It collects every link, image, script, style sheet and file on them and checks each target once, with at most one request per second, and it respects robots.txt. You get the broken targets, each with the pages and link texts that point to it and the reason, redirect chains and loops, and pages that answer with OK but look like an error page. For each missing page, Do4U suggests the most similar live page and shows the redirect rules for .htaccess, nginx or as CSV. Targets with the status 401 or 403 are marked “Check”. Links to other websites are checked only if you choose so. No AI is used, and the check is free, with a daily limit.

Do4U finds hints, you check and decide. Read each suggested redirect before you use it, and open the links marked “Check” in your browser.