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General SEO

Broken Links: What They Are, Why They Hurt, and How to Fix Them

Every website eventually faces them — broken links that lead visitors to nowhere. They frustrate users, waste crawl budget, and silently damage your SEO performance. Understanding how to find and fix them early can save both your traffic and your reputation.

What Are Broken Links?

A broken link (also called a dead link) is a hyperlink that no longer leads to its intended destination.
When a visitor clicks it, they see a “404 Not Found” error or a blank page instead of useful content.

Common causes include:

  • The target page was deleted or renamed
  • The linked website no longer exists
  • The link was mistyped or formatted incorrectly
  • External resources (like images or scripts) were removed

Types of Broken Links

Broken links fall into two main categories:

  1. Internal Broken Links
    These are links that point to pages within your own domain.
    Example: linking to /blog/guide when the actual page is /blog/guides.
  2. External Broken Links
    These point to other websites or domains.
    Example: referencing a partner’s article that has since been deleted.

Both can negatively impact your site, but internal broken links are especially harmful because they disrupt the structure that search engines use to crawl your website.

How to Detect Broken Links

You can manually check each page on your site — but that’s nearly impossible once your website grows.
Instead, use automated tools like UXsniff LinkGuard, which scans every internal and external link on your site and identifies broken ones instantly.

LinkGuard checks for:

  • 404 and 410 errors
  • Redirect loops and chains
  • Timeout and DNS failures
  • Broken internal and outbound URLs

👉 Scan your website for broken links free with UXsniff LinkGuard

How Broken Links Impact SEO

Broken links harm both user experience and search engine rankings.
Here’s how:

  • They waste crawl budget — Googlebot spends time rechecking invalid pages instead of indexing new content.
  • They break link equity flow, reducing PageRank passed between pages.
  • They increase bounce rates, as users quickly leave after hitting an error.
  • They signal poor site maintenance, which can indirectly lower domain trust.

Keeping your link structure clean helps search engines understand and rank your site more efficiently.

What Is an Internal Linking Strategy?

An internal linking strategy defines how your pages connect to each other. It’s crucial for both navigation and SEO.
Good internal links:

  • Help users explore related content
  • Pass authority to important pages
  • Allow crawlers to discover new pages faster

Broken internal links disrupt this network and weaken your SEO structure. Regular link audits ensure your strategy remains effective.

What Is a Soft 404?

A soft 404 occurs when a page looks like a valid webpage but tells search engines that the content is missing — for example, a custom “not found” page that still returns a 200 OK status instead of 404 Not Found.

To humans, it seems fine — maybe a message like “This page doesn’t exist.”
But to Google, this is confusing: it expects a 404 response for missing pages, not a normal success code.

Soft 404s can waste crawl budget and make Google think your site is serving thin or duplicate content instead of removing old pages properly.

Is a Native 404 as Harmful as a Soft 404?

Not at all. A native (hard) 404 — where the server correctly returns an HTTP 404 status — is completely normal and healthy for your site.
Search engines understand it means the page truly doesn’t exist and will stop crawling or indexing it.

A soft 404, however, sends mixed signals: it looks like a working page but has no meaningful content. That’s why soft 404s are more harmful than real 404s — they confuse crawlers and dilute your site’s overall quality signals.

Does a 301 Redirect Solve Broken Links?

A 301 redirect permanently sends visitors (and search engines) from an old URL to a new one.
It’s the right solution when:

  • You’ve updated or renamed a page
  • The old URL still receives backlinks or traffic

However, don’t redirect everything to your homepage — this confuses search engines and users alike. Redirects should point to the most relevant alternative page instead.

Should You Redirect or Leave It as 404?

If a page is deleted intentionally and has no replacement, returning a 404 (Not Found) or 410 (Gone) status is fine.
These signals tell search engines the page no longer exists and should be deindexed.

Use this rule of thumb:

  • Redirect (301) when a close replacement exists.
  • Leave 404/410 when the content is obsolete or removed permanently.

Redirecting everything to the homepage can dilute SEO signals and frustrate visitors looking for specific content.

Final Thoughts

Broken links are unavoidable, but ignoring them isn’t.
They hurt your SEO, degrade user experience, and make your site feel neglected.

That’s why many site owners rely on UXsniff LinkGuard