Finding what's actually broken
Broken links accumulate quietly: a page gets renamed, an external site you linked to disappears, an image path changes. Visitors hit a 404 and leave, and search engines see a site that isn't well maintained.
We crawl the whole site to build a complete list of broken internal links, dead outbound links, and missing images — not just the few you happened to notice.
- Full-site crawl to catch every broken link, not only reported ones
- Separate internal broken links from dead external and outbound links
- Find missing images and broken media, not just text links
- Pull 404 data from analytics and Search Console for pages people actually hit
- Identify broken redirects and redirect chains that slow the site
Fixing them the right way
The fix depends on the link. A renamed page should get a 301 redirect so its traffic and SEO value carry over; a truly gone page should either be recreated or return a clean status.
Guessing wrong — redirecting everything to the homepage — actually hurts SEO, so we match the fix to each case.
- 301-redirect moved or renamed pages to preserve their SEO value
- Repoint internal links to the correct current URLs
- Update or remove dead outbound links to other sites
- Build a helpful custom 404 page that guides lost visitors back
- Avoid the "redirect everything to home" trap that Google treats as a soft 404
- Fix redirect chains and loops that waste load time and crawl budget
Keeping it clean over time
A one-time cleanup helps, but links break continuously as the web changes around you. For active sites we can re-crawl on a schedule and catch new broken links before they pile up — usually as part of a broader maintenance plan.
- Periodic re-crawls to catch newly broken links
- Alerts when a key page starts returning errors
- Cleanup after site changes, migrations, or content pruning
- Reporting so you can see exactly what was fixed
More on website care & maintenance
Frequently asked questions
Do broken links really hurt my SEO?
They don't carry a direct penalty, but they hurt clearly and indirectly: visitors bounce off dead ends, internal link value leaks into nowhere, and search engines waste crawl budget on errors instead of your real pages. On a large site especially, cleaning them up helps the pages you care about get found.
Can't I just redirect all my 404s to the homepage?
Please don't — Google treats a mass redirect to the homepage as a "soft 404," and it frustrates users who wanted a specific page. Each broken URL deserves the right destination: the moved page, a relevant alternative, or an honest error page. That matching is the actual work.
How often should I check for broken links?
For a small static site, a periodic check is plenty. For a large or frequently updated site, monthly monitoring keeps problems from accumulating. We can set the cadence to your site in a free consultation.