SEO tools
Broken Link Checker: Test the Links on a Page
Fetches the page you enter, takes a sample of the internal links it points at, and requests each one — reporting the status code that comes back instead of the colour of the link.
What this broken link checker tests
It checks one page, not a whole site: a sample of the internal links found on the URL you enter. That is the right unit for a spot check on a template — run it on one product page, one article, one category, and a fault in the shared layout shows up on all three.
- The status code every sampled internal link actually returns.
- Links that resolve only after a redirect, which cost a hop on every crawl.
- Anchor text that says nothing — "click here", "read more", "details".
- Outbound links missing rel and target safety attributes.
What each result means
The distinction that matters is 404 against 5xx. A 404 is a content problem you fix in the markup. A 5xx is an availability problem, and editing links will not touch it.
| Response | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | The link works | Nothing |
| 301 / 302 | Works, but through a redirect | Point the link at the final URL |
| 404 | The target is gone | Fix the href or remove the link |
| 410 | Deliberately removed | Remove the link; the target is not coming back |
| 5xx | The target is failing, not missing | Check the server before editing links |
| Timeout | No answer in time | Retest — a slow target is not the same as a dead one |
Why broken links cost more than a bad click
A dead internal link wastes crawl on a URL that returns nothing, and it strands whatever the link pointed at — a page reachable only through a broken href is, for a crawler, not reachable at all. That matters most on a site where each URL is fetched rarely. For the full picture see broken internal links , and to confirm the target can be indexed once the link is fixed, run the indexability checker .
- Why does it check only some of the links?
- Each link is a separate request. A sample keeps the check fast enough to run in the page rather than as a background job, and a template fault shows up in the first few links anyway.
- The link works in my browser but reports 404 here.
- Usually a link that only resolves for a logged-in session, or one your browser has cached. This tool requests it fresh and without your cookies — which is also how a crawler sees it.
Broken link checker versus backlink checker
These names describe different jobs. A broken link checker tests the links on a page you control and tells you whether their destinations respond. A backlink checker tries to discover other websites linking to you, which requires a third-party link index. This tool does not claim to find backlinks, estimate authority, or scan your whole domain.
Use it after a navigation change, content consolidation or URL migration: check a representative page from each template, replace every internal redirect with the final URL, and remove links to pages deliberately retired with 410. That keeps users and crawlers on direct paths.
For the site-wide process, use the internal linking strategy guide to choose contextual anchors, and the redirect checker when a response contains more than one hop.
404 → replace the href with the current page, or remove it
301 → link directly to the final URL
410 → remove the stale link; the content is intentionally gone
5xx → investigate availability before changing navigation
Then rerun the same page and confirm each internal target
returns 200 without a redirect chain.Other tools
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