Broken internal links are more common than most site owners expect. Research tracking over two million websites found that 68% of sites have at least one broken link at any given time.[1] For actively managed content sites, the figure is higher still: links rot as pages get deleted, URLs change after CMS migrations, and content gets reorganised without redirects being put in place.
This guide covers every practical method for finding and fixing broken internal links, from free tools like Google Search Console to paid crawlers, plus a prevention workflow that stops them accumulating.
Key Takeaways
Definition
A broken internal link is a hyperlink from one page on your site to another page on the same site that returns an error response (typically a 404 Not Found status). The link exists in your HTML, but the destination page does not exist at that URL, either because it was deleted, moved without a redirect, or its URL was changed after the link was created.
"Googlebot isn't going to lose sleep over broken links. But fix them for your users."
John Mueller, Search Advocate, Google (via Search Engine Roundtable)
A single broken link on an otherwise healthy site is unlikely to have dramatic SEO consequences. But patterns matter: sites with many broken links signal poor maintenance to search engines, waste crawl budget on dead-end URLs, and the link equity that should flow through those broken links to destination pages is lost entirely.
Broken internal links hurt in three ways. First, they kill the link equity that would otherwise flow to destination pages. A high-authority blog post linking to a 404 page passes no authority anywhere. That authority simply dissipates. Second, broken links interrupt user journeys and increase bounce rates. Someone clicking a "learn more" link that returns a 404 page has no reason to stay. Third, repeated patterns of broken links can reduce Googlebot's willingness to invest crawl budget on your site, as Google's documentation notes that HTTP errors signal network reliability problems.[4]
74%
of websites have broken links that are actively impacting traffic, conversions, and revenue
Source: Seeda Analysis of 74% of Websites
Understanding why links break is as important as knowing how to find them, because it helps you build prevention into your publishing workflow.
URL changes without redirects. This is the most common cause. A blog post is published at /blog/internal-linking-guide and later the URL is changed to /blog/internal-linking-for-seo without placing a 301 redirect. Every existing internal link to the old URL breaks.
Content deletion without redirect. A page is deleted or unpublished. Any internal links pointing to it immediately produce 404 errors.
CMS migration or site restructure. Moving from one CMS to another often changes URL structures globally. If redirect mapping is incomplete, hundreds or thousands of links can break simultaneously.
Typographical errors in link href attributes. Manual link entry in CMS editors introduces typos that produce broken links silently. A single missed character in a URL returns a 404.
Link rot over time. Ahrefs' analysis found that 66.5% of links created since 2013 have rotted.[2] Even external pages you link to can disappear, but for internal links, every deletion or URL change you make is within your control.
8%
of links break within the first 3 months of publication
Source: Linkody Link Rot Case Study
You do not need a paid subscription to find most broken internal links. These two free (or freemium) tools cover the majority of use cases.
GSC's Page Indexing report (previously called Coverage) lists URLs returning 404 errors that Google discovered through crawling. This is valuable because it shows broken pages that Google actually tried to access, filtered through real search activity rather than a simulated crawl.
To use it: Google Search Console > Indexing > Pages > filter by "Not found (404)". This gives you the broken destination URLs. The limitation is that GSC does not always show you which internal page contains the broken link. To find the source, use the URL Inspection tool on the 404 URL, or cross-reference with a crawl.
GSC also provides an Internal Links report under "Links" that shows you the most-linked pages by volume. Pages that were previously well-linked but have since had their URLs changed will disappear from this report and appear in the 404 list.
Screaming Frog is the industry-standard desktop crawler for internal link audits. The free version handles sites up to 500 pages. For larger sites, the paid licence costs £149 per year.
To find broken internal links: run a full crawl, then filter the Response Codes tab by "Client Error (4xx)". This shows every URL on your site returning 4xx errors. The "Inlinks" tab at the bottom of the screen shows which pages contain links pointing to the broken URL, along with the anchor text used.
Screaming Frog also exports complete link maps as CSV, which you can filter and sort in a spreadsheet to prioritise which broken links to fix first based on the source page's organic traffic or commercial importance.
Paid tools add three things that free options lack: site-wide crawl depth without page limits, ongoing monitoring that catches new broken links as they appear, and integration between broken link data and traffic/authority metrics so you can prioritise by impact.
Ahrefs Site Audit provides a dedicated "Internal pages" report with a filter for "4xx" status codes. It shows the broken URL, the HTTP status, the number of pages containing a broken link to that URL, and the URL Rating of those source pages. Sorting by source page UR lets you prioritise fixing broken links on your most authoritative pages first, where the equity loss is greatest.
Patrick Stox, Head of SEO at Ahrefs, documented that 66.5% of all links on the web have rotted since 2013.[2] Ahrefs Site Audit is the tool Stox uses for ongoing monitoring of this problem at scale.
Semrush Site Audit flags broken internal links in its Issues report and provides a dedicated Internal Linking section. Unlike Screaming Frog, Semrush runs as a cloud-based crawler, meaning results are available without installing software and audits can be scheduled to run automatically.
Once you have identified your broken internal links, follow this workflow to resolve them efficiently.
66.5%
of all links on the web created since 2013 have rotted, with most breakages caused by URL changes and content deletions
Source: Ahrefs Link Rot Study (Patrick Stox)
Step 1: Export all broken links with source and destination URLs. Your crawl tool or GSC data should give you a spreadsheet with at minimum: the broken destination URL, the source page URL where the broken link appears, and the anchor text.
Step 2: Categorise each broken URL. For each broken destination URL, determine what happened to the content:
Step 3: Apply the appropriate fix. Direct link updates are preferable to redirects because they eliminate the extra HTTP request. Edit the source page's link href to point to the correct live URL. Use 301 redirects when the same broken URL is referenced by many source pages and editing each individually would be impractical.
Step 4: Verify fixes with a re-crawl. After making changes, run a targeted re-crawl of the affected pages or wait for your scheduled site audit to confirm that the 4xx errors have been resolved.
Use 301 redirects when: (a) the same broken URL is referenced from many pages, making individual link updates impractical; (b) the broken URL has external backlinks pointing to it (redirecting preserves that equity); or (c) the URL change has already been made and users/bots may have bookmarked the old URL.
Update the link directly when: (a) the broken link appears on only one or two pages; (b) the destination content still exists at a new URL and there are no external links to the old URL; (c) you want to avoid adding redirect hops to the user journey.
Redirect chains (redirects pointing to other redirects) are themselves an internal link issue. Aleyda Solis, a respected SEO consultant, recommends updating internal links to point directly to final URLs rather than relying on redirect chains, which add latency and dilute link equity with each additional hop.
Fixing existing broken links matters less than preventing new ones from forming. These practices make broken internal links rare rather than routine.
Never change a URL without adding a 301 redirect. This single rule prevents the majority of broken internal links. Before changing any URL in your CMS, check which pages link to it (using your internal link tool's inlinks report) and either update those links or set up the redirect first.
Audit internal links after every CMS migration. Migrations are the highest-risk event for internal link integrity. Run a full crawl before and after every migration, compare broken link counts, and resolve all new 4xx errors before the migration is considered complete.
Add internal link auditing to your monthly SEO routine. A monthly or quarterly crawl catches new broken links before they compound. Our internal link audit checklist provides a repeatable 15-point workflow for this.
Use a tool with continuous monitoring. Manual crawls are retrospective. By the time you run one, a broken link may have existed for weeks or months. Tools that monitor your site continuously and alert on new 404 errors close this gap.
Linki is being built with this prevention-first approach, providing continuous monitoring rather than requiring you to remember to schedule an audit. For context on how this fits into a full SEO strategy, see our internal linking best practices guide and our Google Search Console guide.
| Check | Tool | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Internal links returning 4xx status codes | Screaming Frog / Ahrefs | High |
| Internal links to 3xx redirects | Screaming Frog / Semrush | Medium |
| Redirect chains (3xx pointing to 3xx) | Screaming Frog / Semrush | Medium |
| Links to non-indexable pages (noindex) | Screaming Frog | Medium |
| GSC Coverage: Not found (404) list | Google Search Console | High |
The most common causes are URL changes without redirects, content deletion without redirect, CMS migrations that restructure URLs, and manual typos when adding links in a CMS editor. Link rot also occurs over time as content gets reorganised. Ahrefs found that 8% of links break within three months of being created.[2]
Go to Google Search Console, select Indexing > Pages, then filter by "Not found (404)". This shows you all 404 URLs that Google discovered through crawling your site. To find which internal pages contain the broken links, use the URL Inspection tool on each 404 URL or cross-reference the list with a full site crawl from Screaming Frog or Ahrefs.
For sites under 500 pages, Screaming Frog's free version is the most practical choice. For larger sites or teams requiring ongoing monitoring, Ahrefs Site Audit and Semrush Site Audit both provide comprehensive broken link detection with scheduling capabilities. Linki will provide continuous monitoring specifically focused on internal links as a distinct tool.
Use 301 redirects when many pages link to the broken URL, making individual updates impractical, or when the broken URL has external backlinks you want to preserve. Update the link directly when only one or two pages are affected. Avoid creating redirect chains: update links to point to the final destination URL, not through a chain of redirects.
At minimum, run a full internal link audit monthly for active content sites. After any CMS migration, URL structure change, or significant content deletion, run an immediate audit. Continuous monitoring tools that alert on new 4xx errors are more effective than periodic audits for sites that publish frequently.
Sources