Broken links are like those expired coupons that promised you a specific result, but are no longer valid. They damage your site’s SEO health completely by causing poor user experience & creating crawl errors. So, it’s crucial that you find them on time and either fix or remove them to maintain a healthy link profile. But identifying the broken links manually is simply impossible. Here are the top 10 broken internal links checkers that our experts have personally used and found to be highly functional & accurate.
Imagine running a brilliant e-commerce website with designer clothing collections and premium wedding attire.
…but without any sales!
Well, that might sound like a nightmare for sure.
But, did you know?
Approximately 88% of your visitors are not likely to return to your site if they encounter a bad user experience.
No, we’re not talking about poor navigation, low-quality images, or ill-managed site design/layout.
One broken link on your site & all your conversion efforts are wasted.
Hello, everyone, welcome to another FastLinky blog, where we’ll be talking about the ill effects of broken internal links, and you can sort them out with the best broken internal link checker tools, suggested by our experts.
So, let’s get straight into it.
…But Hang On! Here are Some Facts You Need to Know First.
In our previous blogs, we talked in detail about the most popular internal linking tools, our experts’ favorite link analyzer tools, the internal link plugin WordPress we recommend using, and also the internal linking automation tools that we use.
But that’s not enough to fix your internal link profile.
According to studies and reports, around 60% to 67% of online users abandon a site after encountering a broken link.
And if, by chance, you think that your site does not have a single broken link, then let us tell you that around 42% to 74% of current websites contain at least one broken link.
…You Need to Fix Them Immediately: Here’s Why!
Now you must be thinking…
“I inserted the most relevant internal links at the right spots back in 2015 or 2016…How on earth can they be dead now?”
Well, research confirms that roughly 66.5% of the internal links you built over the last decade are now broken or dead.
The worst news is yet to come.
Even the high-profile websites have broken links. To be precise, around 23% of news websites and 21% of government webpages contain at least one broken link.
Then, What’s The Solution?
Here comes the role of broken internal links checkers.
They are specifically designed to identify 404 errors, prevent dead-end navigation, reduce bounce rates, and improve user experience.
Broken links direct your users to “404 errors” pages that not only disrupt the users’ navigation experience but also damage the site’s credibility and reputation, leading to decreased conversion rates and poor SEO rankings.
Using the broken internal links checkers will help you identify these issues on time and fix them so that your visitors get a positive site navigation experience, start trusting it, and stay longer on your platforms, resulting in increased average website sessions, improved online visibility, and better SEO health.
But What are Broken Links?
Let’s discuss it in detail.
Broken links are also called dead links, and that’s for a reason!
Consider these links as your local streets that lead to a dead end.
Now, just imagine you intend to go somewhere, and since you do not know anything about the place, you take the help of Google Maps. After walking through the streets for the past 15 minutes, you finally take the road that is supposed to take you to your destination.
But you reach a dead end.
Won’t you be frustrated?
The same thing happens with broken links.
After navigating through your website for the last few minutes, if your visitors finally land on a page that says “404 Not Found”, tell us honestly, will they visit it again?
…or, will they stay on your website for any longer?
Definitely not.
Now, there might be endless reasons behind a broken link. For example, deleted content, broken server connections, and even changed URLs, anything can be the reason.
However, whatever the reason is, broken links always affect the reputation, credibility, and SEO health of a website.
But how?
Let’s shed some light on it now👇
Why Are Broken Links Harmful for A Site’s SEO Health?
The worst part about a broken link is that it completely disrupts the user experience.
…and for any website, a positive user experience directly impacts its success and even boosts conversion rates by up to 400%.
That means, apart from a well-designed site layout, intuitive interface, or outstanding visuals/informative content, a healthy link profile also helps users navigate easily across a website, encourages further site engagement, & does justice to their specific expectations and requirements.
Now, if they encounter a broken link in the middle of site navigation, they fail to reach the important product pages/content/contact forms, leading to compromised SEO health & site trust.
Below are The Deadly Consequences of Ignoring Broken Links
👉Reduced crawl efficiency
👉Loss of link equity
👉Lower conversion rates
👉Less engagement
A large volume of broken links makes a website significantly outdated & neglected.
Since users these days always seek the latest information, an ill-maintained website with a lot of broken links instantly makes them leave it, never to return to it, leading to poor site authority in the eyes of both the visitors and the search engine.
The Importance of Identifying & Fixing Broken Links on Websites
Until you identify and fix the broken links on your site, you will fail to preserve its higher search engine rankings, positive reputation, and authentic user impressions.
However, when you perform a detailed site audit and identify broken links, you should fix them immediately for a seamless user navigation, improved user experience, increased engagement, scaled-up site performance, improved site crawlability, and increased conversions.
Now, if you’re thinking, how to fix these broken links, check out the section below👇
Before you fix them, you need to identify them first!
But, it’s not manually possible to scan all your site’s content one after the other and find out the broken links by clicking on each and every link you find there.
You need tools that can effortlessly scan your site’s content, audit your internal link profile, and help you identify the broken links at once.
Using tools/plugins such as Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, LinkStorm, Sitebulb, OnCrawl, Moz, etc. can help you do just that and within minutes.
There are 3 Methods to Fix Broken Links…
Imagine you have detailed reports on the broken links.
Now, how do you fix them?
Experts recommend:
➡️Using 301 redirects to guide your users from the “404 Page Not Found” to a new & relevant webpage
➡️Updating the broken/dead link with a correct URL
➡️Replacing the link to the “404 Page Not Found” with a URL that redirects your users to a page with better alternative content
➡️Removing the broken link completely if the page doesn’t exist anymore
➡️Correcting the spelling errors if there’s a typo in the internal link
The Secret of Fixing These Broken Links…
Keeping an eye on each and every link on your site manually is not possible!
However, ignoring them is not an option either.
The only way to fix them starts with on-time detection, and a regular site & internal link audit can help you with that.
To maintain a healthy website presence online, make sure you perform a detailed internal link audit using our expert-recommended broken internal links checker right after a major site update or migration.
Features to Look for When Selecting Broken Internal Links Checkers
Before we start talking about our 10 most-preferred internal broken link checker tools, let’s discuss the qualities that make tools like these highly reliable and functional.
All the tools we’ll be talking about are used by our experts personally. However, if you still want to explore other options, gladly do that.
But, the question is…
There are hundreds of broken internal links checkers available on the web. But which one will do justice to your needs?
Below are some of the critical features to consider when looking for a broken link checker👇
➡️Should scan your entire site’s content
➡️Must find broken links effectively
➡️Able to detect various HTTP error codes (404, 500, etc.)
➡️Able to identify broken/missing images or broken files
➡️Shows exactly where the broken link is located on your page
➡️Should filter the status codes, link types, & specific content areas
➡️Must allow you to export the broken link reports directly
➡️Should have advanced features like scheduled scans
➡️Must let you know when a broken link appears
➡️Should let you fix, update, or remove the broken links within the dashboard
Identifying the broken links alone is never enough!
So, the best internal broken link checker tools must let you fix the broken links as well, right after their detection.
Let’s check out the top 10 on our list right below.
10 Best Internal Broken Link Checker Tools
At FastLinky, we’ve been working with 750+ global businesses for the past 7+ years. Not only did we build backlinks for them, but we also helped them strengthen their site’s topical authority and maintained their internal link profile by fixing broken links and other issues.
During these past years, we ended up using a lot of paid as well as free broken link checker tools and closely observed their functionality features and their limitations as well.
Here, we’ll discuss the broken internal links checkers that we personally loved using.
So, stay hooked with us to learn about our top recommendations.
1️⃣SEMRush
Primarily known as one of the premium comprehensive SEO suites, SEMRush is also a highly efficient site audit tool and an automated broken internal link checker.
Pricing Structure
Highlights
✅Automated site’s content crawling
✅Performs a detailed internal link profile audit
✅Reports to you about broken links & 404 errors
✅Provides you with the source URL & status code, leading you to the “404 Page Not Found” page
✅Integrates easily with Google Search Console
Features
☑️Identifies broken links faster
☑️Also detects 500 Server issues
☑️Performs detailed link analysis
☑️Checks internal as well as external links
☑️You can schedule link audits with this
☑️Seamless data export to CSV/Google Sheets
☑️Displays the URLs of all pages that link to broken URLS
Pros
✔️A comprehensive platform for internal link profile optimization
✔️ Easy-to-use dashboard that provides clear visuals on broken links
✔️Effortlessly crawls larger websites for broken link identification
✔️Offers you relevant and useful tips to fix broken links on your site
✔️Helps you catch ‘link rot’ much faster
✔️Offers a free version that lets you identify broken links through site audit
✔️3 individual pricing plans: Starter, Pro+, & Advanced
Cons
❌Pricing plans start at $165.17 per month & might be too expensive for individuals
❌Comes with a lot of complex features that might overwhelm beginners
❌The free version allows you to crawl only a limited number of webpages
Should You Use It?
If you are an SEO professional, run a digital marketing agency, or own a team of in-house content managers and an e-commerce website, you can use this tool to check if the old URLs are properly redirected, identify or remove links that guide your users to a “404 Page Not Found”.
This broken link checker can also help you in performing regular technical link audits and look further into the status of the internal links or identifying broken links that harm site crawlability & rankings.
2️⃣Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a popular SEO tool suite. However, its true potentials are not limited to a simple website audit. It also acts as a link crawler and a broken internal link checker.
Pricing Structure
Highlights
✅One of the most active web crawlers with a larger database
✅Detects internal links, external links, and broken links efficiently
✅Provides you with actionable insights that help you fix the broken links as well
Features
☑️Scans your entire site to identify “404 error” and “410 error” pages
☑️Also detects external links to your webpages that no longer exist
☑️Suggests better link alternatives to the existing broken/dead links
☑️Comes with advanced filtering features that highlight broken URLs leading to high-traffic pages
Pros
✔️Highly accurate
✔️Provides you with daily link reports
✔️Helps you map the exact location of the broken links
✔️Offers a free broken link checking service
✔️Comes with a “Lite” plan starting at $129/month for competitive analysis
✔️Offers 3 individual pricing plans: Lite, Standard, Advanced
Cons
❌The free version comes with basic & limited functionality features
Should You Use It?
This broken link checker is ideal for performing routine site and internal link profile audits. So, if you are a content marketer, own an SEO agency, or run an in-house marketing team, you can give it a try to identify & fix broken links and look for new internal linking opportunities.
3️⃣Screaming Frog SEO Spider
This powerful desktop-based application also functions as an internal broken link checker for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It crawls your websites and helps you identify broken links & uncover new linking opportunities.
Pricing Structure
Highlights
✅Identifies 404, 410, 500 link errors
✅Helps you see exactly which pages link to broken pages in the “inlinks” tab
✅Displays broken links in real-time during the site crawling
✅Detects broken links even on JavaScript-heavy sites
✅Mimics search engine crawlers to audit images, CSS, and scripts
Features
☑️Lets you export the detailed reports of all 404 links & their source URLs
☑️Integrated easily with Google Spreadsheets
☑️Helps you track how search engines view your site
Pros
✔️Provides you with accurate reports on broken links
✔️Offers a free version to crawl upto 500 sites
✔️Highly efficient in site crawling
✔️Faster than cloud-based broken internal links checkers
✔️Provides you with detailed reports on anchor texts, broken link position, do-follow/no-follow/status
✔️The “Force-Directed Crawl Diagrams” feature helps you visualize the site structure
Cons
❌The interface is a bit complex
❌It might be a bit overwhelming for beginners
❌The free version is not enough to detect broken links on mid/large-scale sites
❌The paid version charges you around £199 per year
❌Works on desktop only
❌You need to fix the broken links manually
Should You Use It?
We recommend broken internal links Screaming Frog to all those SEO professionals, agency owners, webmasters, site developers, and content marketers for performing technical/content audits, identifying broken links, & verifying the status of the broken links before the site goes live.
4️⃣Dr. Link Check
This tool is particularly designed to track the broken links on your site. Simply copy your site’s URL, paste it in the search bar that says “Your Website URL”, and click on “Start Check”.
As you can see, this cloud-based tool will provide you with detailed reports on the number of links on your site, the number of link issues it has, the most accurate number of the new links added, and the exact count of 404 Not Found pages.
Pricing Structure
Highlights
✅Comprehensive site scanning
✅Crawls HTML & CSS to find broken links
✅Detects 404 errors & server timeouts
✅Identifies malicious links
Features
☑️Shows exactly where the broken links are located in the HTML code
☑️Comes with “scheduled scan” features
☑️Informs you via email notifications once the scheduled scan is over
☑️Filters the link issues by error type
☑️Lets you export link reports to CSV/PDF
☑️Provides you with detailed reports on link schemes, redirects, & do-follow/no-follow links
Pros
✔️Easy to use
✔️Beginner-friendly interface
✔️Requires no software setup
✔️Offers a free “Lite” plan that scans up to 1000 links
✔️Crawls 3000 pages for free
✔️Identifies specific HTTP error codes
✔️Comes with 3 individual paid plans: Standard, Professional, & Premium
✔️The platform offers monthly as well as yearly pricing plans
✔️Subscribe to one of the yearly plans & get free service for 1 month
Cons
❌The free version will let you crawl only 2 websites, 1500 links per site, & identify broken links
❌You need to subscribe to one of the paid plans for crawling larger, complex sites
❌Detects link issues, but you need to fix them manually
Should You Use It?
This broken internal link checker is ideal for site owners, SEO specialists, content managers, and Shopify, WooCommerce, or e-commerce site owners for performing monthly/quarterly site audits, identifying broken links after content updates/site migrations, and ensuring that all the links are functional on their websites before they even go live.
5️⃣AIOSEO
Highly popular as one of the #1 SEO plugins for WordPress, this is trusted by 3,000,000+ global site owners when it comes to internal link profile audit & broken link identification.
The best part is that you don’t need any prior SEO experience or coding knowledge to use this plugin for the purpose of broken link identification.
Pricing Structure
Highlights
✅Auto site scan
✅Identifies broken links & images
✅A comprehensive tool for ultimate SEO growth
Features
☑️Highlights broken links in red for faster identification
☑️Displays detailed reports on broken links
☑️Designed for content-heavy websites
Pros
✔️Fix your broken links directly from the report
✔️Easy to use
✔️Beginner-friendly set up
✔️Helps you fix broken links in bulk
✔️Detailed broken link identification on the dashboard
✔️Prevents your visitors from landing on 404 pages
✔️Monitors both internal & external broken links
✔️Comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee
✔️All the services are billed annually
✔️Offers 4 individual pricing plans: Basic, Plus, Pro, Elite
Cons
❌Doesn’t offer a free plan
❌Suitable for WordPress sites only
❌The pricing plans might be expensive for individuals
❌You need to fix the broken links manually
Should You Use It?
Of course, yes!
This easy-to-set-up plugin is suitable for both beginners and SEO professionals. Content creators, site bloggers, web developers, and technical SEO experts can rely on this plugin to detect broken links during regular site audits, during a domain change, after URL structure updates, and right after a site’s content update or deletion.
6️⃣Dead Link Checker
This cloud-based broken internal links checker is one of the most reliable & functional tools that we use. The best part is that the platform offers you a free service for identifying broken links on your entire website, as well as on a single webpage.
➡️All you need to do is copy and paste the URL of the website that you want to crawl.
➡️Select the tab right at the left of “whole website” if you want to detect broken links on your website, and click on the tab at the left of “single webpage” if you want to identify the broken links on a particular webpage in your domain.
➡️Enter the code that appears before you after you click on the “check” button, and the tool will start crawling your site’s internal links.
As you can see, with this tool, you can get the internal links on your website checked automatically and get a detailed report on the failed URL checks, the number of link errors, the status of the internal links, the broken links, and source link texts.
Pricing Structure
The platform lets you crawl your website and detect broken links as a guest user. Also, for detailed reports on the links, you can log in or create a free account.
However, for scanning the entire website and identifying all the broken links on it, you need to subscribe to their auto-check/multi-check services.
They offer 3 great value Auto-Checker Subscription plans priced at 3 affordable rates.
Highlights
✅Get full reports on broken links
✅Crawl multiple sites at the same time
✅regularly auto-scans your website’s internal link profile
Features
☑️Comprehensive site scanning
☑️Identifies all types of link issues
☑️You can retry scanning the dead links
☑️Operates directly in the browser
Pros
✔️Suitable for both small/large-scale sites
✔️No installation required
✔️Easy to use for beginners
✔️Highlights where the broken links are located in the HTML code
✔️Offers scheduled scanning features
✔️Helps you monitor your site’s health
✔️Free to use
✔️No registration required to use the services
✔️Lets you remove the dead links in real-time
Cons
❌The free version only audits the first 2000 links on your site
❌To crawl/scan larger websites, you need to opt for the Auto-check subscription services
❌Takes a lot of time to scan larger websites
❌You need to fix the broken links manually
Should You Use It?
This super-simple, easy-to-use broken link checker is ideal for webmasters, SEO professionals, content managers, SEO bloggers, and site owners who don’t want to pay for a large SEO suite or paid internal broken link checkers, but are always up for identifying new internal link-building opportunities.
7️⃣BrokenLinkCheck.com
This is an online, web-based broken internal links checker tool that does not require any software installation and directly operates through all web browsers. The reason that this tool secures a place in our favorites’ list is that it efficiently scans websites and detects dead links, missing images, and redirects accurately.
➡️Simply paste the URL of your website in the blank tab
➡️Click on “Find broken links”
➡️Enter the “Security code” at the designated tab
➡️Click on “Find broken links now!”
Depending on your needs, you can select any of the options stated below. For example, if you just want detailed broken reports, click on the first option. However, if you want detailed reports on all types of dead links, go for the second option.
The result will show you the broken link URL, link text, the pages where the broken links are located, and the server response. However, if you want to scan 3000+ site pages, you can check the subfolders.
Pricing Structure
The platform is free to use.
Highlights
✅Automatically scans your site for broken URL identification
✅Accurate error reporting
✅Allows real-time broken link editing, unlinking, and removing
Features
☑️Easy to use interface
☑️Helps improve your site’s SEO
☑️Saves your time
☑️Detects image issues as well
Pros
✔️Analyzes an unlimited number of pages
✔️Useful for in-depth SEO optimization
✔️Detects both internal and external links
✔️Reports to you about the bad links located in the HTML code
✔️Detects “linkrot” efficiently & other internal link issues
✔️Works on Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS, Android
✔️Allows you export detailed broken link metrics to MS Excel
✔️Comes with automated or scheduled scanning features
✔️You will get the detailed reports in your email inbox
✔️Helps you detect broken links for free
Cons
❌Slows down your site on shared hosting
❌Consumes significant server resources
❌Requires initial configuration
❌Need regular maintenance
❌Comes with limited functionality features
❌Takes a lot of time in site scanning
❌Crawls up to 3000 pages
Should You Use It?
If you are a WordPress site administrator, blogger, content marketer, SEO professional, or an e-commerce site owner, you can use this tool for regular site audits after content updates, optimize site structure, and identify broken/dead links for improved crawlability, site health maintenance, and higher search engine rankings.
8️⃣Xenu’s Link Sleuth
This desktop-based application works as an efficient broken internal links checker that accurately detects broken links, images, frames, plugins, and scripts on your site by scanning the site URLs and 404 errors. The best part is that this application is widely available to download on the web for free.
Pricing Structure
The platform is free to use.
Highlights
✅Comprehensive site scanning
✅Detailed reports on broken links
✅Displays in-depth internal link metrics
Features
☑️Faster scanning
☑️Suports SSL (https://) sites
☑️No-frills interface
Pros
✔️Completely free to use
✔️Scans sites much faster
✔️Easy to use
✔️Detects large images
✔️Identifies meta tag issues
✔️Helps you understand the site structure issues
Cons
❌Designed for Windows, primarily
❌No automatic updates available
❌Lack of modern support
❌The interface is a bit outdated
❌Doesn’t analyze the site’s content
Should You Use It?
This is a very basic internal broken link checker tool, suitable for SEO professionals, webmasters, beginner site developers, and digital marketers who are looking for a free broken internal link checker.
9️⃣W3C Link Checker
Initially developed by Renaud Bruyeron in 1998, this cloud-based online link checker reads an HTML/XHTML document or CSS sheets and extracts a list of anchors and internal/broken links.
The source code is available publicly only under the W3C IPR software notice from CPAN and CVS.
Pricing Structure
The platform is a completely free and open-source online link checker service, provided by the World Wide Web Consortium.
Highlights
✅Industry-standard link checker
✅Comprehensive internal link analysis
✅Very few limitations compared to commercial tools offering a free link checking service
✅Identifies 301/302 redirects as well
Features
☑️Scans the site structure partially or entirely
☑️Provides detailed reports on HTTP errors
☑️A lot of configuration options available
☑️Supports HTTP basic authentication
Pros
✔️Completely free service
✔️ Accurate link issue detection
✔️Highly reliable
✔️Provides you with detailed technical reports
✔️Works directly on a web browser
✔️No installation required
✔️Helps you prevent “link rot”
Cons
❌Slower performance compared to other commercial link checkers
❌Checks a limited number of documents online
❌Does not offer automated/scheduled scanning functions
Should You Use It?
This application is not only a highly functional broken internal links checker, but also helps you ensure code standards and fix your site’s link structure post-site migration to a new domain or CMS.
So, you can definitely consider using this tool if you are a beginner site developer or an SEO specialist/webmaster.
1️⃣0️⃣Check My Links
This is a highly popular, local, & on-page browser extension that works as a functional broken internal link checker on any web browser.
Trusted by 80K+ active users, this browser extension quickly scans your webpages in real-time and detects broken links, helps you identify the valid links, and highlights potential issues.
Pricing Structure
The platform is a completely free and open-source online link checker service, provided by the World Wide Web Consortium. However, to access advanced features, you need to buy the Advanced Feature Key.
Check My Links offers 2 advanced plans: one for outside India and another for India. Also, they provide enterprises with customized offers. However, they always offer great discounts on their platform. For example, currently, you can purchase their advanced plan for just $30.
Below are the detailed pricing plans offered by them.
Highlights
✅Offers a certification program
✅Compatible with Google Chrome and other web browsers
✅Offers 70% off on the Advanced Feature Key
✅1-step installation
Features
☑️Detects broken links accurately
☑️Highlights the broken links in red
☑️Shows valid links in green
☑️Faster page scanning/site crawling
☑️Identifies erroneous HTTP status codes
Pros
✔️Provides you with real-time internal link reports
✔️Faster and highly efficient
✔️Free broken link checking services
✔️Easy to install
✔️Good for beginners
✔️Simple User Interface
✔️Offers a free service with basic features
✔️The “Advanced” plan offers premium link-checking features
✔️You need to pay a one-time amount in your lifetime to buy the “Advanced” plan
Cons
❌Scans only the current page
❌Cannot scan the entire website at a time
❌Provides you with basic internal link reports
❌Does not deliver detailed reports on internal link metrics
❌You need to fix the broken links manually
Should You Use It?
Despite all the limitations of this broken internal links checker, the tool would be beneficial for content editors, copywriters, SEO professionals, and even web developers who want to ensure that all the internal links on their sites are active and maintain a healthy internal link profile after content migration and during site audits.
Free Vs. Paid: Which One to Opt for?
So, those were the top 10 internal broken link checkers, according to our experts.
Now, it’s completely up to you which one you want to go for. However, make sure you consider the functionality features and your budget before you sign up for any of the paid plans.
But, you might be thinking…
“When I can detect the broken links on my site with the free services offered by the above-mentioned tools, why should I pay for the paid plans?”
Well, this needs some clarification.
To make things easier for you and assist you in making the right decision, we have compared the free vs. paid plans right below👇
Free Vs. Paid Broken Internal Links Checker
| Free Broken Internal Links Checker | Paid Broken Internal Links Checker |
| Cost-effective & zero cost | You need to pay the subscription fee |
| Usually, no installation is needed | No-download solutions |
| Web-based applications, primarily | Might be web-based/cloud-based/desktop-based |
| Detects 404 link errors | Detects all types of link errors & internal server issues (e.g., 404, 500, etc). |
| Identifies broken links/images | Accurately identifies all the broken links/redirect issues/link status codes on your site |
| Crawls up to 1000 links | Crawls an unlimited number of webpages |
| Scans your website manually | Performs automatic crawling and comes with a scheduled scanning feature |
| Does not come with advanced features | Comes with advanced functionality features that provide you with detailed SEO insights |
| Doesn’t provide you with detailed link metric reports | Provides you with in-depth reports about internal link metrics |
| Takes a lot of time in site scanning | Much faster compared to the free broken link checkers |
| Ideal for small-scale sites with less content | Suitable for large-scale websites with heavy content |
As you can see, both free and paid broken internal links checker tools have their own advantages and limitations.
Which one will work the best for you depends on your specific needs, budget, website type, how quickly you want the results, and the report metrics you need.
So, What Should Be The Right Choice?
For example, if you simply want to detect the broken links on your small-scale website, and time is not a factor for you, opting for the free broken internal links checker tools, such as Dr. Link Check, Dead Link Checker, and the free WordPress plugins, would be a wise decision for you.
However, if you own a large-scale site with a lot of content, and you want detailed internal link metrics reports, accurate identification of broken links and other types of link or internal server errors, and that too, much faster, you should definitely purchase the paid plans offered by Ahrefs, SEMRush, Screaming Frog SEO Spider, etc.
But, hang on!
Only purchasing the paid plans of broken link checkers or using a random tool is not enough!
Remember, broken internal links checkers can detect the broken links on your site for sure.
However, that’s not your sole purpose.
After these tools identify the potential link issues, you need to fix them immediately to maintain your site’s SEO health.
Best Practices for Broken Link Checking with These Tools
✅Schedule a site scan at least once a month
✅Remove broken links from high-traffic pages first
✅Use cloud-based broken link checkers that operate from their own servers
✅Use 301 redirects if you find a broken link guiding you on a high-traffic page
✅Verify false positives, as some links may appear broken due to temporary server issues
So far, you’re almost sorted with selecting the best broken internal links checker tool.
However, simply learning about the best practices is not always enough.
Unless you also learn about the mistakes while using these broken link checkers, you might make the same errors that most of the site owners often make, leading to failed attempts to update/fix broken links in old content.
Common Mistakes to Avoid with These Internal Broken Link Checkers
❎Creating redirect chains
❎Ignoring manual checks
❎Not removing the broken links
❎Directing all broken links to the homepage
❎Not updating the broken links to the older site content
❎Blindly relying on the results displayed by the broken internal links checker
Fix Them The Right Way…
Remember, one thing!
The purpose of fixing the broken links on your site is to improve the user experience, site crawlability, and indexation efficiency of the search engines.
However, replacing the broken links with redirect chains, not fixing the root cause, redirecting all those broken links to the homepage only, and not verifying the false positives will only worsen the user experience.
Some broken internal links checkers may flag valid links or complex URL structures as broken links. So, for the best results, you need to perform regular link audits, update the broken links to old content as fast as you can, and distribute link equity across your site’s content effectively through strategic internal linking.
Fix Your Site’s SEO & Improve User Experience with Internal Broken Link Checkers
Fixing your site’s broken internal links is crucial if you want to prevent the search engine from devaluing your website due to negative user experience, an unhealthy link profile, and poor maintenance.
Until you remove the broken links manually or redirect the faulty internal links to a relevant webpage, they can significantly damage your site’s reputation, credibility, & audience trust, and will eventually result in poor search engine rankings, increased bounce rates, and compromised SEO health.
So, Improve Your Site’s Internal Link Profile Now
Perform regular site and internal link profile audit with a reliable broken internal links checker, identify the link issues, and fix them right away to ensure proper webpage crawling, indexing, a seamless link equity flow across your website, and ultimate user satisfaction.
So, that’s it for today.
We hope you enjoyed reading the blog, and it would be helpful for you in selecting the right internal broken link checker that would work for you.
See you in the next blog.
…and do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any doubts or questions regarding this.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What is the best tool for checking broken internal links faster?
Ans: There are multiple tools available on the internet that can efficiently detect broken links. For example, Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Ahrefs Broken Link Checker, or online web-based applications such as Dead Link Checker, Dr. Link Check, etc., are highly functional in performing in-depth site content, structure, and internal link profile audit, identifying broken links, 404 errors, and other types of link or internal server issues.
Q2. How to fix the broken links?
Ans: The first step of fixing the broken links on your site is to detect them. You can use broken internal links checker tools such as Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Dr. Link Check top locate the 404 URLs and the source codes.
Next, you can either update the links and direct them to the right destinations or use a 301 redirect if the corresponding page has moved. Also, if you find the content no longer exists, you can simply remove the broken links.
Q3. Why should I detect the broken links on my website?
Ans: The prime reason to identify and fix the broken links on your site is to improve the user experience, prevent the search engines devlaue your webpages, ensure a seamless page authority distribution across the site, and faster crawling, indexing, and a higher search engine rankings.
Broken links not only waste the search engine crawler resources, but also frustrates the users, resulting to increased bounce rates, poor user engagement, and a major drop in the search engine rankings of your site.
To build audience trust, improve the site’s authority, and ensure site credibility, you need to identify the broken links and fix them as soon as possible.
Q4. What are the key reasons behind broken internal links?
Ans: Broken internal links might be the result of renaming a URL without creating a relevant redirect, deleting or removing content without removing the links to it, and entering an incorrect URL during link-building.
Q5. Are there any free internal broken link checkers on the web?
Ans: Yes. Online platforms such as Ahrefs, SEMRush, WordPress Plugins like Broken Link Checker, desktop-based applications like Screaming Frog SEO Spider, and Chrome extensions such as Check My Links offer basic free plans that allow you to detect the broken links on your website.
