Broken links: how to find them and why they cost you customers

By Axyra Nova Editorial · 13 September 2026 · 5 min read · Website fixes

Every website collects broken links over time. A page gets renamed. A partner changes their website. A blog post links to an article that no longer exists. A button in the footer points to an old promotion. Each one is small, but together they send a clear signal to visitors: nobody is looking after this site.

This guide explains why broken links matter, how to find them, and how to fix each kind.

Visitors leave

Someone clicks "See our prices" and lands on an error page. Some will search your site for the right page. Many will simply go back to search results and pick a competitor.

Trust drops

Broken links make a business look careless or closed. For services where trust matters, such as health, legal, finance or anything involving payment, that impression is expensive.

Search engines waste effort

Crawlers follow links to discover and revisit pages. Links that lead nowhere waste that effort, and important pages linked only from broken paths may be found less often. Google's SEO starter guide emphasises clear, crawlable links between your pages.

Lost conversions

The most damaging broken links are on the path to money: booking buttons, contact links, checkout steps, and links in email campaigns. These deserve a check every month.

  • Internal links pointing to pages on your own site that moved or were deleted.
  • External links pointing to other sites that changed or disappeared.
  • Image and file links, such as PDFs or images that were removed.
  • Links in navigation, footers and buttons, which appear on every page and multiply the damage.
  • Links from other sites to yours, where someone links to a page you deleted. These are not broken on your site, but they waste valuable visitors.

1. Crawl your site

A site crawler visits every page and records the status of every link it finds. Many tools exist, from desktop crawlers to online checkers. Look for links returning 404 (not found), 410 (gone), 500-range errors (server problems), or timeouts.

2. Check Google Search Console

Search Console reports pages Google tried to reach that returned errors. This often reveals old URLs that other sites still link to. Search Console is free and worth setting up for any business site.

3. Check your analytics

Look for visits to your 404 page and which pages they came from. That tells you which broken links real people are clicking.

4. Test your money paths manually

Once a month, click through: home page to service page to contact or booking; product page to cart to checkout; every link in your latest email campaign.

Our automated site audit runs a link check as part of every scan and lists the exact pages and links to fix.

How to fix each kind

Update the link to point directly at the new page. Then add a 301 redirect from the old address in case it is linked elsewhere. Our guide to 301 redirects explains how.

Decide whether the content should exist. If yes, restore or replace it. If not, update the link to the most relevant existing page, or remove it.

Find the new location of the resource and update the link. If it no longer exists, link to a different reputable source or remove the link. Prefer stable sources such as official documentation and government pages, which change less often.

Broken images and files

Re-upload the missing file or update the link to its new location. Remove references to files you no longer offer.

Add a 301 redirect from the old address to the most relevant current page, so visitors arriving from other sites land somewhere useful.

Make your 404 page helpful

Even with care, some visitors will hit a missing page. A good 404 page:

  • Says clearly that the page was not found.
  • Offers a search box and links to your main sections.
  • Includes a contact option.
  • Returns a real 404 status code, not a 200.
  • Avoid changing URLs unless there is a strong reason.
  • Add a redirect every time you rename or delete a page.
  • Check links when you publish new content.
  • Schedule a monthly link check as part of maintenance. The WordPress maintenance checklist includes one.

A worked example

A small accounting practice redesigned its website and renamed several pages: "/our-services/tax-returns" became "/tax-returns", "/meet-the-team" became "/about", and an old "/covid-support" page was removed. Nobody added redirects.

Over the following month, the practice noticed fewer enquiries but could not see why. A crawl revealed the answer:

  • Their own footer still linked to "/meet-the-team", so every page on the site contained a broken link.
  • Two old blog posts linked to "/our-services/tax-returns", which was one of their most searched pages.
  • A local business directory still linked to the old services page.
  • Search Console showed Google trying, and failing, to reach the old addresses.

The fixes took under an hour: update the footer link, update the two blog posts, add 301 redirects from each old address to its new one, and point the removed page to the general services page. Enquiries recovered as visitors and crawlers started reaching the right pages again.

You do not need an elaborate process. A routine like this is enough for most small sites:

  • Monthly: run a crawl, fix anything broken on money pages first, then navigation, then older content.
  • Whenever a page is renamed or deleted: add a redirect at the same time.
  • Quarterly: check Search Console for errors and inbound links pointing to missing pages.
  • After any redesign: crawl the whole site before and after launch and compare.

Keeping a short log of what you fixed and when makes the next check faster.

Frequently asked questions

A few broken external links are unlikely to cause serious harm, but broken internal links, especially in navigation, make your site harder to crawl and frustrate visitors. Fixing them is worthwhile.

Monthly for most small business sites, and after any redesign, migration or major content change.

Should I redirect every broken URL to my home page?

No. Redirect each to the most relevant page. Sending everything to the home page confuses visitors and search engines.

Update them when you can, prioritising posts that still receive traffic. Linking to stable, authoritative sources reduces future breakage. See also our mobile-friendly checklist for other quick site health checks.