How To Fix Broken Links On Your Website Without Making It Worse
Find them, sort them, and stop wasting time on the ones that do not matter
Knowing how to fix broken links saves you a lot of pointless panic. Not every 404 needs fixing, but the ones your own site links to do, and that is where the real work is.
Quick Version
A broken link points at a page that no longer loads. Fix the links your own site controls, redirect pages that moved to their closest match, and let pages you deleted for good return a 404.
- Find them in the Page indexing report in Search Console, where Google lists URLs that returned Not found (404).
- Fix the links on your own pages and in your sitemap first. Google says those are the 404s to fix.
- If a page moved, add a 301 redirect to the new page. Google says to redirect when content has moved.
- If a page is gone for good, let it return a 404 or 410 rather than redirecting it to the homepage.
- Check again after any redesign, clear-out or URL change.
Google says missing pages do not generally harm your indexing or ranking, so the job is tidying what you link to, not hunting every 404 on the internet.
Not Sure where to start?
If a redesign has left you with a long list of dead URLs and no idea which ones matter, we can look at the site and sort it out. If not, the guide below walks you through it.
The Full Guide To Cleaning Up Broken Links
When someone asks how to fix broken links, they usually want one tool that clears the lot. What works is five calmer steps.
Find them, sort them, fix the ones you control, redirect the ones that moved, and leave the rest alone.
Step 1: Find The Broken Links Properly
Start in Google Search Console. The Page indexing report lists URLs Google tried that returned Not found (404), which it may have found through a link, an old sitemap or a page that was deleted.
It only shows what Google has come across, so it is a starting point, not the full picture.
Then crawl your own site with a link checker or crawler tool, and click through your menu, footer and main buttons yourself. Dead links on your own pages are the ones visitors actually hit.
Step 2: Sort Them Into Three Piles
Pile one is links on your own site that point at a dead page. Pile two is old URLs that have a proper replacement. Pile three is URLs that should simply be gone.
Sorting first stops you redirecting things that should stay deleted.
Google says to fix only the 404s that you link to yourself or list in your sitemap. A 404 for a URL that should not exist is fine, so do not spend a morning on it.
Step 3: Fix The Links You Control
Open the page holding each dead link and point it at the right live page. If there is no equivalent page, remove the link rather than aiming it at something unrelated.
Check menus, footers, buttons and old blog posts, because that is where the stale ones hide.
Then make sure your sitemap no longer lists any of the dead URLs. A sitemap that lists dead pages is sending Google mixed signals.
Step 4: Redirect The Pages That Moved
When content has moved, Google says to add a redirect. Use a 301, which is a permanent server-side redirect, and send each old URL to the closest matching new page.
Use permanent redirects only when you are sure they will not be reverted.
Point the old URL straight at the final page rather than through another redirect, and do not send everything to the homepage. Google treats a missing page that sends visitors to the homepage as a soft 404 problem, and it confuses people as well as search engines.
Step 5: Leave The Rest Alone And Make The 404 Useful
If a page was deleted and has no replacement, a 404 or 410 is the correct response. Do not redirect it, and do not block it in robots.txt, because both make it harder for Google to understand your site.
Give visitors a helpful 404 page with your menu and a way back, but make sure it still returns a real 404 status. A friendly page that returns a normal success code is a soft 404.
Then re-check after any redesign or clear-out, because that is when links break in bulk. Our guide on traffic drops after a redesign shows what that looks like.
Common Mistakes
If you are still working out how to fix broken links after a weekend of fixing and the list keeps coming back, one of these is usually the reason.
A few common ones:
- Redirecting every dead URL to the homepage instead of the closest relevant page.
- Chasing every 404 in a report, including URLs nobody links to and nobody should visit.
- Deleting a page and leaving the menu, footer and buttons pointing at it.
- Blocking old URLs in robots.txt, which stops Google seeing the redirect or the 404.
- Building a redirect on top of a redirect during a redesign, so old links take two hops.
Most broken links are a tidy-up job, not an emergency. It only becomes an emergency when a redesign breaks a lot of them at once.
DIY lane vs done for you lane
DIY lane:
Work through the 404 list in Search Console, fix the links you own, redirect what moved and leave the rest. Re-check after any redesign or page clear-out.
Done for you lane:
If a migration or redesign has left you with a long list and no idea which ones matter, we can sort it into piles and set the redirects up for you.
Related Guides on the wall
If you are working out how to fix broken links, these guides will help you fix the surrounding setup too.
- Why Did My Traffic Drop After A Website Redesign? for when redirects go wrong.
- How To Remove A Page From Google for deleting pages properly.
- Internal Linking Guide for keeping your own links healthy.
How To Fix Broken Links FAQs
Find them in Search Console and with a crawler, fix the links on your own pages, add a 301 redirect for pages that moved, and let pages deleted for good return a 404 or 410.
Google says missing pages generally do not damage your indexing or ranking. But a broken link on your own page sends visitors to a dead end, and 404s for pages you submitted for indexing are worth fixing.
Check the Page indexing report in Search Console for Not found (404) URLs, crawl the site with a link checker, and click through your menu, footer and buttons.
No. Redirect a page only when there is a close replacement. Google says a missing page that sends visitors to the homepage is a soft 404, so let deleted pages return a real 404 or 410.
A page that shows a not found message to visitors but returns a normal success code. Google suggests returning a real 404 for pages that are missing, or adding real content if the page should exist.
Fix what you link to, redirect what moved and let the rest 404. That is the whole job.
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