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How to Find and Fix Broken Links (404 Errors)

Broken links send visitors to dead ends and waste Google’s attention. Here’s how to find every 404 on your site and the right way to fix each one.

George Faulkner· · 3 min read ·Updated

Broken links are links that lead to a page that no longer exists, usually showing a "404 Not Found" error. They frustrate visitors, waste the attention search engines give your site, and make a business look neglected. The good news: they're easy to find and quick to fix.

What is a 404 error?

Every time a browser asks for a page, the server answers with a status code. 200 means "here it is". 404 means "there's nothing here".

You'll see a 404 when:

  • a page was deleted or renamed and nothing points visitors to its new address,
  • a link was typed wrongly, such as /contcat instead of /contact,
  • a product was removed from a shop but is still linked from blog posts or menus.

For visitors

Someone clicks a link expecting an answer and gets an error page instead. Many will leave rather than search for what they wanted.

For search engines

Google discovers pages by following links. Links to dead pages are dead ends, and any value a link would have passed to a page is lost. A few broken links won't sink a website, but lots of them suggest a site that isn't maintained.

For your business

A broken "Book now" or "Contact us" link costs you enquiries directly. Those are the ones to fix first.

Checking pages one by one is slow and easy to get wrong. A site audit follows every link for you. In FormedEasy, look for these issues:

  • Response Codes: Internal Client Error (4xx): links to pages on your own site that don't exist.
  • Response Codes: External Client Error (4xx): links to other websites that no longer work.
  • Response Codes: Internal Server Error (5xx): pages that exist but crash. These need a developer.

Each issue lists the broken addresses, so you can see exactly what's failing. You can run a free audit here.

Work through each broken address and choose one of these fixes.

If the page moved, edit the link so it points at the new address. This is the cleanest fix. To find where a broken address is linked from, search your CMS or page builder for it. Most let you search page content.

2. Add a 301 redirect

If the old address might be linked from other websites, bookmarks or old emails, add a 301 redirect from the old address to the most relevant live page. That way everyone who uses the old link still lands somewhere useful, and most of its value carries over.

Redirect to a closely related page, not the home page. Sending every missing page to the home page confuses visitors, and Google may treat those redirects as errors anyway.

If there's no good replacement, take the link out or rewrite the sentence around it.

For broken links to other websites, find the new address of the page you were citing, link to a similar source, or remove the link.

Make your 404 page helpful

Some visitors will still hit a missing page from old links you don't control. A good 404 page:

  • says clearly that the page can't be found,
  • links to your most useful pages and a search box,
  • matches the rest of your site, so people know they're in the right place,
  • returns a real 404 status code, not 200. A "not found" page that says everything is fine is called a soft 404, and it confuses search engines.

Google explains how it treats these responses in its guide to how HTTP status codes affect Google's crawlers.

Broken links usually appear when content changes, so check after:

  • deleting or renaming pages,
  • removing products,
  • redesigning or moving your website.

Before you delete a page, decide where its visitors should go and add the redirect at the same time. Then run your audit again and check that the 4xx issues have gone.

Find issues like this on your site

FormedEasy crawls your website, scores it out of 100 and gives you a prioritised list of what to fix. Free to start, no software to install.

Run a free audit

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