Feature
Broken Link Checker
Find links that return 404, 410 or server errors, or fail because of DNS or TLS problems, and tell real breakages apart from blocked or temporary failures.
A link can fail in several ways, and the right fix depends on which. The broken link checker groups each failure by cause so you’re not treating a rate limit the same way as a deleted page.
How failures are grouped
- Broken: client errors such as 404 Not Found or 410 Gone, so the page doesn’t exist
- Server errors: 5xx responses, often temporary but worth reporting
- Warnings: 401, 403 and 429, usually a login wall, bot protection or rate limiting
- Network failures: DNS failures, SSL issues, timeouts and refused connections, each with its own label
Two ways to find them
Check a known list of links with the bulk checker, or crawl your site to find internal pages that return errors. The crawler stays on your site, so check external links by pasting them into the URL checker.
Limits to keep in mind
A missing page that still returns 200 (a soft 404) is only flagged when its response is empty; other soft 404s look fine to a status check.
Re-check network and server errors before removing a link; many are temporary.
Common questions
- What’s the difference between 404 and 410?
- 404 means not found; 410 means deliberately removed. Search engines tend to drop 410 pages a little faster.
- Does it check images and scripts?
- The crawler focuses on links between pages. To check specific asset URLs, paste them into the bulk checker.