Few things are more frustrating for a website visitor than clicking a link, only to then be greeted with the classic 404 error message. Broken links hurt your user experience, damage your site’s credibility, and also negatively impact your SEO rankings.
A triple threat, so to speak. But how and why do links break in the first place? And more importantly, how can you prevent that from happening in the future?
Let’s dive deeper into the most common causes of broken links and explore some practical strategies to keep your website running as intended.
What constitutes a broken link anyway?
When a link—originally referred to as a hyperlink—breaks, then your browser cannot find the page it's supposed to link to as it was either moved or deleted. People also like to call it a dead link. When clicked, it typically leads to a “404 Not Found” error or similar HTTP status message.
Also, broken links can occur both internally (within your own website) and externally (when linking to other websites).
Why links break in the first place
Understanding why links break is the first step in preventing them. Here are the most common causes:
Pages was deleted or moved
One of the most common reasons a link breaks is when a page it points to is deleted or moved without setting up a redirect. If the URL changes and the old address isn’t forwarded properly, visitors and search engines will naturally hit a dead end.
The URL structure got changed
Even small changes to a site’s URL structure such as adding or removing slashes, hyphens, or categories can break existing links if redirects aren’t configured. It's kind of the same thing as moving one or more pages since you're changing the address, but this happens sometimes when higher-level pages that host other content, like a blog, were altered or renamed.
For example:
yourdomain.com/blog/post-title
Was changed to:
yourdomain.com/articles/post-title
Without a redirect, the old link will no longer work.
You wrote a typo in the URL
I mean, yeah, you just goofed. Most people aren't manually typing in website addresses anymore, bookmarks exist, but for the sake of completion, getting the URL wrong will obviously also lead you to a 404 page.
An external website changed
For example, when you link to an external resource (that's on another website), you have no control over their content. If that page is moved, deleted, or the domain goes offline, your link will break. I wonder if there's a way to somehow monitor the status of these links...
The domain expired
Websites shut down and domains expire all the time. Just last week I had a domain expire I forgot I even had! It was for a music project I definitely inteded to work on at some point.
CMS or plugin issues
Certain content management systems (CMS) or plugins—don't get me started on Wordpress–can accidentally break links during updates, migrations, or content imports if URLs are not preserved correctly.
Incorrect relative paths
Using relative URLs (like ../page.html) instead of absolute URLs can also break links during site migrations or if folder structures were changed somehow.
Why broken links are bad news
We've highlighted this already, but broken links are more than just an oopsie—they can negatively impact your website’s performance in more ways that one:
1. Poor User Experience: Dead links frustrate users and can lead to higher bounce rates. That's no bueno. If visitors consistently hit broken pages, they’re likely to leave and never return.
2. Negative SEO Impact: Search engines like Google use crawlers to index your site. If those crawlers encounter too many broken links, they can lower your site’s ranking because it appears outdated or poorly maintained.
3. Lost Link Equity: Inbound links (backlinks) help improve SEO by passing authority from one page to another. When a linked page is broken, that link equity is lost. These are the ones you definitely want to keep an eye on.
4. Reduced Accessibility: For screen readers and users relying on assistive technologies, broken links can be confusing or even block access to important information.
How to prevent links from breaking
The good news? Most broken links are preventable with a proactive strategy. Here’s how to keep your links healthy:
1. Use redirects for moved or deleted pages
If you change a page URL or delete it, always implement a 301 redirect to a relevant page. This ensures users and search engines are sent to the right location.
2. Create a custom 404 page
Even with all precautions, some users may still stumble upon broken links. A well-designed 404 page can guide them back to your homepage or key content areas instead of leaving them stuck.
3. Use descriptive and stable URLs
Avoid overly complex URLs with special characters, session IDs, or unnecessary query strings. Instead, use clean, descriptive URLs that are unlikely to change. Double-check all hyperlinks before publishing content. Even a small typo can break a link completely.
4. Regularly audit your website
Use tools to scan for broken links on your website periodically. Lots of solutions out there to automate this process and alert you when something breaks as well.
Some great options include:
- Oh Dear!
- Screaming Frog
- Ahrefs Site Audit
- Google Search Console (Coverage or Crawl Errors)
Oh Dear also monitors your certificates, uptime, SEO performance, DNS records, domain renewal, tasks and cron jobs,... That and a plethora of notifications options so you don't miss anything. You can try it out for 30 days, for free! We're also normal people, so we don't ask for payment info to get you sorted.
5. Monitor external links
Many people focus on keeping everything in order internally, but forget that external links can also go bad. Some tools like Oh Dear (who would have thought?) allow you to monitor both so you can quickly fix or remove links that no longer lead anywhere.
6. Write up a link management workflow
If your site has multiple editors or contributors, create a kind of content checklist that includes verifying and testing all links before publication. It's a matter of being thorough.
Bonus tip, advanced link maintenance!
Lastly, a few more technical tips to round things up:
- Use canonical URLs to point search engines to the preferred version of a page, helpful for SEO.
- Keep a URL map if you're planning a redesign or migration, so you can plan redirects in advance.
- Avoid hardcoding links in multiple places—use dynamic linking or content templates instead.
So what have we learned? Broken links are no good, but with a little mental checklist in the back of your head you'll be in the clear for the most part.
But, say you're running a huge e-commerce website or you're freaking out at the thought of things breaking, there are monitoring tools out there that'll help you keep your sanity.