How To Find Broken Links

Finding broken links on a website can be done using various tools and methods. Here are several approaches you can use:

1. Online Broken Link Checkers:
   • There are several online tools available that can scan your website and identify broken links. Some popular tools include:
     • Google Search Console: If you have your website verified in Google Search Console, you can use the “Coverage” report to identify crawl errors, including broken links.
     • W3C Link Checker: The W3C Link Checker allows you to check the links on a webpage or an entire website.
       

       W3C Broken link checker

2. Browser Extensions:
   • Browser extensions like “Check My Links” for Google Chrome can help identify broken links on a webpage. These extensions highlight broken links and provide information about the HTTP status codes.
     

     Browser Extensions

3. Command Line Tools:
   • For more technical users, command line tools like wget or curl can be used to crawl a website and check for broken links. For example, you can use wget with the --spider option to simulate a web spider and check for broken links.
     

     CMD Tools

4. Content Management System (CMS) Plugins:
   • If your website is built on a CMS like WordPress, there are plugins available that can automatically check for broken links. Examples include “Broken Link Checker” for WordPress.
5. Site Crawlers:
   • Dedicated website crawling tools, such as Screaming Frog SEO Spider or Xenu’s Link Sleuth, can analyze your entire website for broken links. These tools provide detailed reports on broken links, redirects, and other issues.
6. Manually Check Links:
   • Manually reviewing your website’s content and clicking on each link to verify its functionality can be time-consuming, but it allows for a thorough inspection.
7. Regular Monitoring:
   • Set up regular monitoring for broken links, either manually or using automated tools, to ensure that new broken links are promptly identified and fixed.

Broken link, also known as a dead link or a dangling link, refers to a hyperlink that points to a webpage, resource, or file that no longer exists or is unreachable. In other words, when you click on a broken link, you will encounter an error message or a “404 Not Found” page instead of being directed to the intended content.