What are Broken Links? How it Hurts Website and How to Fix Them?

Broken Links

Broken links (or dead links) are hyperlinks that no longer lead to their intended page, often showing “404 Not Found.” Regularly checking and fixing them improves user experience and preserves SEO performance.

Table of Content

What are Broken Links and Why You Should Care?

Why Broken Links are Bad?

Why Anchor Text is Important and What it is?

Types of Broken Links

How to Fix Broken Links?

Final Thoughts

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Richa Dave

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Aug 20, 2025

What are Broken Links and Why You Should Care?

You’ve probably clicked a link and ended up staring at a “404 – Page Not Found” or “This page doesn’t exist anymore” message. That is the result of a broken link, sometimes referred to as link rot or a dead link. In short: A hyperlink pointing to a resource (web page, image, document, etc.) that is no longer valid or accessible is a broken link.

Broken links can show up anywhere: internal links (links from your own website), outgoing links (links to other websites), or backlinks (other sites linking to you). They are often caused by things like URL changes, page deletions or relocations, typographical errors, domain changes, or changes in external sites.

Why Broken Links are Bad?

User Experience (UX): When visitors click and land on a dead page, frustration sets in. That leads to higher bounce rates and possibly users leaving the site altogether.

User Experience (UX): When visitors click and land on a dead page, frustration sets in. That leads to higher bounce rates and possibly users leaving the site altogether.

User Experience (UX): When visitors click and land on a dead page, frustration sets in. That leads to higher bounce rates and possibly users leaving the site altogether.

SEO Impact: Search engines use links to crawl websites. Broken links are a waste of crawl budget and prevent bots from indexing content properly. The pages to which broken resources are linked do not get link juice passed to them. Too many broken links may signal neglect and reduce perceived site quality.
Credibility and Trust: Visitors' trust drops if they discover a lot of broken links.

SEO Impact: Search engines use links to crawl websites. Broken links are a waste of crawl budget and prevent bots from indexing content properly. The pages to which broken resources are linked do not get link juice passed to them. Too many broken links may signal neglect and reduce perceived site quality.
Credibility and Trust: Visitors' trust drops if they discover a lot of broken links.

SEO Impact: Search engines use links to crawl websites. Broken links are a waste of crawl budget and prevent bots from indexing content properly. The pages to which broken resources are linked do not get link juice passed to them. Too many broken links may signal neglect and reduce perceived site quality.
Credibility and Trust: Visitors' trust drops if they discover a lot of broken links.

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Why Anchor Text is Important and What it is?

Directly seen and clicked upon, anchor text directs the human user as well as the search engine to another page. The visible, clickable words in a hyperlink are known as anchor text, link text, or link label. For instance:

<a href="https://example.com/guides"> Guide to SEO

“SEO Guide” is the anchor text.

Importance of Anchor Text

Context to users: It gives users an idea of what the users will find if they click. Clear anchor text allows them to decide whether or not the link should be followed.
Clues for search engines: Anchor text gives search engines clues to the topic of the linked page. It is a relevancy signal. Good anchor text supports ranking for a relevant keyword and would define the relationships between pages.

Even if anchor text is perfect, if the target link is broken, all the effort is wasted—users and search engines end up at a dead end.

Context to users: It gives users an idea of what the users will find if they click. Clear anchor text allows them to decide whether or not the link should be followed.
Clues for search engines: Anchor text gives search engines clues to the topic of the linked page. It is a relevancy signal. Good anchor text supports ranking for a relevant keyword and would define the relationships between pages.

Even if anchor text is perfect, if the target link is broken, all the effort is wasted—users and search engines end up at a dead end.

Context to users: It gives users an idea of what the users will find if they click. Clear anchor text allows them to decide whether or not the link should be followed.
Clues for search engines: Anchor text gives search engines clues to the topic of the linked page. It is a relevancy signal. Good anchor text supports ranking for a relevant keyword and would define the relationships between pages.

Even if anchor text is perfect, if the target link is broken, all the effort is wasted—users and search engines end up at a dead end.

Types of Broken Links

Not every broken link is the same. Below are the main types of broken links that you can detect quickly and repair them:

Knowing these types helps you run a more targeted audit. Application software such as Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, or SEMrush can flag every type so you can address them.

How to Fix Broken Links?

Perform regular audits: You can utilize automated crawling tools to search for broken internal and external links.
Fix or redirect: You can either change the URL, swap it for a working link, or create a 301 redirect to a related page.
Use consistent URL practices: When restructuring your site, make sure to always map old URLs to new ones.

Perform regular audits: You can utilize automated crawling tools to search for broken internal and external links.
Fix or redirect: You can either change the URL, swap it for a working link, or create a 301 redirect to a related page.
Use consistent URL practices: When restructuring your site, make sure to always map old URLs to new ones.

Perform regular audits: You can utilize automated crawling tools to search for broken internal and external links.
Fix or redirect: You can either change the URL, swap it for a working link, or create a 301 redirect to a related page.
Use consistent URL practices: When restructuring your site, make sure to always map old URLs to new ones.

Final Thoughts

Broken links are not just minor hassle. They really impact the entire part of SEO, user experience, trust and site performance. Regular audits are very important to catch and fix the broken links quickly. Another important factor in your link strategy is anchor text, finding anchor text which is informational and relevant and ensuring the destination URL is working.

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