Identifying and fixing broken links (404 errors) is a crucial aspect of maintaining a healthy website from both an SEO and user experience perspective. When broken links exist on your site, it can harm your crawlability, user engagement, and ultimately your search rankings. Fortunately, there are several SEO tools available that can help you quickly find and address these issues.
Here’s how to use some of the most popular SEO tools to identify broken links (404 errors):
1. Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is one of the most popular tools for crawling websites and identifying broken links, among many other SEO-related tasks.
How to Identify Broken Links Using Screaming Frog:
- Download and Install: Download the free or paid version of Screaming Frog SEO Spider from their official website.
- Crawl Your Website:
- Open the tool and enter the URL of your website in the search bar.
- Click ‘Start’ to begin crawling your site. Screaming Frog will crawl through all the pages on your website, just like a search engine bot would.
- View the Response Codes:
- After the crawl is complete, go to the ‘Response Codes’ tab.
- Filter the results by selecting ‘Client Error (4xx)’ from the dropdown filter on top.
- This will show you all the pages on your website that returned a 404 error or other client errors.
- Identify Broken Links:
- Look for any 404 errors (or other client errors such as 403, 410, etc.) that indicate broken links.
- These errors may show up for internal or external links on your website. Pay special attention to internal 404 errors, as they directly affect user experience and site crawlability.
- Fix Broken Links:
- Update or Remove: You can either update the link to point to a relevant page or remove the broken link altogether.
- Use 301 Redirects: If the page has been moved to a new URL, make sure to use a 301 redirect to send users and search engines to the new page.
Benefits:
- Screaming Frog provides a comprehensive crawl of your entire site, making it easy to identify broken internal and external links.
- It gives you detailed reports, including the URL, HTTP status code, and anchor text for each broken link.
2. Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is an essential free tool for monitoring your site’s health and performance in Google’s search results. It also provides information on crawl errors, including 404 errors.
How to Identify Broken Links Using Google Search Console:
- Access Google Search Console: Log into your Google Search Console account and select the property (website) you want to monitor.
- Go to the Coverage Report:
- Navigate to ‘Coverage’ under the ‘Index’ section on the left sidebar.
- The Coverage report shows the status of all pages Google has crawled on your site, including any errors encountered during crawling.
- Look for 404 Errors:
- In the ‘Excluded’ section, you’ll find URLs that couldn’t be indexed, including those with 404 errors.
- Click on the ‘404’ link to see a list of pages that returned a 404 error when Googlebot tried to crawl them.
- Fix the Issues:
- You can use the URL Inspection Tool to check the specific broken page URLs in more detail.
- Once you identify the broken links, either remove, redirect, or update them.
Benefits:
- Google Search Console provides insights from Google’s own crawl data.
- It helps you prioritize issues that are directly affecting Google’s ability to crawl and index your pages.
3. Ahrefs Site Audit
Ahrefs is an advanced SEO tool, and its Site Audit feature can help you identify broken links, both internal and external. Ahrefs is known for its backlink analysis, but its site audit tools are incredibly powerful for crawling your website and identifying SEO issues.
How to Identify Broken Links Using Ahrefs Site Audit:
- Set Up an Ahrefs Account: Log in to your Ahrefs account and go to the Site Audit tool.
- Crawl Your Website:
- Start a new project and enter your website’s URL.
- Let Ahrefs crawl your site. The time it takes will depend on the size of your site.
- View the Crawl Report:
- Once the crawl is finished, go to the ‘Issues’ tab.
- Filter by ‘Internal Pages’ and look for issues under the ‘Broken Links’ category. You can also use the ‘All Issues’ tab to find any internal links that return 404 errors.
- Analyze the Results:
- You can view all the URLs with broken internal and external links, along with their status codes (404, 410, etc.).
- Ahrefs also provides you with the source page (the page linking to the broken link), so you know exactly where the issue originates.
- Fix the Broken Links:
- Fix any broken links on your site by either updating them to a working page or using 301 redirects to point users and bots to the correct location.
Benefits:
- Ahrefs offers an in-depth audit that covers both on-page and off-page SEO issues.
- It provides a detailed view of the source page for broken links, which helps you understand which pages on your site are affected.
- Ahrefs allows you to check both internal and external links for 404 errors.
4. Broken Link Checker (Free WordPress Plugin)
If your website is built on WordPress, there’s a free plugin called Broken Link Checker that can help you identify broken links on your site. It scans for both internal and external broken links.
How to Identify Broken Links Using Broken Link Checker:
- Install the Plugin:
- Go to your WordPress admin dashboard, navigate to Plugins > Add New, and search for ‘Broken Link Checker’.
- Install and activate the plugin.
- Configure the Plugin:
- After installation, navigate to Tools > Broken Links.
- The plugin will automatically scan your site for broken links. You can choose how frequently you want it to check your site and whether to check posts, pages, or other content types.
- View the Results:
- The plugin will show you a list of broken links with the following details:
- URL of the broken link.
- Anchor Text.
- Post/Page where the link was found.
- HTTP status code (404, etc.).
- The plugin will show you a list of broken links with the following details:
- Fix the Broken Links:
- The plugin allows you to edit links directly from the interface. You can fix the broken link by either removing it or updating it to the correct URL.
- You can also choose to ignore certain broken links if they are intentional.
Benefits:
- It's easy to set up and use directly within the WordPress admin panel.
- It continuously checks for broken links, making it ideal for sites that are regularly updated with new content.
- Provides a direct way to edit or remove broken links without leaving the plugin interface.
5. SEMrush Site Audit
SEMrush is another popular SEO tool that includes a site audit feature. It provides a detailed analysis of your site’s overall SEO health, including broken internal and external links.
How to Identify Broken Links Using SEMrush Site Audit:
- Log Into SEMrush: Log into your SEMrush account and go to the ‘Site Audit’ tool.
- Start a New Crawl:
- Enter your domain name and click ‘Start Site Audit’.
- SEMrush will crawl your site and identify various SEO issues, including broken links.
- View the Crawl Report:
- After the audit is complete, go to the ‘Crawl Errors’ section of the report.
- Look for broken links (404 errors) in the list of issues. You can filter by internal or external links.
- Fix Broken Links:
- SEMrush will show you a list of 404 errors and other crawl issues.
- You can fix these by updating the links or implementing 301 redirects.
Benefits:
- SEMrush gives an overview of broken links alongside other technical SEO issues.
- The tool is easy to use and provides clear action items, making it easy to prioritize fixes.
Conclusion
Regularly checking for and fixing broken links (404 errors) is vital for maintaining a healthy website that ranks well in search engines and offers a good user experience. Tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Google Search Console, Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Broken Link Checker can help you identify these issues quickly and efficiently.
By using these tools and proactively addressing broken links, you'll improve your site's crawlability, ensure users can find what they're looking for, and ultimately boost your site's SEO performance.