If you manage a website long enough, you’ll eventually run into broken links. Whether they come from deleted pages, outdated URLs, or mistyped slugs, broken links can disrupt both user experience and search engine performance.
But the question most site owners ask is: do broken links affect SEO? The short answer is yes, although not always in the way people assume. While a few broken links won’t destroy your rankings, too many can create crawl challenges, disrupt link equity flow, and turn users away.
Understanding how broken links influence SEO will help you maintain a healthier website and avoid preventable ranking issues.
What Are Broken Links?
Broken links are hyperlinks that point to pages that no longer exist or cannot be accessed. When a user or search engine attempts to visit the link, they’re met with a 404 error page or another status code indicating the page is unavailable. These errors typically fall into two categories:
- Internal broken links: Links pointing to pages within your own site that have been moved, renamed, or deleted.
- External broken links: Links to pages on other websites that no longer exist or have been changed.
Because internal links help search engines understand your site structure and pass PageRank from one page to another, internal broken links tend to have a greater SEO impact. External broken links matter too, but mostly from a user experience standpoint.
Do Broken Links Affect SEO? The Short Answer
Google has stated repeatedly that 404 pages are a normal part of the web. Search engines expect some broken links, especially on large websites. However, a high volume of broken links or broken links in important areas of your site can hurt your SEO in several indirect but meaningful ways.
First, broken links disrupt the flow of internal link equity. PageRank cannot pass through a link that leads nowhere, meaning the value of that link is lost. This can weaken the authority of connected pages.
Second, when search engines crawl your site and run into too many dead ends, your crawl budget can be wasted. This is especially important for websites with thousands of URLs. Search engines have limited resources and may not discover or re-crawl important pages if they hit too many 404s.
Finally, broken links damage user experience. If visitors repeatedly land on pages that no longer exist, they lose trust and are more likely to bounce, which can indirectly influence your performance in search results.
Broken links are also far more common than people think. A link-building statistics roundup from Sure Oak notes that 42% of websites have broken internal links. That highlights how easily these issues go unnoticed and pile up over time. While one or two broken links won’t cause ranking drops, consistently ignoring them can lead to broader site quality concerns.
READ: Are All Links Important for SEO
How Broken Links Affect Crawlability and Indexing
To understand how broken links affect crawlability, it helps to know how search engines navigate your site. Googlebot follows links from one page to another to discover new content, reassess old content, and understand site hierarchy.
When it encounters a broken link, two things happen:
- Crawl efficiency drops. Instead of reaching a new page, the crawler hits a dead end. If this happens repeatedly, especially on large websites, Google may not crawl as deeply or as frequently.
- Internal linking signals become less accurate. Internal links help search engines determine which pages are important. If those links no longer work, Google receives weaker or incomplete signals about your most valuable content.
A broken internal link also stops PageRank distribution. In a healthy internal linking structure, authority flows naturally to category pages, product pages, and blogs. When a link breaks, that flow stops abruptly, causing the linked pages to potentially receive less authority.
While Google won’t penalize you for broken links, poor crawlability and disrupted link equity can result in slower indexing, weaker rankings, and reduced visibility over time.
How Broken Links Impact User Experience
Broken links are more than just a technical issue. They affect real visitors. Landing on a 404 page creates friction, especially if the user expects important information or is navigating a conversion path. This frustration can lower engagement, hurt your credibility, and decrease conversions.
Reports that 88% of online users are less likely to return to a website after encountering broken links. When users feel a site is unreliable or outdated, they’re far less likely to convert, share, or revisit.
Negative user experiences can also indirectly affect SEO. If users bounce quickly, view fewer pages, or avoid returning to your site, search engines may interpret your content as less relevant or less helpful.
While Google has stated that it doesn’t use bounce rate as a direct ranking factor, engagement patterns still play a role in how well your site performs.
When Broken Links Are Most Harmful
Not all broken links carry the same SEO weight. The impact depends largely on where they occur and how critical those pages are.
Broken links are particularly harmful when:
- They occur on high-traffic or high-authority pages. If your most visited pages contain broken links, the impact is magnified because these pages serve as key entry points for both users and search engines.
- The broken link points to an important internal page. Broken links that lead to category pages, pillar pages, or conversion pages weaken your site’s internal linking structure.
- They appear in navigation menus or critical UX elements. A broken link in your main navigation or footer significantly disrupts user flow.
- Your website is large and relies heavily on internal linking. Enterprise sites, blogs with hundreds of posts, and e-commerce stores face greater crawl budget challenges, so broken links compound the problem.
If the broken link is on a rarely visited page or is external, the impact is typically smaller. But routinely ignoring broken links, even minor ones, can create compounding SEO issues over time.
How to Find and Fix Broken Links
The good news is that broken links are relatively simple to fix once you identify them. The challenge is discovering where they are, especially on content-heavy websites.
Here are the best tools to help you find broken links:
Google Search Console
Check the Coverage report for 404 errors and crawl anomalies. While it won’t show every broken link, it highlights important ones.
Ahrefs Site Audit
The Broken Links and Internal Links reports help you locate broken internal and external links quickly.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
A comprehensive tool that scans your entire website and lists every URL returning a 404 or other error code.
READ: Ahrefs vs Google Search Consolve Metrics
Once you’ve identified your broken links, you can fix them using one of the following approaches:
- Update the URL: If the target page still exists but was moved or renamed, update the link to the correct URL.
- Set up 301 redirects: If the page was permanently removed, redirect the old URL to the most relevant alternative.
- Remove the link: If the link is unnecessary and no relevant alternative exists, remove it from the page.
- Restore the deleted content: If a page was removed unintentionally or still provides value, you may consider restoring it.
For large websites, broken link cleanup should be part of ongoing technical SEO maintenance rather than a one-time task.
Should You Worry About Broken External Links?
Broken external links don’t impact your SEO the same way broken internal links do, but they still affect user experience. When you link to external resources, you’re recommending them. If those links are broken, your content can feel outdated or unreliable.
External broken links matter most in:
- Resource lists
- Research-driven blog posts
- Guides with citations
- Educational content
While Google won’t penalize you for outbound broken links, it’s still best practice to update or remove them during regular audits.
How Often Should You Audit Broken Links?
How frequently you check for broken links depends on the size and activity level of your site.
For most websites, the following cadence works well:
- Large or high-content sites: Monthly audits
- Small or medium-sized sites: Quarterly audits
- E-commerce sites: At least once per month due to frequent product changes
Regular auditing ensures you catch issues before they compound and helps maintain a healthy, SEO-friendly site structure.
Conclusion
Broken links won’t directly cause Google to penalize your site, but they can create a series of indirect SEO problems that affect crawlability, indexing, user experience, and internal link equity. A few broken links are normal, but allowing them to accumulate over time can harm your site’s overall performance.
If you need help conducting in-depth link audits, SEO agency in Sacramento like Sierra Exclusive can offer support to keep your site running efficiently.
Routine audits, simple fixes, and strong internal linking practices ensure your website remains accessible, trustworthy, and primed for better visibility in search.
Frequently Asked Questions
What causes broken links?
Broken links happen when a page is deleted, a URL changes, or a link is typed incorrectly. They can also occur when external websites remove or move their pages. Over time, website updates and content changes naturally lead to link rot.
How often should I audit for broken links?
Large or frequently updated websites should audit monthly. Small to mid-sized sites can audit quarterly. Regular checks prevent minor issues from becoming larger SEO problems.
Can broken links affect a website’s credibility or perceived quality?
Yes, broken links make a website feel outdated or poorly maintained. Users are less likely to trust or return to sites with frequent errors. This credibility loss can indirectly impact engagement and conversions.
How do broken links affect user experience?
Broken links interrupt user flow by leading to dead-end pages. This creates frustration, reduces trust, and can push visitors off the site. Poor user experience ultimately lowers engagement.
Are 404 errors bad for SEO?
A few natural 404s are normal and won’t harm rankings. Problems arise when many important internal links lead to 404 pages, damaging crawlability and link equity. Regular maintenance prevents these issues.
Should I worry about soft 404s?
Yes, soft 404s can confuse search engines because they display “Not found” content while returning a 200 status code. This wastes crawl budget and may cause indexing issues. Fixing them helps clarify your site’s structure for Google.
Do broken links increase bounce rates?
Yes, users often leave immediately when they hit dead links, which increases bounce rates. This drop in engagement can hurt conversions and repeat visits. Consistently fixing broken links helps maintain stronger user behavior signals.
