Broken Internal Links
Internal links pointing to 404 or other error pages waste crawl budget, create dead ends for users, and break the internal linking structure that distributes PageRank across your site. When search engine crawlers follow a broken link they abandon the path, which can reduce the crawl depth and frequency of pages connected to that dead end.
Why it matters: Every broken internal link is a lost opportunity to pass ranking authority to another page — and a direct negative signal for user experience quality.
Seen in 37% of audited sites581 / 1,572 sites
Score impact on this site−5 pts
Detected on this site: 1 broken internal link detected (pointing to 4xx/5xx pages).
Sites Most Affected by This Issue
SiteCategoryImpactScore
These sites show the highest measured impact for Broken Internal Links in our audited dataset.
View full leaderboardCommonly Affected Pages
- Blog posts linking to articles that were later deleted or had their URL changed
- Navigation menus referencing removed or renamed product categories
- Footer links pointing to outdated resources, old press pages, or deprecated tools
- CMS sidebar widgets and related-post modules not updated after content is removed
- Hard-coded template links that weren't updated during URL structure migrations
How to Fix
- 1.Run a monthly crawl of your site and export all internal 4xx link sources for batch repair.
- 2.Update links pointing to permanently removed pages, or set up appropriate 301 redirects to related content.
- 3.Audit navigation menus, footers, and CMS widget configurations — these often contain the most persistent broken links.
- 4.Where content is permanently gone with no suitable replacement, simply remove the link rather than redirecting to a mismatched page.
- 5.Implement a custom 404 page with site search and links to your most important sections to recover lost user sessions.