A broken link is one whose target cannot be loaded, usually because the server returns a 404 Not Found, a 410 Gone, or a 5xx server error, or the site fails to resolve at all. When someone clicks it, they hit an error page instead of the content they wanted. The Best Answer Hub Broken Link Checker scans a page, pulls out every link, and tests each one, reading the exact HTTP status for links on the same site and checking external links in a best-effort compatibility mode, all in your browser.
This guide covers how to read a link's status code, the difference between a 404 and a 410, whether broken links actually hurt your search ranking, why internal breaks matter more than external ones, and how to fix them without creating new problems. The tool sits in the Best Answer Hub Tools hub, is built and maintained by Shahbaz Ali Malik, and stays free because Best Answer Hub is funded by optional paid assessments rather than advertising.
What is the Best Answer Hub Broken Link Checker?
The Best Answer Hub Broken Link Checker is a free, browser-based tool that scans a webpage and tests every link on it. It extracts the links from the page HTML, then checks each destination, reading the exact HTTP status code for links on the same site and using a best-effort compatibility check for links to other domains, which browser security limits to a likely-working or likely-broken result. Results land in a sortable, color-coded table you can filter by status, with no account, no crawl caps, and nothing stored on a server.
- 1Tests every link. Navigation, content, and footer links are pulled from the page and checked one by one.
- 2Exact where it can be. Same-site links get the precise status code; cross-site links get an honest best-effort result under browser rules.
- 3Sortable results. A color-coded table you can filter to the 404s and errors that matter most.
How do you read a link's status code?
Every link check comes back as an HTTP status code, and a handful tell you almost everything. A 200 means the page loaded. A 301 or 302 is a redirect, working but pointing elsewhere. A 404 Not Found, a 410 Gone, or a 5xx server error means the link is broken (MDN, HTTP status codes). The catch is that a status code can lie: a soft 404 returns 200 while the page actually says the content is missing.
Sources: MDN HTTP status codes; Google Search Central on soft 404s.
| Code | Meaning | Link status |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | OK, the page loaded | Working |
| 301 / 302 | Moved permanently or temporarily | Redirect (still works) |
| 404 | Not Found | Broken |
| 410 | Gone, removed on purpose | Broken |
| 5xx | Server error | Broken (may be temporary) |
A soft 404 is a page that returns a 200 success code but tells the user the page does not exist. Google calls this a bad experience, and it wastes crawl time because search engines keep re-checking a page that never has real content. The Best Answer Hub Broken Link Checker shows the raw status code, so a suspicious 200 on a page that should be gone is easy to spot.
404 or 410: what is the difference?
Both mean the page is not there, but they say different things about why. A 404 Not Found only tells you the resource is missing, without saying whether that is temporary or permanent. A 410 Gone says the resource was removed deliberately and the removal is likely permanent, which is the right code to serve when you know content is not coming back (MDN, 410 Gone). Serving a 410 for content you have intentionally retired helps search engines drop it faster.
| Code | Says | Use when |
|---|---|---|
| 404 Not Found | Missing, cause unknown | The page may return, or you are unsure |
| 410 Gone | Removed on purpose, likely for good | You deliberately deleted the content |
Do broken links hurt SEO?
Not the way people fear. Google is clear that 404 errors do not by themselves harm your site's search performance, and that serving a 404 or 410 is the correct response for content that is genuinely gone (Google Search Console Help). Where breakage does cost you is elsewhere: a dead end frustrates visitors, and a broken internal link stops Google from discovering the target page and from passing ranking signals to it, since Google uses links both to find pages and to judge their relevance (Google Search Central).
404 errors won't impact your site's search performance, and you can safely ignore them if you're certain the URLs should not exist.Google Search Console Help, Fix Not found (404) errors.
On large, fast-changing sites there is a second cost: soft 404s keep getting crawled and long redirect chains have a negative effect on crawling, both wasting the crawl budget that could go to real pages (Google, crawl budget).
Internal or external: which matters more?
Internal links point to pages on your own site; external links point to other domains (MDN). The distinction decides both priority and how the tool can check them. A broken internal link is entirely yours to fix and it interrupts crawl discovery and link signals, so it comes first. A broken external link hurts the visitor experience but depends on someone else's site, and browser security means the checker can only give a best-effort result for it.
Internal breaks are fully fixable and carry SEO weight; external breaks are a maintenance issue partly outside your control. Source: MDN; Google Search Central.
How do you fix a broken link?
You have three honest options for an internal break: restore the page if the content still matters, correct the link if the URL was simply wrong, or set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to a genuinely relevant page. What you should not do is blanket-redirect every dead URL to your homepage. Google treats a mass redirect to the homepage as a soft 404, so the redirect is disregarded and no ranking signal passes through.
As Google's John Mueller put it, a 301 redirect from all pages to the home page is "something that we see as a soft 404s." Redirect a retired URL only to a page that genuinely replaces it; otherwise restore it, fix the link, or let it return a clean 404 or 410. For an external break, swap in a working source or remove the link.
How is Best Answer Hub different from other checkers?
The difference is zero friction for a single-page check. The W3C checker handles one page at a time and is deliberately slow, Dr. Link Check asks you to sign up and caps the free tier, deeper Ahrefs crawls need an account, and Search Console only reports on sites you already own. The Best Answer Hub Broken Link Checker runs instantly in your browser on any page, with no login and no crawl cap, which is exactly what you want for a quick "is this page clean" check.
| Checker | Account | Free cap | Any page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best Answer Hub | None | None | Yes |
| W3C Link Checker | None | Deliberately slow | Yes, one at a time |
| Dr. Link Check | Signup | Link cap | Whole site |
| Search Console | Account + verify | Own site only | No |
Try the free Broken Link Checker
Scan any page and test every link, with exact status codes for same-site links and a best-effort check for external ones, in a sortable table. No signup, no crawl cap.
Open the Broken Link CheckerFrequently asked questions about broken links
Keep going
- →What Your SEO Score Really Means The on-page audit that also flags link issues, read honestly.
- →What a Website Speed Score Actually Measures The other side of technical health: Core Web Vitals.
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Sources
- MDN, HTTP response status codes and 410 Gone (200, 301, 302, 404, 410, 5xx meanings).
- Google Search Central, Soft 404 errors (a 200 with error content).
- Google Search Console Help, Fix Not found (404) errors (404s do not harm search performance).
- Google Search Central, Link best practices (links drive discovery and relevance).
- Google, Crawl budget management (soft 404s and redirect chains waste crawl budget).
- MDN, Redirections (redirect cost and loops) and Creating links (internal vs external).
More free tools: Tools hub, SEO Score Checker, Website Speed Test, and all free tools.