Why Broken Links Hurt SEO

A broken link (dead link) is a hyperlink that leads to a 404 Not Found page or another error response. They harm your site in two key ways:

User experience — Visitors who click a broken link hit a dead end and typically leave immediately, increasing bounce rate.
Crawl budget waste — Googlebot follows all links it finds. Repeated 404s waste crawl budget that could be used to index your valuable pages.

HTTP Status Code Reference

200 OK — Link works correctly. No action needed.
301/302 — Redirect. Verify the destination is correct and update direct links where possible.
403 Forbidden — Server blocks the request. Usually not a broken link — may be a bot protection.
404 Not Found — Broken. Update the link or add a redirect on the destination.
410 Gone — Permanently deleted. Remove or replace the link.
500+ Server Error — Likely broken. Check the destination server.

Update the URL — If the destination page moved, update the href to the new URL.
Remove the link — If the destination no longer exists and has no replacement.
Add a 301 redirect — If the broken URL is on your own site, redirect it to the correct page.
Find a replacement source — For broken external links, find an equivalent authoritative page.