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SERPCompass

Broken links to pages that answer an error

A broken link points at an address that answers an error: 404 or 410 when the page is gone, a 5xx code when the server fails. Change each link to the page's live address, or remove it. When a page has moved, also redirect its old address to the new one with a permanent 301. When a page is gone for good, let it answer 404 or 410.

Last updated 28 October 2026, when every step was checked against the vendor's documentation.

Why it matters

Google uses links to find new pages to crawl and as a signal of what pages are about. A link to an address that answers an error leads visitors to an error page and gives Google nothing at the other end: Google says it does not index URLs that answer a 4xx status code, and removes URLs already in its index once they do.

A server error is different, because the page may still exist. Google says 5xx answers make its crawlers slow down, and that URLs which keep answering a server error are eventually dropped from the index. So a 5xx needs the server fixed, not the link removed.

Links break when a page is deleted, renamed or moved after other pages linked to it, or when an address is mistyped. Editors do not warn you: WordPress says its link control checks that what you type looks like a URL, not that the page exists, and Squarespace says that changing a page's URL slug breaks the links to it.

SERPCompass rates a page that links to an internal address answering 4xx or 5xx as critical, and lists each error address too. A link to a redirect that ends in an error or loops counts as broken, because that is where the visitor lands. Internal addresses that time out, do not resolve or fail the HTTPS handshake are a warning.

For outbound links, the audit checks a sample of up to 40 of your links to other sites, within a time limit, and calls one broken only when it answers 404, 410 or a server error, or its host does not resolve or refuses the connection. A site that refuses automated checks, with 401, 403 or 429, is reported as unverified, not broken.

The audit findings this guide fixes: Pages linking to broken internal URLs; Pages returning 4xx errors; Pages returning 5xx server errors; Pages linking to URLs that could not be loaded; Broken outbound links (sampled).

Find every page with this problem

Run the free scan on your domain. It follows the links on every page it crawls, records the status each internal address answers and checks a sample of your outbound links, then shows your most urgent findings with the number of pages each affects. The Gap Report and a SERPCompass workspace list the affected pages; the workspace shows the broken addresses each page links to. To check one address by hand, run curl -sI followed by the address and read the status on the first line. In Google Search Console, the Page indexing report lists URLs Google found that answer Not found (404) or Server error (5xx).

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How to fix it on your platform

Soft 404s (missing pages that answer 200), broken images, scripts and stylesheets, and redirect chains that still end on a live page are separate checks, each with its own guide.

WordPress (no SEO plugin)

  1. Open the post or page the scan lists as linking to the broken address.
  2. Select the linked text. WordPress shows a link preview with options to open, edit, remove or copy the link.
  3. Edit the link and start typing the title of the page it should point to; WordPress searches your own posts and pages, so you pick the live address instead of typing it. Or remove the link. Then update the post.
  4. If the broken link is in a menu of a block theme, open the Navigation block, select the menu item and change Link to in the Content tab of the settings sidebar, or delete the item from Options in the block toolbar. Save.
  5. In a classic theme, go to Appearance > Menus, expand the menu item with its arrow, click Remove, add the right page from the Pages pane with Add to Menu, and click Save Menu.
  6. To redirect the old address of a page you moved or deleted, use an SEO plugin's redirect manager (below) or your web server's configuration (see plain HTML).

Sources: Link control (WordPress documentation); Navigation block (WordPress documentation); Appearance Menus screen (WordPress documentation).

WordPress with Yoast SEO

  1. Fix the links themselves in the editor, as for WordPress without a plugin.
  2. With Yoast SEO Premium, Yoast asks what to do with the old address whenever you change or delete a post or page: redirect it to another page, or, for a deleted page, answer 410.
  3. To redirect an address that already breaks, go to Yoast SEO > Redirects, choose 301 Moved Permanently as the Redirect Type, enter the broken address under Old URL and the live page under New URL, and click Add redirect.
  4. If a redirect does not work, clear every cache: the theme's, plugins', the server's, your CDN's and the browser's.

Sources: What does the Redirect Manager in Yoast SEO do? (Yoast); How to redirect a post or page in Yoast SEO Premium (Yoast).

WordPress with Rank Math

  1. Turn on Advanced Mode, then go to Rank Math SEO > Dashboard and enable the 404 Monitor module. Enable the Redirections module too.
  2. Open Rank Math SEO > 404 Monitor to see the addresses visitors reached that answered 404, with the number of hits.
  3. For an address that should lead somewhere, hover over it and click Redirect. The Source URL is filled in; enter the full Destination URL, keep 301 Permanent Move and save with Add Redirection.
  4. Then fix the link itself: Rank Math says to go to the referring post, find the link and fix it. Delete the fixed entry from the 404 Monitor.

Sources: How to monitor 404 errors (Rank Math); How to fix 404 errors (Rank Math); Setting up redirections (Rank Math).

Shopify

  1. For a broken menu link, go to Content > Menus in your Shopify admin and click the menu.
  2. In the Menu items section, click Edit beside the item, click the x next to the link field and select the new destination from the list. Shopify warns that pasting a URL instead of selecting the page can lead to a 404 when the page's URL changes.
  3. Click Apply changes, then Save menu.
  4. To send an old address to its replacement, go to Content > Menus, click View URL Redirects, then Create URL redirect. Enter the old address in Redirect from and the new one in Redirect to, and click Save redirect.
  5. A Shopify redirect only works when the old address no longer loads a page: delete or rename the old product or page first.

Sources: Editing menus (Shopify Help Center); URL redirects (Shopify Help Center).

Wix

  1. Open the page in the editor and click the text box that holds the link.
  2. Click the Link icon, select the link type, choose the right page or enter the address, and click Done. To remove the link, click the Link icon, select None and click Done.
  3. To redirect an old address, go to SEO & GEO in your site's dashboard, scroll to Tools and settings and click URL Redirect Manager.
  4. Click + New Redirect, select Single redirect, enter the old path under Old URL, start typing the new page's slug and pick it from the list, and click Save.
  5. Wix creates these redirects itself when you change the slug of an editor page, a Wix Stores product or category, a Bookings service, an Online Program or an Event, but not of a blog post: add those by hand. The URL Redirect Manager cannot redirect your home page.

Sources: Adding a link to text (Wix Help Center); Setting up a 301 redirect for a page on your site (Wix Help Center).

Squarespace

  1. Open the page that holds the link, open the link editor on the linked text, button or image, and click the URL tab.
  2. Start typing the page title, product name or URL slug and select the page from the list. For other content, such as a blog post, paste its full address.
  3. Save, then open the page in a private window and click the link to confirm it works.
  4. If you changed a linked page's URL slug, every link to it breaks: reopen each link editor and select the new address.
  5. To redirect an old address, open the Developer tools panel, click URL mappings, add a line such as /old-page -> /new-page 301 and click Save. It only works once the old page is deleted or disabled.

Sources: Troubleshooting link issues (Squarespace Help Center); Add links to your site (Squarespace Help Center); URL mappings (Squarespace Help Center).

Webflow

  1. Change or remove the link on each page the scan lists, then publish.
  2. To redirect an old address, go to Site settings > Publishing > 301 redirects. Enter the old address in the Old path field, such as /old-url, and the new one in the Redirect to path field.
  3. Click Add redirect path, then publish your site.
  4. A redirect for a page that still exists does not fire: delete the old page, save it as a draft or change its slug first. Adding 301 redirects needs a paid Site plan or a paid Workspace plan.

Source: How do I set up redirects in Webflow? (Webflow Help Center).

Plain HTML

  1. In each page the scan lists, change the href of the broken <a> element to the live address, or remove the link.
  2. If the page moved, add a permanent server-side redirect from the old address to the new one. In Apache: Redirect permanent "/old" "https://example.com/new". In NGINX: return 301 followed by the new address, inside a location block for the old path.
  3. If the page is gone for good with no replacement, let its address answer 404, or 410 with Apache's Redirect gone "/old", and remove the links to it.
  4. If the address answers a 5xx code, keep the link: find the error in the server or application logs for that address and time, fix it and check that the page answers 200.

Sources: Redirects and Google Search (Google Search Central); mod_alias, the Redirect directive (Apache HTTP Server documentation); How HTTP status codes, and network and DNS errors affect Google Search (Google Search Central); Page indexing report (Search Console Help).

Examples

  • Bad 
    /blog/winter-tips/  links to  /services/drain-cleaning  (404 Not Found)

    The service page was renamed; the blog post still links to its old address.

  • Good 
    <a href="/services/drains/">Drain cleaning</a>

    The link points at the page's live address, which answers 200.

  • Bad 
    /offer  301 ->  /offers/summer/  (410 Gone)

    A link to a redirect that ends in an error is still a broken link: the visitor lands on the error.

  • Good 
    Redirect permanent "/services/drain-cleaning" "https://www.example.com/services/drains/"

    Bookmarks and links from other sites to the old address now reach the page, in one hop.

  • Bad 
    removed: https://partner.example.org/  (a link checker got 403 Forbidden)

    A 403 to an automated check is no proof the page is gone: the other site may refuse checkers. Open the link in a browser before you remove it.

Common mistakes

  • Redirecting the old address but leaving the link. The link still costs visitors a redirect; Google says redirects are slow for users and asks you to update your own links.
  • Redirecting every missing page to the home page. A visitor who wanted one product lands somewhere else: redirect to the page that replaced it, or let the address answer 404 or 410.
  • Removing links to a page that answered a 5xx code. The page may load a minute later; the server needs fixing, not the link.
  • Pasting an address into a menu instead of selecting the page, so the menu breaks when the page's address changes. Shopify warns about exactly this.
  • Changing a page's slug without a redirect. Squarespace says it breaks every link to the page; Wix adds a redirect for most page types but not for blog posts, and Webflow adds one only when you tick its box to redirect the old URL.
  • Creating a redirect for an address that still has a page. Shopify, Squarespace and Webflow only redirect an address whose page is gone, deleted, disabled or renamed.
  • Treating a 401, 403 or 429 from another site as a dead link. Many sites refuse automated checks; open the link yourself first.

Questions and answers

Do broken links hurt my rankings?

Google does not say a broken link lowers the ranking of the page it sits on. It does say it uses links to find pages and judge what they are about, that it does not index URLs answering a 4xx code, and that it drops URLs that keep answering server errors. So a broken link is a dead end for visitors and for Google's crawler. Fix the ones that matter first: navigation, busy pages and links to what you sell.

Should a deleted page answer 404 or 410?

Either works for Google. It says it treats all 4xx codes other than 429 the same: the content does not exist, and an indexed URL that answers one is removed from the index. 410 Gone states that the removal is permanent, so use it for a page removed for good when your platform offers it, as Yoast SEO Premium and Rank Math do, and 404 otherwise.

Should I fix the link or add a redirect?

Both, when the page moved. Change your own links to the new address, because Google says redirects are slow for users. Then redirect the old address with a 301, because bookmarks, other sites and Google's index still use it. When the page is gone with no replacement, remove the links and let the old address answer 404 or 410.

Why does the audit show a 5xx error on a page that loads for me?

A server error can be brief: it may happen only under load, at a certain time, or for one request. The audit reports what the server answered when it asked. Look in your server or application logs for that address and time. Google says 5xx answers slow its crawling and that URLs which keep failing are eventually dropped, so an error that repeats is worth chasing.

How long until Google notices the fix?

Google sees it the next time it crawls the page, which can take from a few days to a few weeks. For an important page, the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console can ask Google to crawl it again; there is a quota, and asking repeatedly does not make it faster.

Sources

Every step above was checked against these documents on 28 October 2026. Vendors change their menus; if a step no longer matches, the vendor's page is the authority.

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