How to Find and Fix Broken Links on Your Blog (Step-by-Step)

You probably have broken links on your website right now. Every blog post with external references, every article linking to tools and resources—over time, those links break. Pages move, sites go offline, products get discontinued.

This guide shows you how to find and fix broken links in about 30 minutes. By the end, you'll have a clean site and a system to prevent broken links from accumulating again.

Step 1: Audit Your Site for Broken Links

First, find out what's actually broken. You have two approaches:

Option A: Free Tools for One-Time Audits

W3C Link Checker (validator.w3.org/checklink): Paste your homepage URL and it crawls through your site checking links. Free, no signup required. Good for sites under 500 pages.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider: Download this desktop app to crawl your entire site. The free version handles up to 500 URLs. More powerful than W3C but requires learning its interface.

Google Search Console: If you've connected your site to GSC, check the "Pages" report under "Indexing" for 404 errors Google has encountered. This only shows links Google has actually tried to crawl, so it's not comprehensive.

Option B: Continuous Monitoring (Better Long-Term)

One-time audits give you a snapshot, but links break constantly. The external site you linked to last month might go offline tomorrow.

Continuous monitoring tools like DeadLinkRadar check your links automatically on a schedule and alert you when something breaks. Instead of discovering broken links months later (after the SEO damage), you fix them within hours.

Why monitoring beats auditing:

• Links break unpredictably—external sites change, files expire, pages move
• You find problems when they happen, not during quarterly cleanups
• AI-powered detection catches soft 404s and expired file hosts that basic tools miss

Step 2: Export Your Broken Links

Most tools export results as CSV. You'll need these columns:

Export all broken links, then sort by status code to group similar issues together.

Step 3: Categorize by Fix Type

Different problems need different solutions. Sort your broken links into these categories:

404 (Page Not Found)

The page no longer exists at that URL. This is the most common issue.

Possible causes: Content deleted, URL changed, site restructured

Fix approach: Find the new URL, find alternative content, or remove the link

500 (Server Error)

The server failed to respond properly. Could be temporary or permanent.

Possible causes: Server overload, misconfigured hosting, site problems

Fix approach: Wait and recheck (might be temporary), then remove if persistent

Timeout

The server took too long to respond or didn't respond at all.

Possible causes: Site offline, server problems, network issues

Fix approach: Monitor over a few days, remove if the site appears permanently down

301/302 (Redirect)

The link works but redirects somewhere else. Not technically broken, but worth checking.

Possible causes: URL changed, site migrated

Fix approach: Update your link to point directly to the new URL (avoids redirect chains)

Soft 404

The trickiest category. The page loads (returns HTTP 200) but displays "Page Not Found" or similar error content. Basic checkers miss these entirely.

Possible causes: CMS shows error message instead of proper 404, site handles missing pages badly

Fix approach: Treat like a regular 404—find replacement content or remove

Step 4: Fix Each Link Type

Now work through your list systematically.

For Dead External Links

1. Check the Wayback Machine

Go to web.archive.org and paste the broken URL. If an archived version exists, you might:

• Find the content still exists on a different URL (search the current site)
• Link directly to the archived version if the content is valuable
• At minimum, verify what the original content was

2. Search for Alternative Resources

If the original content is gone, search for similar content elsewhere. For example, if a tutorial you linked is gone, find another tutorial covering the same topic.

3. Remove the Link Entirely

If no good alternative exists, remove the reference from your content. A missing link is better than a broken one.

4. Update to the New URL

Sometimes content simply moved. Search the site for the topic—you might find the same content at a new URL.

For Broken Internal Links

1. Check if the page was moved

Did you restructure your site? Use Search Console or site search to find where that content lives now.

2. Set up a 301 redirect

If you moved content to a new URL, create a permanent redirect from the old URL to the new one. This preserves any external backlinks pointing to the old URL.

3. Update all internal links

Change your internal links to point directly to the new URL. Redirect chains slow down crawling and waste link equity.

For Affiliate Links

Affiliate links break more often than regular links because merchants change tracking URLs, products get discontinued, and affiliate programs change.

1. Check your affiliate dashboard

Most affiliate programs provide updated links when old ones expire. Log into your dashboards and grab the current URLs.

2. Contact the merchant

If a link is broken with no obvious replacement, reach out to affiliate support. They may have updated links or alternatives.

3. Monitor affiliate links separately

Because affiliate links break frequently and have direct revenue impact, consider monitoring them with more frequent checks than your regular content.

For File Download Links

Links to file hosting services (Google Drive, Dropbox, MEGA, etc.) expire based on inactivity, account changes, or platform policies.

1. Verify file availability

Check if the file still exists in your account. You may need to update share settings.

2. Generate new share links

If the old link expired, create a fresh share link and update your content.

3. Consider hosting critical files yourself

For important downloads, hosting on your own server eliminates dependency on third-party platforms.

AI-Powered Detection: Beyond Status Codes

Traditional link checkers rely on HTTP status codes. If a page returns 200, it's marked "alive." But what about pages that return 200 while displaying "File Not Found," "This product is no longer available," or a login wall?

These soft 404s are the most damaging broken links because they go undetected for months. Your visitors see error pages, but your monitoring tool reports everything is fine.

How AI Detection Works

DeadLinkRadar uses a two-stage AI pipeline to catch what HTTP checks miss:

1. Fast HTTP check first — standard status code verification catches obvious 404s, 500s, and timeouts
2. AI analysis for ambiguous cases — when a page returns 200 but looks suspicious, AI reads the page content like a human would, detecting error messages, login walls, removed file notices, and redirect bait-and-switch pages

Each analyzed link receives an AI confidence score from 0 to 100:

What AI Detection Catches

• Soft 404s: Pages returning 200 but displaying error content
• Login walls: Content moved behind authentication since you linked it
• Product discontinuation: E-commerce and SaaS pages showing "no longer available"
• File hosting expiration: Cloud storage links where the file was removed but the page still loads
• Paywall blocks: Articles that moved from free to paid access

This matters most for affiliate links, file hosting references, and documentation — categories where "technically alive" links still deliver a broken experience to your readers.

Learn more: How AI Link Intelligence Works | AI Detection Features

Step 5: Prevent Future Broken Links

Fixing broken links is necessary, but prevention is better. Here's how to stop broken links from accumulating:

Set Up Continuous Monitoring

Automated monitoring catches problems when they happen:

• Check frequency: Daily for important pages, weekly for blog content
• Alert channels: Email, Slack, or Discord notifications so you know immediately
• AI-powered detection: Tools like DeadLinkRadar use AI to catch soft 404s and expired file hosts that basic checkers miss

Create a Monthly Review Habit

Even with monitoring, review your link health monthly:

1. Check your monitoring dashboard for trends
2. Review any links that were flagged but not yet fixed
3. Audit new content before publishing

Check Links Before Publishing

Add link checking to your content workflow:

• Verify all external links in drafts before publishing
• Test embedded media (videos, file previews) actually work
• Confirm affiliate links are active and tracking correctly

Use Stable Link Sources

Some sources are more stable than others:

More stable: Official documentation, major platforms (YouTube, Wikipedia), archived content

Less stable: Small blogs, niche forums, file hosting services, social media posts

For critical references, prefer stable sources or keep backup citations.

Quick Reference: Broken Link Fix Matrix

Your 30-Minute Action Plan

Here's the fastest path to a clean site:

Minutes 1-5: Run a site audit using W3C Link Checker or your preferred tool

Minutes 6-10: Export results and sort by status code

Minutes 11-25: Work through broken links:

• High-priority first (navigation, landing pages, recent content)
• Use Wayback Machine for disappeared content
• Remove links with no good replacement

Minutes 26-30: Set up monitoring to catch future breaks

Stop Playing Whack-a-Mole

Every site accumulates broken links over time. Without a system, you're constantly playing catch-up.

Continuous monitoring changes the game. Instead of quarterly fire drills, you fix breaks as they happen—before they hurt your SEO or frustrate visitors.

Start monitoring free — DeadLinkRadar monitors your first 50 links free, with smart detection that catches what basic tools miss. Find your broken links in minutes, not hours.

Ready to clean up your links? Get started free and see exactly what's broken on your site.