Broken Links Finder

A page can read well and still send visitors to dead ends: a deleted article, a moved download, a partner site that closed. The Kwebby Broken Links Finder is a broken links finder that scans one page, checks up to 100 unique links on it and reports a status code for each. This guide covers what the scan includes, how to read the results, why some links come back inconclusive and how to fix the real failures.

Key Takeaways

• The tool scans one page per run and checks up to 100 unique links. If the page holds more, the result says how many it found and that only the first 100 were checked.
• It reads the href of every anchor (a) and image map (area) element, whether the value uses double quotes, single quotes or no quotes. Stylesheets, scripts and images are not part of the scan.
• Each link gets a HEAD request first. If the server rejects HEAD or returns an error, the tool retries with a GET request before it calls the link broken.
• Links that answer 401, 403, 429 or a bot challenge are marked Inconclusive, not Broken, because the server blocked the checker rather than proving the page is gone.
• Google does not index URLs that return a 4xx status, so dead internal links are a reachability and visitor problem first.
• The tool is free and needs no account. Each visitor can run six scans per minute.

What Is the Kwebby Broken Links Finder?

The Kwebby Broken Links Finder is a free web tool that tests the links on one page. Enter a page address, click Scan and read a status code for each link, with broken ones flagged in red. It shows where a page sends visitors to an error.

It belongs to Kwebby's SEO tools. To count every link on a page and split internal from external, use the Website Links Count Checker.

Key Features and How It Works

One page, up to 100 unique links

Type or paste a page address and click Scan, or press Enter. The tool fetches the page with a browser user agent, follows redirects and collects every unique link. Fragment-only links (#top), mailto:, tel: and javascript: links are skipped, and two links that differ only by #fragment count once. A note under the results shows how many unique links the page held and whether the 100-link limit applied.

HEAD first, then GET

Many servers answer a HEAD request with 403, 404 or 405 even when the page works. The tool sends HEAD first because it is light, then retries with a full GET when HEAD fails or returns an error code. Redirects are followed, and the row shows where a redirected link ends.

Four result types

The cards at the top show Checked, Broken, Working and Inconclusive totals. Filter buttons for all, broken, working, inconclusive and skipped narrow the list.

• Working: the link returned a 2xx or 3xx status after redirects.
• Broken: the link returned a 404, 410, 5xx or other error, timed out, or its domain does not resolve.
• Inconclusive: the server blocked the checker with 401, 403, 429 or a bot challenge. Open these links in a browser.
• Skipped: the link points to a private or reserved address, or the scan hit its time limit of about 50 seconds before reaching it.

Status badge, URL and reason

Each row starts with a badge: green for working, red for broken and amber for inconclusive or skipped. A row with no status code shows "ERR" and the reason, such as "Timed out" or "Domain does not resolve". The URL is a clickable link, so you can open it and judge for yourself.

Why Broken Links Matter

Broken links matter first to visitors. Someone who clicks a link and lands on an error page has no way forward.

For search, Google's documentation says it does not index URLs that return a 4xx status, and that URLs already indexed are dropped when they start returning one. A dead internal link therefore leads crawlers and visitors to a page that cannot appear in results.

Be careful with crawl budget claims. Google's crawl budget guide says the topic is for large sites with 1 million or more pages, or 10,000 or more pages that change daily. It also says a 404 is a strong signal not to crawl a URL again, while soft 404 pages keep being crawled and waste budget. Return a real 404 or 410 for deleted pages, not a blank page with a 200 status.

How to Use the Broken Links Finder

1. Click in the box that shows "https://example.com".
2. Enter the full address of the page you want to test.
3. Click "Scan", or press Enter. A large page can take up to a minute.
4. Read the Checked, Broken, Working and Inconclusive cards.
5. Click the "broken" filter to see failed rows only.
6. Open each broken and inconclusive URL in your browser before you change anything.

Best Practices for Fixing Broken Links

Confirm before you edit

A broken result is strong evidence, but servers can fail for a moment. Open the URL in a browser, and re-scan if a link timed out. Treat inconclusive links as unknown until you check them by hand.

Fix by cause

A 404 or 410 means the target is gone. Update the link, restore the page, or add a 301 redirect from the old address. Use the WWW Redirect Checker to confirm the redirect. A timeout points to a slow or unreachable server, so test it again later. Use Get HTTP Headers to see what the server returns.

Put internal links and navigation first

Fix links in menus, footers and templates first, because they repeat on every page. Then fix links inside body content, and handle external links last.

Return real error codes

If you delete a page, make the server return 404 or 410. A page that says "not found" but sends a 200 status is a soft 404, which Google's crawl guide says continues to waste crawl budget.

Scan templates, beyond the home page

Test one page per template: the home page, a blog post, a product page, a category page and the contact page. A broken footer link on the template shows up on all of them.

Know the 100-link limit

The cap counts unique links on the page. For a very long page, fix the first batch, then scan section pages or paginated archives separately. The Website Links Count Checker shows how many links the page holds.

Common Use Cases

• Pre-publish checks. Test a new article before it goes live.
• Migration QA. Scan key pages after a redesign or a URL change.
• Old article maintenance. Re-test posts that link to outside sources, since external pages move and disappear.
• Client reports. Add a list of failed URLs to a review, and cross-check it with the Technical SEO Checklist.

Related Kwebby Tools

The Website Links Count Checker counts the links on a page. The Server Status Checker tells you whether a server is up. The WWW Redirect Checker traces redirect chains, and Get HTTP Headers shows the raw response headers for a URL. The Technical SEO Checklist covers the wider health review.

Final Thoughts

The Broken Links Finder gives you a fast status check on the links a page depends on. Use it to catch dead ends for visitors, confirm every failure by hand and fix repeating template links first. Scan your home page, your top article and your contact page today, then re-scan after each fix.