SITEMAPS & CRAWLING
Broken Internal Link Checker
A broken internal link sends visitors to an error page and wastes the crawl budget and link value you meant to pass on. Because the link lives on another page, the broken page itself never shows the problem. This tool crawls the site and reports each broken link together with the pages that contain it.
- Checks the live page
- Public addresses only
- Free, no sign-up
- CheckInternal links answering 4xx or 5xx
- CheckInternal links that could not be fetched at all
- CheckInternal links that redirect, and where they end up
- CheckEvery page that links to each of them
Free
no sign-up
Live
fetched when you run the check
4 checks
what the tool looks at
30 a minute
checks per visitor, to keep it free
Loading the tool…
HOW IT WORKS
How to use the Broken Internal Link Checker
One public URL to start from.
Enter the homepage or a section page.
For each broken link, open the pages listed under Linked from and fix or remove the link.
Then update links that redirect, so they point straight at the final URL.
WHAT IT CHECKS
What it looks at, and how to read it.
Broken links with their status and where they are linked from, internal redirects, and a CSV export.
What it checks
- Internal links answering 4xx or 5xx
- Internal links that could not be fetched at all
- Internal links that redirect, and where they end up
- Every page that links to each of them
How to read the results
- A link in the menu or footer appears on every page, so it shows many sources: fix it once in the template.
- A 404 for a removed product is fine on its own; links still pointing at it are the problem.
The concepts behind it, in the SEO glossary: 404 error, Internal linking.
GOOD TO KNOW
Common mistakes, an example and the limits.
Common mistakes
- Redirecting every broken URL to the homepage instead of fixing the links.
- Fixing the broken page’s URL but leaving old links in blog posts.
A worked example
The checker finds /phones/old-model/ answering 404, linked from the phones category and two blog posts. Updating those three links clears it.
Limitations
- Crawls at most 50 pages, breadth first from the start URL, so on a bigger site it covers the pages closest to it.
- Follows links in the HTML the server sends. Links a page adds with JavaScript, and pages linked only from forms or scripts, are not found.
- Stays on the start URL’s host and obeys its robots.txt for our crawler; blocked pages are counted, not fetched.
- Only links to pages the crawl fetched are checked; the result says how many more links were found but not checked.
FAQ
Questions about the Broken Internal Link Checker
Straight answers about what it does and where its limits are.
Does it check links to other sites?
No, it stays on your site. Use the External Link Status Checker for outgoing links on a page.
Monitor broken links across your whole site.
Free tools check one thing at a time. The NdovuSEOLabs platform connects your own Search Console, analytics and server logs, and keeps checking every page.