Broken Link Checker Online — Free Broken Link Checker Tool
CodexFuse Team · 2026-10-26T20:55:30.849Z · 9 min read min read
Find dead links fast with a free broken link checker, fix them in the right order, and stop losing visitors to pages that no longer exist.
A broken link checker is a tool that scans a website and reports the links that no longer lead anywhere useful — pages that have moved, been deleted, or never existed at the address given. Visitors who hit those dead ends leave, and search engines gradually trust the site less. The fix is rarely dramatic: find the dead links, then update, redirect, or remove them before they quietly cost you enquiries.
This guide explains what a check actually shows, walks through one with CodexFuse's free tool, and sets out an honest order for fixing what you find.
What is a broken link checker?
A broken link checker scans the links on a website and flags the ones that return an error, point to a missing page, or fail to resolve at all, so you can fix them instead of discovering them through lost visitors. It saves you clicking every link by hand, which is the only other way to be sure, and it turns a vague worry about "dead links" into a concrete list of addresses to repair.
Think of it as a stock-take for your links. A site can look finished while dozens of its links quietly point nowhere, because links break after publication, not during it.
The quiet ways links break
Most broken links accumulate one small change at a time, until a routine check reveals a list nobody expected.
- Renamed or deleted pages: a page slug changes during a redesign and every older link to it dies at once.
- Removed products and posts: an out-of-stock product or expired offer is deleted instead of redirected.
- Typed addresses: a single wrong character in a manually added link creates a dead end from day one.
- Third-party changes: a supplier, directory, or partner moves their page and your outbound link follows them into nowhere.
- Domain and protocol drift: a site moves from one domain form to another and older http links are never updated.
| Kind of break | What the visitor sees | Usual fix |
|---|---|---|
| Internal page deleted | A 404 error on your own site | Redirect to the closest live page |
| Internal page renamed | A 404 error, often site-wide | Redirect the old address to the new one |
| Outbound link moved | A dead page on someone else's site | Update the link or remove it |
| Typo in the address | A page that never existed | Correct the link text and address |
Fix internal broken links before outbound ones. Your own dead pages hurt visitors and rankings directly, while an external dead link is usually a smaller, slower problem.
How do you run a broken link check?
You run a broken link check by entering the site's hostname into the checker, starting the scan, and working through the resulting list of broken links one by one — updating, redirecting, or removing each address until a repeat scan comes back clean. The whole job is the list, not the scan itself, so pick a tool whose results you can act on rather than admire.
CodexFuse's broken link checker keeps the process short: no software to install, no crawl configuration to learn.
- Enter a hostname: type the site's hostname into the tool, exactly as it appears in the address bar without extra path clutter.
- Start the scan: run the scan and let it return its simulated broken-link results for that hostname.
- Work the list: take each flagged link in turn and decide whether it needs a correction, a redirect, or removal.
- Re-check: run the scan again after fixing, so you confirm the repairs rather than assuming they worked.
The tool is free and unlimited, but you do need a CodexFuse account to use it — sign in first, then run the check. That single login step is worth noting before you sit down to do the job, not discovering it halfway through.
A worked example: a bookshop with 14 dead links
Consider a fictional independent bookshop, Hartley Books, with a small site of around 90 pages. The owner has never checked its links, and enquiries through the contact page seem quieter than they should be, for no obvious reason.
She opens the broken link checker, enters the shop's hostname, and runs a scan. It returns 14 broken links. The pattern is immediately useful: five point to event pages from last year that were deleted after each event, four point to a renamed "signed editions" page, three are outbound links to a publisher that restructured its site, and two are simple typos in blog posts.
The fixes take one afternoon. The five dead event links are redirected to the current events page, the four renamed-page links to the new signed-editions address, the three publisher links are updated, and the two typos corrected. A repeat scan comes back clean — including, as it turns out, the contact-page link that had pointed at a deleted address for months.
Nobody noticed, because broken links fail silently. Visitors do not usually report them; they simply leave.
CodexFuse's fully managed platform keeps your hosting, site, and upkeep in one place on pay-as-you-go credits, so broken links, expired pages, and site drift get handled instead of piling up unnoticed.
Get Started with CodexFuseWhat this checker will not do
The CodexFuse checker describes its results as simulated broken links for the hostname you enter. That makes it a fast first pass, not a replacement for a full crawl of a very large or complex site.
- It is not a deep crawler: for a site with thousands of pages, JavaScript-heavy navigation, or content behind a login, pair this check with a dedicated crawler.
- It checks a hostname, not a sitemap: it will not audit a hand-picked list of individual page addresses in one run.
- It cannot fix links for you: it finds the problems; the redirects and corrections still need someone with access to the site.
- It needs an account: the tool is free, but it is not anonymous — you sign in to CodexFuse first.
For a small or mid-sized site, those limits rarely matter. For a large one, use this tool for a quick health signal and a proper crawler for the exhaustive audit.
Never redirect every broken link to the homepage. A visitor who clicked for a specific book, event, or article and lands on the homepage is still lost — just more politely. Redirect to the closest genuinely relevant page, or remove the link.
How often should you check for broken links?
You should check for broken links at least once every three months, and again immediately after any redesign, migration, bulk deletion, or domain change, because those are the moments when links break in batches rather than one at a time. A quarterly check takes little time and catches the slow accumulation that otherwise goes unnoticed for years.
A practical rhythm: a quick check each quarter, a check after every structural change, and a check before any big campaign, when the cost of each dead link is highest.
Fixing what you find, in the right order
Work a long list in this order and most of the damage is cleared in the first pass.
- High-traffic pages first: fix links on the homepage, top category pages, and best-performing posts before obscure archive pages.
- Internal links before external: your own dead pages are fully in your control and affect every visitor who finds them.
- Redirects for renamed pages: one redirect per old address preserves the value of every link pointing at it.
- Updates for moved external pages: replace the address rather than deleting a useful reference.
- Removal as a last resort: delete a link only when no live replacement exists and it adds nothing.
While you are at it, check for related problems. A backlink checker shows which outside sites link to you, so you can spot valuable inbound links landing on deleted pages. A broken backlink finder works from the other direction, a branded 404 page keeps visitors who still slip through, and an anchor text analyser can reveal over-optimised wording worth cleaning up too.
If broken links came from a redesign, read how a branded 404 page keeps visitors on your site while you finish the redirects.
Stop losing visitors to dead links
Broken links have a fully known solution: find them, fix them, and check again. No mystery, no expensive tool — just a list and an afternoon.
Run the free broken link checker on your hostname today, fix the high-traffic links first, and set a quarterly reminder to repeat the check. And if keeping a site healthy — hosting, redirects, security, backups — keeps sliding down your to-do list, move it to CodexFuse: one fully managed platform on pay-as-you-go credits, where the upkeep is handled for you instead of competing with everything else you run. Get started with CodexFuse today and give every visitor a link that actually works.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the CodexFuse broken link checker really free?
Yes. The tool is free and unlimited, but you need a CodexFuse account to use it, so create a free account or sign in before running your first scan.
What do I need to run a check?
Just the site's hostname. Enter it into the tool, start the scan, and review the simulated broken-link results it returns for that hostname.
How long does a broken link check take?
For a small site, the scan is quick; the time goes into fixing the results. Budget one afternoon for a first check and its repairs, far less later.
Should I redirect broken links to the homepage?
No. Redirect each broken address to the closest genuinely relevant live page, and remove the link only when no suitable replacement exists.
Do broken links hurt search rankings?
Indirectly, yes. Dead internal links waste crawl attention and frustrate visitors. Fixing them is basic site hygiene, not a ranking trick.
What if my site has thousands of pages?
Use this checker as a fast first pass, then run a dedicated crawler for an exhaustive audit of a large, JavaScript-heavy, or login-gated site, and fix from the combined list.