Broken links on your business website: how to find them, fix them, and avoid losing customers and rankings

A visitor clicks "View services" or a blog post on your website and lands on an error page. That moment breaks trust: it looks like your company does not pay attention to details. Broken links (404 errors) are among the most common issues on corporate websites that have not been reviewed in years, and one of the easiest to overlook.

After summer, many businesses update schedules, remove seasonal promotions or restructure sections. If you do not review internal and external links, you accumulate dead routes that affect user experience, SEO and ultimately conversions. At aatsoft, a web development agency in Manresa (Barcelona), we audit links in every maintenance review; in this guide we explain how to detect, prioritise and fix them.

What is a broken link and why does it appear on your website

A broken link is any hyperlink that leads to a page that no longer exists or returns an HTTP error (usually 404 Not Found or 410 Gone). The most frequent causes on business websites are:

• URL change without redirect. You renamed a services page but did not create a 301 redirect from the old address.
• Deleted content. You removed a summer promotion, a downloadable PDF or a blog post without updating the links pointing to them.
• Expired external links. You linked to a study, regulation or supplier whose URL changed or disappeared.
• Typos. A /servico instead of /servicio generates a silent 404 that nobody notices until a customer complains.
• Incomplete migrations. If you changed domain or restructured the site without a redirect map, you inherit hundreds of dead routes.

How broken links affect your business and Google

• Bounce and lost leads. A visitor who hits a 404 mid-funnel does not come back: they go to a competitor.
• Lower trust. A website with broken links signals neglect, the opposite of what a professional company wants to project.
• Wasted crawl budget. Google assigns a limited crawl budget. If the bot wastes time on URLs returning 404, it crawls fewer valuable pages.
• Lost link equity. If other sites link to a URL of yours that no longer exists, that authority is wasted instead of strengthening an active page.
• Negative user experience. Google values satisfaction signals; frustrating navigation does not help rankings.

How to detect broken links on your business website

You do not need to review page by page manually. These tools give you a complete inventory:

1. Google Search Console. Under "Pages" > "Not found (404)" you will see URLs Google tried to crawl without success. It is the most reliable free starting point.
2. SEO crawlers. Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs), Sitebulb or Ahrefs Site Audit crawl your site like a search engine and list all broken internal and external links.
3. WordPress plugins. Broken Link Checker and similar tools monitor links in the background, though do not overuse them: they consume server resources.
4. Manual review of key pages. Home, services, contact, blog and footer: the areas with the most links and the ones your customers visit most.
5. Continuous monitoring. Tools like UptimeRobot or web maintenance services alert you when an important URL stops responding.

How to fix broken links: prioritise by impact

Not all 404s have the same urgency. Prioritise like this:

• High priority: links on home, main menu, CTA buttons, forms and high-traffic service pages.
• Medium priority: blog posts with visits, footer links and downloadable PDFs.
• Low priority: archived pages, links in old low-traffic content or URLs that no longer receive visits.

For each broken link, apply one of these solutions:

1. 301 redirect. If the page changed URL, redirect the old one to the new address. This is the standard solution to avoid losing rankings or external links.
2. Update the link. If the external destination changed URL, fix the href in the HTML or CMS.
3. Restore the content. If you deleted a page by mistake, republish it or create an equivalent.
4. Remove the link. If the resource no longer exists and has no replacement, remove the link instead of leaving a 404.
5. Custom 404 page. It does not fix the problem, but a well-designed 404 with search and useful links reduces bounce while you fix the rest.

Best practices to avoid broken links in the future

• Before deleting a page, find who links to it (internally and externally) and create the corresponding redirect.
• Document URL changes in a log or spreadsheet during migrations and redesigns.
• Schedule quarterly link audits, especially after seasonal campaigns or structure changes.
• Avoid URLs with dates or seasons in the path (/summer-promo-2025); use permanent slugs and update content within them.
• Review your XML sitemap to ensure it only includes active URLs.

Broken links and SEO: what Google says

Google confirms that 404 errors are normal on any website and do not cause direct penalties. The problem is not having an isolated 404, but accumulating many broken links on important pages that waste crawl budget and frustrate users. A periodic website audit that includes link review is the most efficient way to keep your site healthy.

Need help auditing and fixing your website links?

At aatsoft we perform complete technical audits including detection and correction of broken links, redirects, crawl errors and SEO optimisation. If your website has accumulated 404s after a redesign, migration or years without maintenance, we can clean it up and get it ready to attract customers again.

Request a free website audit and we will tell you how many broken links your site has and how to fix them.