WordPress: wordpress find broken links and how to fix them

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Finding broken links in WordPress isn't a one-size-fits-all job. You can use a dedicated plugin like Broken Link Checker, run a desktop crawler like Screaming Frog, or even lean on free tools like Google Search Console. Each tool strikes a different balance between convenience, cost, and how much it impacts your site's performance, so you can pick the one that fits your workflow best.

Why Broken Links Are Sabotaging Your WordPress Site

A broken link is much more than a minor technical hiccup. It's a digital dead end that actively chips away at your site's credibility and performance. Every time a user—or a search engine crawler—hits a "404 Page Not Found" error, it sends a loud and clear message: this site isn't being maintained.

This has real, negative consequences for both your search rankings and the trust you've built with your audience.

Put yourself in your visitor's shoes for a second. They're reading your latest blog post, get excited about a product you've linked to, and click through... only to land on an error page. That initial burst of interest immediately sours into frustration. Most people won't bother hunting for the right page; they'll just leave, and there's a good chance they won't be back.

The Hidden Costs of 404 Errors

The damage isn't just about one lost visitor. A website plagued by broken links slowly loses its authority. Search engines see these 404 errors as a sign of a poor user experience, which can directly tank your position in search results. After all, Google's main job is to serve up reliable, quality information, and a site full of dead ends just doesn't make the cut.

This isn't just theory—it's well-documented. Broken links are a major threat to WordPress performance because search engines use them as a key signal for site quality. As broken links pile up, your rankings suffer, making it much harder for people to find you through organic search. Studies have also shown that users who run into broken links are far less likely to stick around or take important actions, like making a purchase. You can learn more about the common WordPress mistakes that impact performance from recent findings.

Protecting Your SEO and User Experience

At the end of the day, finding and fixing broken links isn't just a chore to check off your maintenance list. It's a critical strategy for protecting your brand's reputation and your bottom line.

Every single broken link you fix is a direct investment in:

Improving User Trust: A smooth, error-free experience tells visitors you value their time and attention.

Preserving SEO Authority: Ensuring link equity flows correctly through your site helps you hold onto—and even improve—your rankings.

Safeguarding Revenue: If you run an e-commerce or affiliate site, every broken link is a potential lost sale or commission.

By being proactive, you can turn what could be a serious liability into an opportunity to build a stronger, more reliable website.

Your Toolkit for Finding Broken Links in WordPress

Picking the right tool to find broken links in WordPress can feel a bit like wandering into a hardware store knowing you need to fix something, but having no idea what to buy. The options seem endless.

The truth is, the "best" method really depends on your site's size, your own technical comfort level, and how much performance you're willing to trade for convenience. Let's walk through the most common and effective tools out there so you can build the perfect broken link detection kit for your needs.

We'll cover everything from simple plugins that live inside your dashboard to the heavy-duty desktop crawlers that SEO pros swear by. The goal here isn't just a list of tools, but to help you find a workflow that makes sense for you.

WordPress Plugins: The Convenient On-Site Solution

For a lot of people, the easiest path is a WordPress plugin. It makes sense. Tools like the classic Broken Link Checker plugin work right from your dashboard, which makes finding and fixing links incredibly straightforward.

These plugins chug along in the background, periodically scanning your posts, pages, and even comments for links that don't work. When they spot one, you get a notification in your admin area, often with a handy link to go edit the post directly. You can't beat that convenience; you never have to leave your site to get the job done.

But that convenience can come with a price. Many of these older plugins are resource hogs. They run constantly, which can eat up your server's processing power. If you're on a small site with great hosting, you might not even notice. But on shared hosting or a large site with thousands of articles, that constant scanning can bog things down, hurting your user experience and Core Web Vitals.

Thankfully, a new generation of SaaS-based plugins has emerged to fix this. They offload the heavy lifting of the scan to their own servers, so your website doesn't have to do the work. This gives you the best of both worlds: dashboard convenience without the performance hit.

Desktop Crawlers for In-Depth Audits

When you need to go deep and get a truly comprehensive analysis without slowing down your site, desktop crawlers are what the professionals use. Think of tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider and Sitebulb. These are powerful applications you install and run right from your own computer.

Instead of running on your web server, these tools crawl your website just like a search engine would, but from your local machine. They meticulously follow every single link—internal, external, images, CSS, you name it—and compile an exhaustive report of every URL and its HTTP status code. This method is incredibly thorough and often uncovers issues that simpler plugins might miss.

The biggest advantage? Zero performance impact on your live WordPress site. The entire workload happens on your computer. This makes it the perfect solution for running deep-dive audits on large, complex websites. The level of detail you get is also fantastic; you can filter for specific error codes (like 404s), see every single page that links to a broken URL, and export all the data to slice and dice in a spreadsheet.

The only real downside is that the learning curve can be a bit steep. The sheer amount of data can feel overwhelming at first, but if you're serious about technical SEO, getting comfortable with a crawler is a game-changer.

Google Search Console: The Free and Essential Tool

Before you spend a dime or install anything, you should absolutely be checking the free data Google gives you. Google Search Console (GSC) is your direct line to Google, and it will tell you exactly which crawl errors its own bots are running into on your site.

Just head over to the "Pages" report in GSC. Inside, you'll find a section detailing why certain pages aren't indexed, and one of the most common reasons is "Not found (404)." Click on that, and Google will give you a list of URLs it tried to crawl but came up empty.

This information is pure gold. It's not a theoretical list of broken links; it's a list of errors that are actively preventing Google from properly understanding and ranking your site. The only catch is that GSC tells you what URL is broken, but not always where the bad link is coming from on your site. That's why it's best to use it alongside another tool from this list.

For affiliate marketers, staying on top of broken links is even more critical. Proactive monitoring can be a lifesaver, and specific tools designed for detecting faulty affiliate links are invaluable for protecting your revenue streams.

WP-CLI for the Command-Line Pros

If you're a developer or a sysadmin who feels right at home in a terminal, the WordPress Command-Line Interface (WP-CLI) offers a blazing-fast way to check links. It’s an incredibly powerful tool that lets you manage nearly every aspect of WordPress without ever touching a web browser.

Using a third-party WP-CLI package, you can run a single command that rips through your entire database, checks the status of every link, and gives you a report. Because it runs directly on the server and talks straight to the database, it's brutally efficient—often finishing a full scan in a fraction of the time it would take an external crawler.

This method is definitely not for everyone. It's highly technical. But for those who live on the command line, it's a fantastic way to automate link checks and bake them into a routine maintenance script.

Comparing Methods for Finding Broken Links in WordPress

Feeling a bit overwhelmed? This table should help you quickly compare the options and find the best fit for your situation.

Method	Best For	Ease of Use	Performance Impact	Cost
WordPress Plugins	Convenience and quick fixes on small to medium sites.	Very Easy	Can be high (older plugins) to None (SaaS-based)	Free to Premium
Desktop Crawlers	In-depth technical SEO audits and large websites.	Moderate	None (runs on your computer)	Free (with limits) to Premium
Google Search Console	Seeing errors Google has actually found.	Easy	None	Free
WP-CLI	Developers and admins needing fast, automated checks.	Difficult	Low (runs directly on the server)	Free

Ultimately, the best approach is often a combination. Use Google Search Console for a high-level overview of what Google sees, and pair it with a plugin for daily convenience or a desktop crawler for deep, periodic audits.

What’s Really Causing Your Broken Links (And How to Stop Them)

Fixing broken links is one thing, but if you’re always in reactive mode, you’re fighting a losing battle. The best approach is to get ahead of the problem. To stop these digital dead ends from popping up in the first place, you have to understand where they come from. Once you know the root causes, you can build a much more resilient linking strategy and spend way less time cleaning up messes.

Broken links rarely appear out of thin air. They’re usually the unintended side effect of completely normal website management and growth. The trick is knowing which activities carry the most risk so you can handle them with care.

The Big Offenders: High-Risk Website Changes

Some of the most catastrophic link-breaking events I’ve seen happen during major site overhauls. A huge percentage of broken link issues on WordPress sites trace back to site migrations and permalink structure updates. When you move to a new domain, switch hosts, or tweak your permalink settings, the old URLs simply stop working. This can instantly break hundreds, or even thousands, of links across your site.

For example, say you decide to change your permalink structure from yourdomain.com/post-name to a more organized yourdomain.com/blog/post-name. If you don't set up proper redirects, every single internal link pointing to your old posts will immediately lead to a 404 page. It's a massive SEO problem created in a single click. You can find more data on the impact of site structure changes on t-ranks.com.

The Slow Burn: Everyday Content Mistakes

While big site changes are a major threat, the slow, steady drip of broken links from daily content management can be just as damaging over time. These are the small, seemingly harmless actions that add up.

Here are the usual suspects:

Deleting Posts or Pages: You decide an old article isn't relevant anymore and hit delete. Boom. Every internal and external link pointing to that URL is now broken.

Changing a URL Slug: You tweak a post's title and update its slug for better SEO, but you forget to redirect the old URL. Another 404 error is born.

A Simple Typo: Mistyping a URL when adding a link is incredibly common. It’s an easy mistake to make and even easier to overlook.

The fix here is all about building better habits. Instead of just deleting old content, why not update it? If it truly has to go, at least redirect the URL to a similar, relevant page. This preserves link equity and keeps your visitors from hitting a dead end. For anyone serious about affiliate marketing, a proactive broken link prevention strategy is non-negotiable for protecting your commissions.

The External Link Problem

You can control your own links, but you have zero control over what happens on other websites. The internet is always in flux—pages get moved, sites get redesigned, and content gets deleted without any warning. That amazing resource you linked to two years ago could easily be a 404 page today.

This phenomenon is called "link rot," and it’s just a part of running a website. You can’t stop it completely, but you can definitely manage it.

Link to Stable Sources: Whenever possible, link out to evergreen content on authoritative sites—think major publications, research institutions, or well-established companies. They’re far less likely to change their URLs.

Audit External Links Regularly: Use one of the tools we’ve already discussed, like Screaming Frog, to periodically scan your site for broken external links. A quarterly check is a good rhythm for most sites.

Use a Link Manager for Critical Links: For your most important external links, like affiliate links, a link cloaking or management tool is a lifesaver. It lets you update a destination URL in one central place, and that change instantly applies everywhere you’ve used that link on your site.

By understanding that broken links are a symptom of specific actions, you can shift from a reactive mindset to a proactive one. It’s about creating checklists for big changes, adopting smarter content habits, and regularly checking the links you can't control. This approach doesn't just save you a ton of work down the road; it builds a stronger, more dependable website for your audience and for search engines.

A Practical Workflow for Fixing Broken Links Efficiently

Staring down a long list of broken links feels like finding a dusty, forgotten closet overflowing with junk. It's overwhelming. The trick isn't to just start grabbing things at random, but to come at it with a smart, repeatable strategy. A solid workflow turns a massive headache into a manageable project, letting you fix the most damaging errors first.

The first rule is to prioritize. Let's be honest, not all broken links carry the same weight. A dead link on a five-year-old blog post that gets zero traffic is a lot less urgent than one on your main services page or smack in the middle of your checkout flow.

Start by sorting your broken link report by the pages where the errors appear. You want to zero in on your website’s most valuable real estate first.

High-Traffic Pages: Pull up your analytics. What are your top 10-20 most visited pages? Start your cleanup there.

Conversion Funnels: Hunt down every single link on your sales pages, contact forms, and checkout process. A broken link here is literally costing you money.

Core Navigation: Audit your main menu, footer, and sidebar links. These are your site's main arteries.

Affiliate Links: If you’re earning affiliate income, these links are mission-critical. Every broken one is a direct revenue leak, so they jump to the top of the list.

By tackling these high-impact areas first, you'll immediately improve the user experience for most of your visitors and patch up any leaks in your business goals.

Triage and Decide Your Action Plan

Once you've found a broken link, you've got three main ways to handle it. The right move depends entirely on the link's context and the page it's on. Don't fall into the trap of just deleting everything; a thoughtful approach preserves both the user journey and your hard-earned SEO value.

The infographic below neatly sums up the core decisions you'll be making.

As you can see, your primary choices are to edit the link, set up a redirect, or take preventative steps to keep it from happening again.

Update the URL

This is your most common and straightforward fix. Updating the URL is the perfect solution when a link is just flat-out wrong—maybe a typo, or more likely, the destination page simply moved to a new address.

For instance, say you linked to a partner’s article at website.com/great-post, but they later reorganized their site and moved it to website.com/blog/great-post. All you need to do is pop into your WordPress editor and swap the old URL for the new one. This is a simple, clean fix for everyday external link rot.

Remove the Link

Sometimes, the best thing to do is to just get rid of the link entirely. This is the right call when the resource it pointed to is gone for good and there's no decent alternative available. If you linked out to a company that went out of business or a limited-time offer that expired years ago, deleting the link is just good housekeeping.

A word of caution, though. Simply deleting the link text from a blog post is fine. But if you’re deleting an entire page on your own site that other websites might be linking to, you’re just creating a new 404 error for someone else to find.

Redirect the URL

Redirection is your most powerful weapon, especially for broken internal links. Instead of just deleting an old page from your site, you should set up a 301 redirect. This is a permanent instruction that tells browsers and search engines the page has moved, and it's absolutely crucial for preserving your SEO authority.

Think about these common situations:

Discontinued Product: Don't just delete the page and leave a 404 error. Redirect that URL to the main product category page or a similar product.

Outdated Blog Post: If you've written a newer, better guide on the same topic, redirect the old post's URL to the new one. You consolidate your authority and give users the best content.

Changed URL Slug: If you update a page's URL for SEO, you must create a 301 redirect from the old slug to the new one.

Using redirects keeps the user journey seamless and—just as importantly—passes any "link juice" from backlinks pointing to the old URL over to the new one. For a deeper dive, there's a great guide on how to fix broken links effectively. You can also find helpful resources about restoring website functionality that cover redirects and other vital maintenance jobs.

Streamlining Fixes with Bulk Actions

If your crawl turns up hundreds of broken links, fixing them one by one is a recipe for insanity. This is where bulk actions become your best friend.

Many modern broken link checker plugins for WordPress provide a dashboard where you can edit, unlink, or dismiss dozens of broken links from a single screen. This can turn hours of tedious manual work into minutes.

For those comfortable with the more technical side of things, server-level tools can work wonders. For example, if you decide to change your entire blog's URL structure from /date/post-name to /category/post-name, a single redirect rule in your .htaccess file can fix every single post at once. This approach demands caution—a typo can bring your site down—but for large-scale changes, its efficiency is unmatched.

A Smarter Way to Manage Affiliate and External Links

If you're using your WordPress site to make money with affiliate marketing, a broken link is more than just a 404 error—it's a hole in your wallet. The tricky part about external and affiliate links is that you have zero control over them. A company can change its URL structure, a product might get discontinued, or an entire affiliate program could switch platforms overnight without giving you a heads-up.

When that happens, every single link you’ve meticulously placed across your site instantly dies. Suddenly, you're on a high-stakes scavenger hunt to find and fix them before they do real damage to your income.

The Nightmare of Manual Updates

Let's imagine you promote a specific software tool across 50 different articles. The company rebrands and moves to a new domain. Just like that, you’ve got 50 dead links bleeding potential commissions, buried deep within your best content.

Trying to fix this manually is a complete nightmare. You'd have to go through every single post, find each link, update the URL, and hit save... one by one. This isn't just mind-numbing; it can take hours or even days, all while your revenue stream is completely shut off.

This is exactly why a centralized approach to link management isn't a luxury—it's essential for anyone serious about affiliate marketing. By using a dedicated link cloaking or management tool, you can sidestep this entire mess.

Centralize Your Links for Instant Fixes

A link manager completely changes the game. Instead of pasting raw affiliate URLs like affiliateprogram.com/product-xyz?affid=123 directly into your posts, you create a simple, branded redirect link that you own, such as yoursite.com/recommends/product-xyz.

You then use this clean, short link everywhere in your content. Here's the magic: when the final destination URL changes, you don't touch a single blog post. You just log into your link management tool, update the destination for yoursite.com/recommends/product-xyz once, and that's it. The change is instantly pushed out to every single place you've used that link.

This centralized control is the key to protecting your affiliate revenue and saving your sanity.

This strategy gives you some serious advantages:

Massive Time-Saver: Update one link to fix it everywhere. What used to take hours now takes seconds.

Better Organization: All your money-making links are kept in one clean, easy-to-manage dashboard.

Future-Proof Your Content: If you decide to switch affiliate programs, you can swap the old one out for a new one without ever editing an old post.

For those juggling a high volume of affiliate partnerships, a specialized Lasso affiliate marketing tool can even automate the monitoring and redirection process for you. Platforms designed to help you remonetize your content with smart links are built to turn a potential revenue crisis into a quick, two-minute fix. This proactive approach safeguards your income and lets you focus on creating great content instead of chasing down dead links.

Common Questions About Broken Link Management in WordPress

Even with a solid workflow, a few tricky questions always pop up when you're managing broken links. Let's tackle some of the most common ones I hear from site owners, so you can handle these situations like a pro.

How Often Should I Check for Broken Links?

There's no single right answer here—it really comes down to how often your site changes.

If you’re running a busy blog, news site, or an e-commerce store with content being added or updated daily, a weekly check is a smart move. This keeps you ahead of any issues before they frustrate your visitors or get noticed by search engines.

For more static sites, like a portfolio or a small business brochure site, a monthly scan is usually plenty. The key is to be consistent. Put it on your calendar or, even better, set up an automated tool to do the heavy lifting. That way, problems don't get a chance to snowball.

Will a Broken Link Checker Plugin Slow Down My Site?

That's a great question, and a very real concern. The honest answer is, it can. Older, traditional plugins that constantly scan your site in the background can be a major drain on server resources. On shared hosting, you'll definitely feel that slowdown, and it can tank your Core Web Vitals.

Luckily, you don't have to sacrifice performance. Here are two ways to avoid the drag:

Schedule Scans for Off-Peak Hours: Most modern plugins let you schedule the scan to run when traffic is lowest, like 3 AM. Problem solved.

Use an External Tool: This is my preferred method. Desktop crawlers like Screaming Frog or a cloud-based service do all the hard work on their own servers (or your local machine), leaving your website's performance completely untouched.

What Is the Difference Between a 404 Error and a Broken Link?

It's easy to get these two mixed up, but think of it as cause and effect.

The broken link is the cause. It’s the faulty <a> tag sitting on one of your pages, pointing to a URL that no longer exists.

The 404 error is the effect. That’s the "Page Not Found" message the server shows someone when they click on that broken link. Your job is to find and fix the broken links so your visitors never have to see a 404 page in the first place.

Should I Remove a Broken Link or Redirect It?

Whenever you have the option, redirecting is almost always the better choice. A 301 redirect is the gold standard when a relevant, alternative page exists. It passes along any SEO value and, more importantly, gives your visitor a useful place to go instead of hitting a wall.

Imagine a link points to a product you no longer sell.

Bad: Just deleting the page and letting the link lead to a 404.

Good: Redirecting that old product URL to the main product category or to a similar, newer item.

The only time you should remove a link outright is if the destination is gone for good and there's simply no logical replacement anywhere on your site or the web.

Stop losing revenue to broken affiliate links. AliasLinks gives you a central dashboard to manage, cloak, and instantly update every important link across your site, turning a potential crisis into a simple fix. Take control of your links by starting a free trial at aliaslinks.com.