Broken Link Checker
Paste your page HTML to find broken links, security vulnerabilities, missing anchor text, and other link health issues that hurt your SEO and AI visibility.
Why Link Health Matters for AEO
Broken links block AI content discovery
AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews crawl your site by following links. Every broken link is a dead end that prevents the crawler from reaching the destination content. If your most important pages are only reachable through broken links, they are effectively invisible to AI. Clean links mean complete crawlability.
Link quality signals site trustworthiness
AI engines evaluate the quality of your entire site when deciding whether to cite your content. Pages riddled with broken links, placeholder URLs, and javascript:void(0) handlers signal poor maintenance. AI engines prefer citing well-maintained sites because the information is more likely to be current and accurate. Healthy links build citation confidence.
Security vulnerabilities erode user trust
Links with target="_blank" missing rel="noopener" create reverse tabnabbing vulnerabilities. While this is primarily a security issue, it also affects user trust signals that AI engines consider. A site that exposes users to security risks is less likely to be recommended. Adding rel="noopener noreferrer" is a one-line fix that closes this gap.
Anchor text is a ranking and understanding signal
When a link has no visible text, AI cannot determine what the linked page is about from context. Descriptive anchor text helps AI engines understand the relationship between pages and the topic of the destination. Links with missing anchor text waste one of the most powerful contextual signals available to you.
Clean URLs improve AI parsing accuracy
URLs with spaces, unencoded special characters, or deprecated protocol-relative patterns can break when parsed by different systems. AI crawlers, like any automated system, need clean, well-formed URLs to reliably reach your content. Properly encoded, explicit HTTPS URLs are the safest choice for maximum compatibility across all crawlers and platforms.
Link health is one part of a complete AEO strategy
Fixing broken links improves how AI crawlers navigate your site, but internal linking structure, canonical configuration, and content quality also play critical roles. Check your internal linking structure and canonical tags too, or run a full AEO audit for the complete picture.
Common Broken Link Patterns to Avoid
<a href="#">Click here</a>Hash-only link goes nowhere
Replace # with a real URL. If it triggers JavaScript behavior, use a <button> element instead of an <a> tag.
<a href="javascript:void(0)">Open</a>JavaScript href is not crawlable
Use a <button> for JavaScript actions. If the link should navigate somewhere, use a real URL and attach the JavaScript behavior with addEventListener.
<a href="">Read more</a>Empty href reloads the current page
Always provide a destination URL. An empty href causes the browser to reload the current page, which confuses both users and crawlers.
<a href="https://example.com" target="_blank">Link</a>Missing rel="noopener" creates a security risk
Add rel="noopener noreferrer" to all links with target="_blank". This prevents the opened page from accessing your page via window.opener.
<a href="//cdn.example.com/page">Link</a>Protocol-relative URL is deprecated
Replace // with https://. Protocol-relative URLs were useful when sites served both HTTP and HTTPS, but now HTTPS is standard.
<a href="/my page/about us">About</a>URL contains unencoded spaces
Encode spaces as %20 or use hyphens in URL slugs. Unencoded spaces can cause links to break in certain browsers and email clients.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a broken link and why does it matter?
A broken link is any hyperlink that does not lead to a valid destination. This includes empty hrefs, placeholder # links, and javascript:void(0) links. Broken links hurt user experience because visitors hit dead ends, harm SEO because search engines waste crawl budget on non-existent pages, and reduce AI visibility because AI crawlers cannot follow or index broken link destinations. Fixing broken links improves your site's crawlability and trustworthiness.
How do broken links affect AI search visibility?
AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews rely on links to discover and map your content. When a link is broken, the AI crawler cannot reach the destination page, which means that content is effectively invisible. Broken links also signal poor site maintenance, which can reduce the AI engine's confidence in citing your content. A clean link structure helps AI understand your site's information architecture.
Why is target="_blank" without rel="noopener" a security issue?
When you use target="_blank" to open a link in a new tab, the new page gets access to the originating page through the window.opener API. A malicious destination could use this to redirect your page to a phishing site. Adding rel="noopener noreferrer" severs this connection and prevents reverse tabnabbing attacks. It is a simple one-line fix that protects your users.
Why are protocol-relative URLs deprecated?
Protocol-relative URLs (starting with //) were designed to match whatever protocol the current page uses - HTTP or HTTPS. Now that the web has largely migrated to HTTPS, this pattern is unnecessary and can cause mixed content warnings if a page is ever loaded over HTTP. Use explicit https:// URLs instead for maximum compatibility and security.
How often should I check for broken links?
You should check for broken links at least monthly, and ideally after every content update, site migration, or design change. Links break over time as external sites change URLs, internal pages get reorganized, and developers push new code. Automated monitoring can catch issues immediately, but periodic manual audits using tools like this catch edge cases that automated tools miss.
Do duplicate links on the same page hurt SEO?
Duplicate links to the same URL on a single page are not necessarily harmful, but they dilute the signal. Search engines typically count only the first instance of a link (using the first anchor text). Excessive duplicate links can also clutter your page and waste crawl budget. Aim for each link to serve a distinct navigational or contextual purpose.
More Free AEO Tools
Audit your internal linking structure
Validate your canonical tag configuration
Check your title tags and meta descriptions
Check your heading hierarchy
Generate structured data markup
Check your XML sitemap
Validate your robots.txt file
Check your image alt text
Broken links are 1 of 34 AI visibility factors
Check your schema markup, internal links, content quality, and 30+ other signals with a free AEO audit.
Run a Free AEO Audit