Broken Link
In one line
A broken link is any link that fails to resolve — usually 404 — and quietly degrades both user experience and crawl efficiency the longer it is left in place.
Going deeper
Broken links come from both directions. Internal broken links create dead ends that hurt crawl efficiency and shed users at the click; broken inbound links point external link equity at a page that no longer exists, letting that authority leak away.
For internal links, a recurring crawl with Screaming Frog or Sitebulb is the honest baseline. For external broken backlinks, the Ahrefs and GSC 4xx reports are the standard surface — and any high-value link should be reclaimed by 301-redirecting the dead page to a relevant live one.
Worth not confusing with broken link building. That phrase refers to the outreach tactic of finding broken links on other sites and pitching your own content as the replacement — related, but a different concept.
Related terms
404 Error
A 404 error is the HTTP response signalling that the requested URL does not exist — affecting both user experience and crawl efficiency.
SEOBroken Link Building
Broken link building is the outreach tactic where you find dead links on other sites and propose your own page as the replacement target.
SEOInternal Linking
Internal linking is the practice of connecting pages within the same domain — and it shapes crawl efficiency, how authority flows between pages, and how users move through the site.
SEORedirect Chain
A redirect chain is when a URL has to pass through two or more redirect hops before reaching its final destination — costing crawl budget, page speed and a slice of link equity along the way.
SEOLink Equity
Link equity (often called 'link juice') is the authority and ranking signal a page passes to another page through a link.
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