How to Fix Broken Links in WordPress

What counts as a “broken link”?

A broken link is any hyperlink that points to a page or resource that no longer returns a valid response. When someone (or a search engine bot) follows it, the server replies with an error — most often a 404 “Not Found” error. Broken links fall into two groups:

• Internal broken links — links from one page on your site to another page on your site that has been deleted, renamed, or moved.
• External broken links — links from your site to other websites that have since removed or relocated the target page.

Both types cause problems, but internal broken links are the most damaging for SEO because they waste your crawl budget and stop link equity from flowing to your important pages.

Why broken links hurt your WordPress site

Letting broken links pile up — a problem known as link rot — damages your site in three ways:

1. Lost rankings. Search engines interpret lots of 404s as a sign of a neglected site. Broken internal links also break the path that passes ranking authority between your pages.
2. Wasted crawl budget. Every time Googlebot hits a dead URL, that’s a crawl it didn’t spend on a page you actually want indexed.
3. Worse user experience. Visitors who hit a dead end usually leave. Higher bounce rates and lower engagement are signals search engines notice.

We cover the ranking impact in depth in our guide on whether broken links hurt SEO.

Step 1: Find every broken link on your site

You can’t fix what you can’t see. There are three reliable ways to discover broken links in WordPress:

Use a broken link checker plugin (recommended)

A dedicated plugin crawls every post, page, product, and custom post type and reports each dead link in your dashboard. This is the most thorough option because it checks links continuously, not just once. See our comparison of the best broken link checkers for WordPress to choose one.

Check Google Search Console

The Pages (Index Coverage) report flags URLs returning 404s that Google has tried to crawl. It’s free and accurate, but it only shows links Google has already found, and it doesn’t tell you where each broken link sits on your site.

Run an external crawler

Tools like Screaming Frog crawl your site like a search engine and export a list of broken links. They’re powerful for one-off audits but live outside WordPress, so fixing the links is a separate, manual step.

Step 2: Decide where each broken link should go

Once you have your list, each broken URL needs a destination. The goal is to send users and search engines to the closest equivalent live page:

• A deleted blog post → the updated version, or the most relevant related article.
• A discontinued product → the replacement product, or its parent category.
• A renamed page → its new URL.

Avoid the homepage trap. Sending every broken link to your homepage is a common mistake — Google often treats these as soft 404s and they give visitors no useful context. Always pick the most relevant page. (This matching is exactly what FixLinks AI automates: its AI reads your existing content and proposes the best destination for each dead URL.)

Step 3: Apply 301 redirects

A 301 redirect permanently forwards an old URL to a new one and passes most of its link equity along. This is the correct fix for a broken link whose content has moved or been replaced. For a full walkthrough of every method — plugin, theme code, and server config — read our guide to setting up 301 redirects in WordPress. (If you’re unsure whether to use a 301 or a 302, see 301 vs 302 redirects.)

If a page was genuinely deleted with no replacement, it’s fine to let it return a 404 (or a 410 “Gone”) — just make sure you’ve removed the internal links pointing to it.

The fast way: fix broken links with AI

Doing all of the above by hand is slow, especially on a large site. FixLinks AI compresses the entire workflow into three steps:

1. Scan — it crawls your whole WordPress site and lists every broken internal and external link.
2. Suggest — for each 404, its AI analyses your existing content and recommends the most relevant 301 redirect destination.
3. Fix — you review the suggestions and apply them in bulk with one click. The redirects work on both Apache and Nginx.

It works with every theme and page builder, including Elementor, Divi, and Astra, and is fully compatible with WooCommerce and SEO plugins like Yoast and Rank Math.

How to prevent broken links going forward

• Set up redirects before you delete or rename a page, not after.
• Run a broken link scan on a schedule (monthly for most sites, weekly for active stores and blogs).
• Audit external links periodically — other sites change without telling you.
• Add link checks to your regular WordPress SEO maintenance routine.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find broken links in WordPress for free?

Install a broken link checker plugin such as FixLinks AI, run a crawl of your site, and it will list every internal and external 404. You can also use Google Search Console’s Pages report or a free online crawler, but a plugin checks links continuously and lets you fix them in place.

Should I redirect broken links to the homepage?

No. Redirecting every 404 to the homepage creates “soft 404s” that confuse Google and frustrate users. Redirect each broken URL to the most relevant replacement page instead. FixLinks AI uses AI to suggest the closest matching destination for each link automatically.

Do broken links really hurt SEO?

Yes. Broken links waste crawl budget, leak link equity, and signal a poorly maintained site, all of which can lower rankings and hurt user experience. Fixing them with proper 301 redirects recovers that lost value.

How often should I check for broken links?

For most sites, monthly is enough. Large or frequently updated sites (news, stores, blogs publishing daily) should check weekly. FixLinks AI Pro can run scheduled automatic crawls and email you when new broken links appear.