Find and Fix Broken Links (404)

The Problem

Broken links frustrate visitors and waste the SEO value built up by old pages — and most site owners only find out about them when someone complains or Search Console quietly reports a spike in 404s.

About this problem

Broken links appear when pages are deleted or renamed, permalinks change, images are removed from the media library, or a link was mistyped. A 404 on an internal link wastes crawl budget and gives visitors a dead end, and old pages that other sites still link to lose their value if nothing redirects them.

People typically look for this after a redesign or migration, when Search Console reports a rise in 404 errors, or when a customer reports a dead link. On sites with hundreds of pages there is no practical way to find them by hand.

What's Included

• A full crawl of the site to find every broken internal link and missing page
• Fixing links that just point to the wrong place
• Setting up 301 redirects for genuinely removed pages
• A before/after report of what was found and fixed

What's NOT Included

• Fixing broken external links on other people's sites (can only flag them)
• Content recreation for pages that no longer exist, unless requested
• Ongoing link monitoring

How It Works

1. I crawl the full site and record every internal link, image and resource that returns a 404 or another error.
2. I group the findings by cause, for example a mistyped link, a moved page or a deleted page.
3. I correct links that point to the wrong place directly in the content, menus or widgets.
4. I map genuinely removed pages to the most relevant existing page and add 301 redirects, avoiding chains and loops.
5. I check Search Console or server logs for 404 URLs visitors have actually requested and cover them too.
6. I rerun the crawl to confirm they are fixed and provide a before and after report.

In practice: you buy the service, send over whatever access or details the job needs, I investigate and do the work, and you confirm it's resolved before we call it done.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I find broken links on my WordPress site?

A full crawl of the site lists every link returning an error. I do this and then fix or redirect what is found.

Should I redirect every 404?

No, only pages with a clear replacement or that still receive links or traffic. Redirecting everything to the home page is poor practice.

Can you fix broken links to other websites?

I can flag them, but I cannot change another site. I can remove or replace the link on yours.

Will you recreate deleted pages?

Only if requested, as content recreation is not included by default.

Do you monitor links afterwards?

No, ongoing link monitoring is not included.

Do redirects slow my site down?

A reasonable number of redirects has negligible effect. I avoid long chains.