Broken internal links: find the source and fix the destination

What is a broken internal link?

The source URL is the page containing the link; the destination URL is the address in its href. An internally linked 4xx destination is unavailable to the visitor. A 5xx destination indicates a server-side failure, which may be temporary. A random 404 elsewhere on the web is not this finding.

Why it matters

A failed link interrupts a useful path for readers and crawlers. Fix links that people can follow from your own pages, especially navigation and important contextual links. Do not assume that every 404 needs a redirect; deleted pages without useful internal links can legitimately remain unavailable.

What SEOTera detects — and what it cannot prove

Page Audit checks outgoing internal links and empty href values on one page. An empty href is a link markup problem, not proof of a 4xx destination. Site Audit follows observed internal links and reports destination 4xx or 5xx responses with affected sources. It sees the fetched response during that crawl, not every user path or a permanent server state. A transient 5xx should be checked again before making a content decision.

Check the source and destination manually

Open an affected source page, inspect the actual anchor href in its HTML, and follow it in a fresh browser session. Compare the resolved URL with the intended one. Check the destination status and any redirect path with browser network tools or a request that follows redirects. Relative paths can resolve differently under nested routes.

Common causes

Page renames and deletions leave old links behind. Relative URLs may omit a leading slash. A CMS menu or shared template can repeat one bad link across many pages. A 5xx may come from an origin, application or CDN outage rather than the anchor itself.

1. Decide what the destination should be

If the content moved, identify its real replacement. If it was removed with no substitute, remove the obsolete link. If the page should still exist, restore it or repair the server response. Do not redirect unrelated topics just to suppress a 404.

2. Fix links at their sources

Change the link in the source content, CMS navigation or template. Use the intended absolute path for nested pages and check that all repeated template instances now resolve. Preserve descriptive anchor text that tells readers what they will open.

3. Verify with a new Site Audit

Open the source page again, follow the corrected link, then rerun Site Audit. Check whether the same source-to-destination pair remains and review crawl coverage. If a 5xx persists, investigate the origin before assuming the link is the only problem.

Wrong and corrected link

If /guides/old has been replaced by /guides/new, update the source link to the live destination. A redirect from the old URL can help when external bookmarks still use it, but the internal link should normally point directly to the intended page.

<a href="/guides/old">Guide</a>  →  <a href="/guides/new">Guide</a>