Broken links are links that no longer lead to the intended page. They usually return a 404 error, point to content that has moved, or fail because of a typo, redirect issue, or deleted asset. For marketers, broken links matter because they waste traffic, hurt user experience, reduce conversion opportunities, and can weaken SEO performance by disrupting crawl paths and internal authority flow.
Why broken links matter for growth
Every broken link creates friction in the customer journey. If a visitor clicks from a blog post to a product page, lead magnet, or case study and lands on an error page, you risk losing that session entirely. On high-intent pages, that can directly reduce demo requests, email signups, and sales.
Broken links also affect organic performance. Search engines use links to discover pages and understand site structure. When internal links break, important pages may become harder to crawl or receive less internal link equity. External broken links can also damage trust if your content repeatedly points readers to unavailable sources.
Common causes of broken links
Site changes without redirect planning
Page deletions, URL updates, CMS migrations, and category restructuring often create broken links when redirects are not added.
Manual linking errors
A simple typo in a URL, incorrect relative path, or copied staging link can break navigation, campaign pages, and resource hubs.
Third-party content disappearing
External sources, partner pages, and linked tools may be removed or changed without notice, leaving outdated references in your content.
How to find and fix broken links
Use a crawler such as Screaming Frog, a site audit platform, or your CMS plugin stack to scan for 404s and redirect chains. In Google Search Console, review indexed pages and crawl issues to spot URLs that search engines cannot access properly.
Prioritize fixes using this workflow:
- Fix broken links on revenue-driving pages first, including product, service, pricing, and lead generation pages.
- Update internal links to the correct live destination instead of relying on redirects.
- Add 301 redirects for moved pages with backlinks, rankings, or ongoing campaign traffic.
- Replace or remove broken external links in blog posts, landing pages, and resource centers.
- Re-scan after changes to confirm the issue is resolved.
Practical example for a marketing team
Imagine TLSubmit publishes a blog post that ranks well for directory submission tips and links readers to a downloadable checklist. After a site redesign, the checklist URL changes, but the old blog link stays live. Visitors click, hit a 404 page, and abandon the session. The fix is straightforward: update the blog post to the new checklist URL, add a 301 redirect from the old file path, and test the CTA in both desktop and mobile views. That one repair restores lead capture from an already-performing page instead of spending more budget to replace lost traffic.