External broken links
Detects external links pointing to unreachable pages.
Why does this matter?
External broken links harm user experience. They also send an indirect negative signal to Google: if you link to poor sources, it can affect your own credibility.
How to fix it?
Regularly check your external links. Remove or replace links to disappeared pages. Consider using archive.org if the original source has gone.
This check scores from 0 to 100. Below 50 is a fail, 50 to 89 is a warning, 90 or above is good. After each crawl you see the score per page in your report, with a short note on what we found.
Frequently asked questions
Detects external links pointing to unreachable pages.
External broken links harm user experience. They also send an indirect negative signal to Google: if you link to poor sources, it can affect your own credibility.
Regularly check your external links. Remove or replace links to disappeared pages. Consider using archive.org if the original source has gone.
Example
Copy the code below and adapt the domain name, brand name and content to your situation.
<!-- External links: always use target="_blank" + rel="noopener noreferrer" -->
<a
href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs"
target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer"
>Google Search documentation</a>
<!-- Check external links every 3 months -->
<!-- Use tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs -->
<!-- Replace dead links with archive.org versions -->