The Broken Links (404 Errors) Checklist: What to Verify Before You Publish

Run through this before you consider broken links (404 errors) actually done:

1. Prioritize fixing internal broken links first — they're fully within your control and directly affect crawl efficiency across your own site.
2. For broken external links in old content, either update to the current URL, link to an archive.org snapshot, or remove the link entirely.
3. Set up a recurring check (monthly for an active site) rather than a one-time audit — links break continuously as other sites reorganize.
4. When a page is permanently gone, 301-redirect its old URL to the closest relevant replacement instead of just letting it 404.
5. Double-check this after any site migration or major redesign, not just at launch.

None of these individually take long. The value is in doing all of them, every time, instead of remembering most of them most of the time.

Pair this with the structured data (schema markup) checklist if you're doing a fuller pre-launch pass.

Broken Link Checker runs through most of this automatically.

Everything in this guide runs directly in your browser — no signup, no install.