Broken Link Checker

This broken link checker fetches one public page, collects every http(s) link in its server-rendered HTML, and requests up to 40 of them (internal links first) to report the ones that return 4xx or 5xx, time out, or redirect to a new location, together with the anchor text that points at each one. It runs without an account and cannot see pages behind a login or links injected by JavaScript.

Broken links waste crawl budget, strand link equity, and send visitors to dead ends. Prioritise fixes by traffic, then update the link, add a redirect for moved content, or remove references to pages that are gone. Interpret results carefully: soft 404s that return 200 with a "not found" message are not caught by status codes, redirect chains are not broken but waste crawl budget, and links to noindexed pages pass equity into a dead end.

Authenticated intranets such as SharePoint need a different approach, because an online crawler only sees the login page. For SharePoint Online, a PnP PowerShell script can enumerate page content, hyperlink columns, and navigation links and test each target; for SharePoint 2013 on-premises, a server-side script or a desktop crawler with Windows authentication does the same. Run the check monthly and immediately before and after any migration or URL restructure.