Broken links will send visitors nowhere and can cause damage to your SEO.

In the process of developing a website, it’s common to put in temporary links (like using only the number sign or hashtag symbol (#) where the link should go) as a placeholder until you have the right page to link to. You don’t want to take your website live with these links which can cause frustration for your user and damage your SEO.

How to check for broken links

The most thorough and effective way to check for broken links is to do it manually. You don’t have to click on every button or link on your website, you can simply hover you mouse over it and you should see a preview of where the link is pointed appear at the bottom of your browser, like this:

By only checking for the link preview (as shown above) you can make your way quickly through each of the links on your website.

An automated solution for finding broken links

A broken link checker, like Dead Link Checker, will scan your website and alert you to any broken links. However, this isn’t nearly as effective because a link with the value of “#” will not be seen as broken, even though it’s likely not what you want to be linking to.