Technical fix guide
Broken Internal Links Detected
Internal links on the page lead to pages that return errors (404, 410, or 5xx). Broken internal links hurt SEO and frustrate visitors.
Issue ID: TECH-BROKEN-INT-001
Severity: high
Impact: High
Effort: M
Use this article when
- You need deeper remediation guidance than the issue card can show.
- You want CMS-specific steps before handing the fix to a developer.
- You want a repeatable re-check path after shipping the change.
What this issue is
Internal links on the page lead to pages that return errors (404, 410, or 5xx). Broken internal links hurt SEO and frustrate visitors.
Why it matters
Internal links on the page lead to pages that return errors (404, 410, or 5xx). Broken internal links hurt SEO and frustrate visitors. This affects crawlability, rendering, and whether the site can be interpreted correctly by search engines.
How we detect it
- FreeSiteAudit flags this issue when the rule for TECH-BROKEN-INT-001 fails and the page evidence points to Http headers.
- You can usually confirm this by checking the page source or the relevant page settings inside your CMS.
Evidence examples
Check the affected page source, rendered output, or relevant CMS setting to confirm the missing or incorrect element.
How to fix it
- 1Fix or redirect broken internal URLs to valid pages
- 2Remove links that point to deleted content
- 3Set up 301 redirects for pages that have moved
- 4Use a link checker tool to find and fix all broken links site-wide
How to re-check it
- Click all internal links and confirm they load correctly
Related tools
This issue is best verified with the full FreeSiteAudit crawl rather than a single-point mini tool.