Fixing broken links is one of the cheapest wins available to a UK small business website. Each broken link is a customer who clicked something, got a 404 page, and very likely went back to Google for someone else. This 2026 guide walks Lincolnshire businesses through how to find every broken link on a site, how to fix them properly, and how to keep them from returning.
Why fixing broken links matters more than most owners think
Three direct costs of a broken-link problem on a UK small business site:
- Lost bookings. A customer searching for a plumber, dentist, or accountant lands on your services page from Google, taps a link that 404s, and within seconds is tapping a competitor instead.
- Damaged Google rankings. Google’s crawler reads broken internal links as a signal that the site is poorly maintained. Sites with consistent 404 patterns rank below otherwise-equivalent sites that do not.
- Wasted backlink authority. When external sites link to a page on yours that is now broken, that authority is lost rather than flowing into the rest of the site.
The two types of broken links you will find
Both need a different fix.
Internal broken links
Links inside your own site pointing at pages that no longer exist. Usually caused by post deletion, slug changes, theme changes, or content migrations. These are the most common type and the easiest to fix.
External broken links
Links from your pages out to third-party resources that no longer work. Resources move, change URLs, or disappear. These are harder to spot and slightly less critical, but still worth cleaning up because they signal stale content to both visitors and Google.
How to find every broken link on your site
Free tools that actually work
- Google Search Console. The first place to look. The “Pages” report flags every URL Google has tried to crawl and failed on. Filter by “Not found (404)” and you have your priority list.
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider, free up to 500 URLs. Download the desktop tool, point it at your domain, run a crawl, then sort by Status Code. Every 4xx response is a broken link.
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, free for your own site. Shows you both broken internal links and any external backlinks pointing at broken pages on your site (which is the most valuable type to fix, because each one is wasted authority).
Paid tools worth the budget
SE Ranking, Ahrefs, Semrush, and Sitebulb all run scheduled site audits and flag broken links automatically. For a Lincolnshire small business site of under 100 pages, a free Screaming Frog crawl once a quarter is usually enough. For larger or more frequently-updated sites, a paid tool that runs weekly is worth the £30 to £100 per month.
The fix for each type
If the destination page still exists at a new URL
Update the link. If many pages link to the old URL, update each one. Then add a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new URL so any external links that point at the old URL still send visitors and crawlers to the right place.
If the destination page is permanently gone
Two scenarios. If the page has no useful equivalent, remove the link and return a 410 Gone for the old URL. If a different page covers similar content, 301-redirect the old URL to that page and update any internal links to point directly at the destination.
If the destination is on a third-party site
Find the new URL or remove the link. Do not leave dead external links sitting on published pages. Google reads consistent broken external links as a sign of an abandoned site.
Navigation problems that are not strictly broken links
While auditing broken links, you will usually find other navigation issues worth fixing in the same pass.
Confusing menu labels
Menus written for the business owner rather than the customer. “Solutions” instead of “Services”. “Resources” instead of “Blog”. Plain English wins.
Dead-end pages
Pages that have no clear next action. Every page on a small business site should give visitors at least one obvious thing to do next: see a service, book a call, read a related post, return to home.
Orphan pages
Pages that no other page on the site links to. Google’s crawler struggles to find them, and visitors never reach them via the menu. Either link to them properly or delete them.
Mobile menu chaos
Menus that collapse into an unreadable hamburger on mobile, or that require five taps to find the contact page. UK local searches are roughly 70 to 80 percent mobile. Mobile menu quality matters more than desktop menu quality.
How to keep broken links from coming back
Four habits prevent a recurrence.
- Use the WordPress Redirection plugin or Rank Math’s redirect manager. Whenever you delete or move a page, set the redirect at the same time. Most broken-link problems happen because redirects get forgotten months after the page change.
- Run a monthly Search Console check. Five minutes to look at the Pages report. If new 404s have appeared, fix them while they are still few.
- Run a quarterly Screaming Frog crawl. Picks up any broken external links that Search Console will not flag.
- Avoid changing slugs after publishing. Once a URL is live, it stays. If you absolutely must change a slug, set the redirect immediately.
What Lincolnshire businesses get wrong most often
Three patterns we see repeatedly in audits of Lincolnshire small business sites:
- Deleting blog posts without redirects. Common after a website refresh. Every deleted post that had backlinks loses that authority forever unless a redirect is in place.
- Changing site structure without checking internal links. A redesign moves “Services” from one section to another, but the homepage and footer still link to the old paths.
- Leaving stale links in old blog posts. A 2018 post links to a tool or article that no longer exists. The post is still indexed and still gets traffic, but every visitor hits a dead end.
Frequently asked questions
How quickly do broken links hurt SEO?
Effects are gradual. A handful of broken links does not measurably hurt rankings. A pattern of 50+ unresolved 404s across a small site does start to suppress ranking. Google’s crawler de-prioritises sites that look abandoned, and broken links are one of the clearer signals of that.
Should I use 301 redirects or 410 Gone codes?
301 if a relevant destination exists. 410 if the content is permanently removed and no equivalent exists. Avoid blanket 301-redirecting everything to the homepage, which Google treats as a soft 404 and ignores anyway.
Are broken external links as harmful as broken internal links?
Less harmful but still worth cleaning up. Visitors who tap a broken external link end up frustrated, and Google reads consistent broken external links as a maintenance signal. Fix them when you spot them.
Does fixing broken links increase rankings on its own?
Rarely on its own. Fixing broken links removes a drag on rankings rather than actively pushing rankings up. The bigger gain is recovered authority from any backlinks pointing at the broken URLs once they redirect to live pages.
How do Lincolnshire businesses typically find broken links?
The honest answer: most never look. Of the audits we run for Lincolnshire businesses, around 70 percent have at least 10 broken links and around 20 percent have 50+. The work to fix them is small. The cost of not fixing them compounds.
Useful external resources
- Google Search Console for the free 404 report every UK business should be checking monthly.
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider for the standard UK SEO industry crawler, free up to 500 URLs.
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools free tier for broken backlink detection on your own site.
Next step
If you would like a free broken-link audit on your existing Lincolnshire website, we will run a Screaming Frog crawl, flag every 404, and tell you the 3 to 5 highest-priority fixes to make this month. See our SEO services or book a free audit call.
