🔗 Broken Link Checker – Find Dead Links in Your HTML

Paste your HTML to extract all links and test them for availability. Our tool sends a request to each URL and reports working, broken, or blocked links. Client‑side only – respects CORS limitations.

How to use:
✅ Paste your HTML (from "View Page Source") → click "Check Broken Links".
📝 Sample HTML: Click "Load Sample HTML" to test the tool.
🔍 What we check: All <a href> links (excluding anchors, mailto, javascript). We send a HEAD/GET request with a 10s timeout.
⚠️ Limitation: Many external sites block requests; those links are marked "Blocked" – they may still be working but cannot be tested client‑side.

📈 Why Broken Links Hurt SEO & User Experience

Broken links (404 errors, dead pages) create a poor user experience and waste search engine crawl budget. Google's algorithms may lower rankings for sites with many broken links, especially if they are internal. Regularly auditing and fixing broken links is essential for maintaining authority and trust.

🔍 How This Tool Works

  • Extracts all <a> tags from your HTML.
  • Filters out anchors (#), mailto:, javascript: links.
  • Sends a HEAD request (or GET fallback) to each URL with a 10‑second timeout.
  • If response is 200‑399 → Working.
    If 400+ or network error → Broken.
    If CORS or fetch blocked → Blocked/CORS (link may still be good but cannot be tested).
  • Displays statistics and detailed list with status and response time.

Because of browser security policies, many external domains will show as "Blocked". For those, you need to manually check or use a server‑side crawler. This tool works best for internal links or permissive domains.

📊 Interpreting Results

  • Working (green): Link returned a success HTTP status (200, 301, 302, etc.).
  • Broken (red): Link returned a client/server error (404, 500, etc.) or network timeout.
  • Blocked/CORS (orange): The request was blocked by the target server due to CORS policy. The link might still work – test manually.

🚀 How to Fix Broken Links

  • Internal links: Update the URL to a working page or remove the link.
  • External links: Replace with an alternative source or use the Wayback Machine if content is gone.
  • Redirects: Consider updating to the final destination URL.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Why do so many links show as "Blocked"?
Most websites do not allow cross‑origin requests from JavaScript (CORS). Our tool runs entirely in your browser, so external sites will block the request. Internal or permissive domains will work. Use server‑side tools for comprehensive external link checks.
Does this tool check images or CSS files?
No, only <a> hyperlinks. For image broken links, use an image checker tool.
Is my HTML sent to any server?
No. All processing and link testing happens in your browser. We never store or transmit your HTML.

Keywords: broken link checker, dead link detector, internal link audit, HTML link tester, SEO maintenance tool.

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