Security & SEO

    How to use the free broken link checker

    Crawl any public URL and get a full report of 404s, 5xx errors, redirect chains, and dead outbound links.

    Updated 2026-07-10
    1 min read
    broken-links
    404
    crawler

    Quick answer#

    Enter a start URL at /tools/broken-link-checker. The crawler visits every internal link and reports status codes, redirect chains, and broken outbound links.

    What it checks#

  1. Internal links returning 4xx / 5xx
  2. Outbound links to dead third-party pages
  3. Redirect chains longer than 2 hops
  4. Mixed HTTP/HTTPS internal links
  5. Anchor-only links (#) and mailto: typos

    6. Where to find it in Lemwatch#

    /tools/broken-link-checker — public. Signed-in users can schedule recurring scans and get email diffs.

    How to use it#

  6. Enter your homepage URL as the starting point.
  7. Set crawl depth (default 2 pages).
  8. Click Start scan.
  9. Filter results by status code or link type.
  10. Export CSV or click Monitor to run this daily inside Lemwatch.

    11. FAQ#

    How deep does the crawl go?#

    Anonymous scans cap at ~500 URLs. Paid plans go deeper. See our budgets in Broken Link Checker Reliability.

    Does it respect robots.txt?#

    Yes — disallowed paths are skipped and reported separately.

    Related#

  11. Free sitemap diff tool
  12. Free website uptime checker
    13. Was this article helpful?

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