Technical pillar / check outbound-broken-links
Outbound links in your content that no longer load
A measured fact we fetch: links from your page copy to other sites, citations first, that return not found or point to a domain that no longer exists.
By Shimon Carroll, Founder, SEO for AI Agents · Last updated
What this check measures
Links inside your main content that go to other sites. Links next to a statistic are checked first, then other links in your copy. Navigation, footer, sidebar and social profile links are not checked, and neither are links to your own site. Each link gets a lightweight request that reads the status and nothing else. A link is broken when the server says not found or gone, when the domain does not exist, or when an https link has a certificate failure.
Why it matters
A citation whose source no longer loads cannot be checked by a reader or by an answer engine, and a page full of dead links reads as unmaintained. Google's helpful content guidance asks whether content makes you want to trust it, such as through clear sourcing, and Bing's Webmaster Guidelines ask that content can be verified independently and kept accurate and up to date.
How we score it
One broken link is low severity; several raise it to medium. A link that redirects to another site’s homepage is reported for you to review, because the page it cited is often gone, but it is not counted. A site that blocks automated checks, rate limits us or times out is unverifiable and never counted. When the audit has used its outbound checks before reaching a page, that page is reported as not checked, never as a pass.
Confidence-flag rules
HIGH confidence: a not found status, a missing domain and a certificate failure are facts returned by the remote server. Every probed link is listed with its status in the evidence. Requests go only to public addresses, never to private networks, and follow each redirect through the same safety check.
Common mistakes
- Citing a study by a link to a news article that has since been taken down.
- Linking to a government page that moved during a site redesign.
- Keeping links to a partner or vendor that has closed.
How to fix it
Open each broken link. If the source moved, link its new address; if it is gone, link another primary source for the same fact, or remove the claim.
Primary sources
Changelog
- · First published. Probes a small fixed number of outbound links per audit, without downloading the pages. Bot walls, rate limits and timeouts are reported as unverifiable and never counted against you.