Broken links hurt user experience and harm your site’s SEO. But once you’ve found a broken link, what’s the best way to fix it?
Should you redirect it to another page, or replace it entirely at the source? The answer depends on context, and this article walks you through the right approach for each scenario.
👉 If you’re unsure why broken links matter in the first place, read our deep dive: Why You Need to Care About Broken Links
This article is for marketers, SEO professionals, and general website owners, not developers. We’ll walk through the pros and cons of redirects and replacements, show you exactly when to use each one, and explain how both play a role in maintaining a healthy, SEO-friendly site.
Find the Broken Links
Before you can fix anything, you need to know what’s broken.
👉 We’ve compiled a list of the best tools for detecting broken links here: Best Tools to Detect Broken Links and Embeds
Once you’ve scanned your site and gathered a list of 404 errors and broken URLs, it’s time to fix them.
Redirects: A Safety Net with SEO Benefits
A redirect, typically a 301, automatically forwards users and search engines from a broken or outdated URL to a new, working one. It’s the bandage many marketers reach for when a page disappears or moves.
Let’s say you updated a blog post’s URL from /how-to-speed-up-wordpress to /wordpress-speed-optimization. If other blogs, social media posts, or even your own older pages still link to the old URL, you don’t want that traffic going to a 404 page. A 301 redirect ensures that anyone hitting the old link lands on the new version without interruption.
Redirects are especially valuable for preserving SEO value. If a page had backlinks or was ranking in search, a 301 helps pass that equity along. However, they’re not without their drawbacks. Redirects don’t fix the root of the problem, the broken link still exists in your content.
Over time, if you rely too heavily on them, you end up with layers of redirect chains that slow things down and frustrate both users and search engines.
Fixing It at the Source
Now imagine you run a content audit and discover that several of your internal blog posts link to a now-defunct product page. Instead of setting up a redirect, you edit those blog posts to point to the correct, updated product page. That’s a replacement, fixing the broken link at its source.
Replacing links is almost always the cleaner fix. It eliminates the broken link entirely, improves performance by avoiding extra hops, and helps Google crawl your site more efficiently. It also keeps your internal architecture tidy and current.
Of course, replacements require more work. You need to locate the broken links within your content, edit them manually or programmatically, and ensure the new destination is both relevant and correct. But when you control the content, this is often the best long-term solution.
Redirects vs Replacements
To illustrate how these two approaches work in practice, let’s walk through two common scenarios.
First, imagine you’re running a blog that’s been active for several years. Over time, you’ve updated your URL structure, changed some page titles, and removed a few outdated articles. A scan reveals dozens of broken links scattered throughout your old posts. Some of these broken links point to internal content that now exists under a different URL.
Here, a hybrid approach makes sense. You set up 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new ones to preserve incoming traffic and backlinks. Then, you gradually go through your internal content and update the outdated links. That way, over time, you reduce your reliance on redirects while maintaining a clean user experience.
In another scenario, you discover several outbound links in your articles that now lead to 404 pages on other websites. Since you don’t control the destination, you can’t set up a redirect. Your only option is to replace or remove the links. Ideally, you find the updated URL for that resource or a suitable alternative. If not, you revise the content so it still makes sense without the link.
This is where context matters. Redirects are essential when you don’t control the linking source (like backlinks from other domains), or when a fast fix is needed. Replacements are ideal when you do control the source and want to clean things up properly.
What If There’s No Good Replacement?
Sometimes, a page is gone and there’s no obvious substitute. Let’s say you had a seasonal landing page for a product you no longer sell. Redirecting it to a completely unrelated product page or to your homepage would confuse users and send the wrong signals to search engines.
In this case, it’s often better to let the page return a 404, but make sure it’s a helpful one. A custom 404 page with navigation, search, and related content can guide the user to something useful and preserve trust.
Alternatively, redirecting to a broader category page can work, if the context is still relevant. The goal is to preserve intent. If someone clicks on a link expecting a guide to “Holiday Email Campaigns,” sending them to your generic blog archive won’t satisfy that intent. But pointing them to your “Email Marketing Tips” category might.
Combining Redirects and Replacements
The best strategy often blends both methods. Redirects act as a net, catching any traffic or bots that hit old URLs. Replacements are your structural fix, cleaning things up at the content level.
When you publish new content or restructure your site, think ahead: where are the internal links pointing? Can you proactively update them instead of relying on future redirects? Likewise, any time you remove or rename a page, review what’s linking to it and decide whether to redirect or replace based on what will serve your visitors best.
If you’re using redirects as a long-term fix for broken internal links you could edit, consider that a temporary patch. Over time, those redirects should be replaced with updated links in the content itself. That’s how you keep things fast, clean, and future-proof.
Coming Soon: Broken Link Reporting in Scanfully
Keeping track of broken links can be time-consuming, especially on larger sites. That’s why we’re building a new Broken Link Reporting feature right into Scanfully.
Soon, Scanfully will automatically crawl your site, identify broken links, and surface them in an easy-to-understand report. You’ll be able to see exactly which links are broken, where they appear, and whether they’re internal or external. It’s everything you need to decide whether a redirect or a replacement is the right move.
Want to be ready when broken link reporting launches? The best way is to sign up for Scanfully now. You’ll get access to all existing features immediately, and you’ll lock in at today’s pricing before the new tools roll out.
Final Thoughts
Broken links are inevitable—but ignored, they chip away at your site’s authority, performance, and user experience. Fixing them is about more than plugging holes. It’s about maintaining the quality and integrity of your site as it evolves.
Redirects are fast, broad-stroke fixes. Replacements are precise, long-term solutions. Knowing when and how to use each approach is key.
So next time you find a broken link, don’t just patch it, fix it the smart way!
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