How can you check for broken links on a website?

Checking for broken links on a website is important for maintaining a positive user experience and ensuring that search engines can crawl and index your site effectively. Here are several methods you can use to check for broken links:

Manual Inspection: You can manually inspect your website by clicking on each link to ensure that they all lead to live web pages. While this method is time-consuming, it allows you to verify the status of each link directly.
Use Browser Extensions: There are browser extensions available, such as Check My Links for Google Chrome, that can quickly scan web pages for broken links and highlight them for you. These extensions can save you time by automatically identifying broken links on a page.
Online Broken Link Checkers: There are various online tools available that can crawl your website and check for broken links. Some popular options include W3C Link Checker, Dead Link Checker, and Broken Link Checker by Ahrefs. Simply enter your website URL, and these tools will scan your site for broken links and provide a report.
Google Search Console: Google Search Console offers a feature called "Coverage" that can identify crawl errors, including broken links, on your website. By regularly monitoring your site's coverage report, you can identify and fix any broken links detected by Google.
Website Auditor Tools: Some website auditor tools, such as SEMrush, Moz, and Screaming Frog, have built-in features to check for broken links as part of their comprehensive site auditing capabilities. These tools can scan your entire website and provide detailed reports on broken links, along with other technical issues.
WordPress Plugins: If your website is built on WordPress, there are plugins available, such as Broken Link Checker, that can automatically detect broken links and notify you within the WordPress dashboard. These plugins can be especially useful for regularly monitoring and fixing broken links on WordPress sites.
Regardless of the method you choose, regularly checking for broken links and promptly fixing them is essential for maintaining a smooth user experience, preserving your site's credibility, and ensuring optimal SEO performance.