Check for broken links

Broken links frustrate users, hurt SEO rankings (Google penalizes 404s), and damage credibility—especially for documentation and e-commerce sites.

Quick Reference

• Use lychee, linkchecker, or broken-link-checker npm packages
• Check internal, external, anchor, and mailto links
• Integrate into CI/CD for automatic detection
• Set up regular monitoring for external link rot

Check

Verify that all internal and external links are working properly and don't return 404 errors or redirect to unintended destinations.

Fix

Use automated link checking tools to identify and fix broken links, update redirected URLs, and remove or replace dead links.

Explain

Explain why broken links hurt user experience, SEO rankings, and credibility, and how to implement ongoing link monitoring.

Code Review

Review templates, server-rendered HTML, and shared components that output markup related to Check for broken links. Flag exact elements, attributes, and routes where the rendered HTML violates the rule.

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For full implementation details, code examples, and framework-specific guidance, see references/rule.md.

Rule page: https://frontendchecklist.io/en/rules/html/link-checker