Did you step into 2026 with the same question? “Do broken links affect SEO?” Then the answer is much shorter than you have ever thought; Yes! Broken links can silently damage your website’s user experience, reducing credibility and lowering rankings. These are not enough consequences of having broken links spread across your entire site. Search engines rely on clean navigation, smooth crawling, and seamless user experience.
When you have broken links on your website, your users and crawlers hit dead ends. That can negatively affect SEO and visibility. If you are one of those brands that look at link maintenance as a minor issue, then you must have a look at this guide!
Do Broken Links Affect SEO in 2026?
The presence of broken links will slow search engines from crawling a site properly and diminish the overall user experience. An excess of broken internal links can reduce the overall authority of a site’s pages.
Key ways broken links impact SEO
- An obstacle for search engines when crawling the site
- Prevent new pages from being indexed
- They cause a loss of ranking
- Higher bounce rate because of an inferior user experience
- Lower trust levels and authority of the site
The impact of broken links on SEO is becoming more important now. Google is focused on providing users with a high-quality and reliable website structure. Solving the broken link issue will assist a site in avoiding lower rankings and provide users with access to accurate information.
Why Broken Links Matter More in 2026
Search engines will continue to improve how they assess the technical features of websites to help determine a website’s ranking on its search engine results pages. The search engines view a website that has a significant number of broken links as one not maintained properly.
1. Disrupt Search Engine Crawling
If your site contains broken links, they prevent search engine robots from crawling because one robot finds broken links. It stops crawling and prevents further indexing of your website. This results in lower visibility of your content.
It’s known as a blockage that will result in crawling issues, which will negatively impact your content displays in Google and other search engines. Once this happens, search engines look at your website as an unreliable source.
2. Broken Internal Links
Users visit the website for fast and accurate navigation. But with broken internal links, users can experience an interruption in their navigation flow. That often leads to frustration! This also results in a larger bounce rate.
This loss of trust can ultimately affect user conversion rates, user engagement rates, and user retention rates for a website.
3. Lost Link Equity
The pages of your website create authority as time passes. But broken internal links can block the ability for link equity to pass from one page to another. Because of this, your page ranking potential and visibility may decrease, no matter how important your content they contain.
Search engines have set their own standards to determine the flow of link signals. If the link signal flow is disrupted, the authority will be lost, which in turn can lead to lower rankings.
4. Poor Website Maintenance
If your site contains too many broken links, it neglects communication. This is why Search engines consider those sites as poorly-maintained sites. Further, search engines view your site as less valuable than your competitors.
Too many broken links on your website also sets a negative impression on visitors, who will often leave your website.
5. Create Crawling Loops
If you consistently update your website, it will demonstrate to search engines that your website is well-maintained. This results in long-term SEO benefits while maintaining the quality of content. Too many broken links will create looping redirects that trap crawlers forever in a loop.
This slows down the process of crawling and indexing, which will ultimately make your website show up later in Google’s search results.
6. Missed Revenue Opportunities
When your product and service pages have broken links that are broken it results in customers not being able to make a purchase. That means you are losing sales, leads, and chances to engage with customers.
If your customers fail to navigate on their intended path, they won’t return to your site. Therefore, fixing issues keeps customers on their path and allows for a much better experience.
7. Affect Mobile SEO
Mobile users need instant access, and with broken links, their experiences get damaged and cause them to give up easily. This reduces the engagement metrics and transfers a poor maintenance signal to the search engines.
These frequent exits from broken pages are the reason behind lower rankings on mobile search results.
8. 301 Redirects
Redirects will take users from old URLs to new ones. Each time a link is redirected, it passes all of the link equity onto the new link as well as to the new location where that link leads.
Therefore, all of the original URL’s link equity is passed on to the new URL, which also tells search engines which page they should look for an updated page.
9. Avoid SEO Issues
When a website updates links regularly, it prevents errors from occurring. Keeping up with the links is also important because it will allow for easy maintenance of the website.
By creating a website maintenance and scheduling audit with the Technical SEO Agency, you will be able to maintain and repair any broken links quickly. That helps you keep a healthy and trustworthy site.
10. Audits Are Essential
Regular audits of a website’s links will help identify when a link is broken before users reach it. By performing these audits, teams will have the opportunity to update the broken link and resolve problems with it that negatively impact performance.
The audit process will increase the authority, usability, and accessibility for websites that consistently maintain a clean internal sitemap.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)
What are broken links in SEO?
Broken links in SEO are URLs that lead to pages that no longer exist or return errors.
How do you fix broken links?
You fix broken links by updating URLs, removing outdated links, or using 301 redirects.
Are broken links bad for SEO?
Yes, broken links are bad for SEO because they disrupt crawling, harm user experience, and lower authority.
How do links affect SEO?
Links affect SEO by passing authority, guiding crawlers, and supporting navigation across your site.
Can too many links hurt SEO?
Yes, too many low-quality or broken links can hurt SEO by reducing trust and confusing crawlers.
Ending Notes
Broken backlinks have a far greater negative effect on SEO than website owners typically understand. These are signs of poor maintenance, blocked crawling by search engines, and reduced link equity for a web page. In 2026, the use of broken links by search engines will be much more strictly enforced than in 2023.
Therefore, regular audits of a website’s links will be essential. Broken backlinks reduce search engine rankings, decrease brand credibility, and reduce the visibility of a website. If broken links are fixed in a timely manner, a website will perform optimally and remain competitive in its industry.
This is why our experts protect your visibility and enhance your search performance with our search engine optimization services.
