Siteimprove is a great tool for checking and monitoring broken links within your site. It is important to fix any dead links within your site because they can cause a frustrating user experience and negatively impact Search Engine Optimization (SEO).


What is a URL?

URL stands for Universal Resource Locator. This is the address the browser uses to locate and access files and folders within a website. URL is also alternatively described as a page "link". Each "/" represents a new directory (or folder) in the site structure.


If your page or file's "address" is not correct, the browser will redirect the user to a 404 "page not found" screen. This means the page (or file) listed in the URL path does not exist. Therefore, the page you're trying to locate is not in the site, or you may have a misspelling in the URL path.

How can I monitor and fix broken links?

  1. Find broken links using Siteimprove
  2. Use Cascade to fix broken links
  3. Monitor your site for broken links by routinely checking your weekly Siteimprove reports.

In your weekly Siteimprove report (sent via email), you will be able to see if you have broken links on your site. If broken links exist, you should correct them as soon as possible. Here's how:


Navigate to "Pages with Broken Links" in the Quality Assurance menu within Siteimprove

Quality Assurance > Links > Pages with Broken Links

(You can also select "Broken Links" tab to view a list of broken URLs within your site)


Image showing location of "Pages with Broken LInks" menu item in Siteimprove


A list of pages that contain broken links are visible here. On the right column, you can see how many broken links appear on each page. Simply click on a page in the list to view the broken links:

(This is a sample image for reference purposes. Pages listed in this sample may not have broken links at this time.)

Reference image from Siteimprove - broken links per page


When you click on a page, Siteimprove will show you the exact location in which the broken link is found! A red highlight signifies the broken link.

Reference image from siteimprove - a highlighted broken link


Use Cascade to correct the link in question

Once you have identified the broken link, enter Cascade and locate the broken link. Here are a few scenarios you may encounter:

  • A broken link within your side navigation: The page in the navigation may have been deleted or renamed. You can either remove the link from the navigation, or find the correct page & re-link.
  • A broken link within your content: The URL in your content is not correct. Please re-link or find an alternative URL. Sometimes links break because the URL has changed. If this happens, find the new URL and replace.
  • A broken link for a file: The file in question either doesn't exist, has been deleted or has been renamed. Please ensure you are linking to the correct version of the file.