Key Takeaways
- Internal broken links are links from your own content to pages on your own store that no longer exist — you can fix both ends
- External broken links are two things: links from other sites pointing to broken pages on your store, and links from your content pointing to broken pages on other sites
- Each type has different SEO implications and requires a different response
- Most broken link scanners focus on either internal or external — understanding what each covers helps you choose the right tool
“Broken links” gets treated as a single problem. It’s actually three distinct situations that happen to share the same symptom — a URL that returns 404 when requested. What you do about each depends on which type you’re dealing with.
Defining the Types
Internal Broken Links
An internal broken link is a link from one page on your store to another page on your store that no longer exists (or never existed).
Example: Your product description for a leather wallet contains a link to /collections/leather-accessories. You renamed that collection to “Leather Goods” and the URL changed to /collections/leather-goods. The link in the description now returns 404.
Both the source (the wallet description) and the destination (the renamed collection) are on your store. You control both sides.
Inbound External Broken Links
An inbound external broken link is when a page on another website links to a URL on your store that no longer exists.
Example: A fashion blog wrote a review of your store and linked to /products/indigo-silk-dress. You later discontinued that product. The blog post still exists and still sends readers to that URL — but it now returns 404.
You control the destination (your store) but not the source (the external blog post).
Outbound External Broken Links
An outbound external broken link is when your content links to a page on another website that has moved, been deleted, or is otherwise returning an error.
Example: Your blog post about leather care links to an external article on a leather care brand’s website. That brand redesigned their site and the article URL changed. Your link now returns 404 on their site.
You control the source (your content) but not the destination (the external site).
How Each Type Affects Your SEO
Internal Broken Links
Internal broken links are the most directly damaging to your store’s SEO because they interrupt the flow of link equity through your site.
When Google crawls your store, it follows internal links to discover and evaluate pages. An internal broken link is a dead end — the link signals that a destination should exist but doesn’t. Repeatedly encountering broken internal links signals a poorly maintained site.
More concretely: every internal link passes some authority to the page it points to. When an internal link points to a 404, that authority goes nowhere. It’s wasted signal.
For your visitors, an internal broken link is an unexpected dead end mid-browse — clicking a “you might also like” link and landing on a 404 page is a jarring experience that increases bounce rate.
Priority: High. You have full control over both sides and these directly affect how Google navigates and evaluates your store.
Inbound External Broken Links
Inbound external broken links affect your store in two ways.
Lost link equity: External links are votes of confidence for your store’s authority. When an external site links to a URL that returns 404, that authority signal is wasted — it arrives at a dead page with no destination. A 301 redirect from that old URL to a live page recovers most of that authority.
Lost referral traffic: Visitors clicking the external link land on a 404 page instead of a product or collection. These are real potential customers following a link to your store who immediately hit a dead end.
Priority: High for URLs with significant external links. Check Google Search Console → Links → Top linked pages to identify which of your URLs external sites link to. Ensure every URL with meaningful external links either still exists or has a 301 redirect in place.
Outbound External Broken Links
Outbound external broken links — your content linking to broken external pages — have the least direct SEO impact but still matter for user experience.
Google’s stance on linking to broken external pages is nuanced: it doesn’t directly penalize it, but a site with many broken outbound links is perceived as less carefully maintained. More practically, a visitor who clicks your “learn more” link and lands on a 404 page on another site is a bad experience you’re responsible for creating.
Priority: Lower. Fix broken outbound links in high-traffic content, but they’re not the first priority compared to internal and inbound external issues.
What Each Type Requires
| Type | Who controls it | Fix approach | SEO priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internal (your content → your broken page) | You control both sides | Update the link or redirect the destination | High |
| Inbound external (other site → your broken page) | You control the destination only | Set up a 301 redirect on your store | High (if significant links point there) |
| Outbound external (your content → broken external page) | You control the source only | Update or remove the link in your content | Lower |
Finding Each Type
Finding Internal Broken Links
The most effective tool is a broken link scanner that reads your store’s content directly via Shopify’s Admin API — not just a web crawler. Shopify-native scanners can access links inside product descriptions, blog posts, and pages even when the content is rendered via JavaScript.
What to look for in the scanner output:
- The source URL (the page on your store that contains the broken link)
- The destination URL (the broken URL the link points to)
- The content type (product description, blog post, page, navigation)
This tells you where to fix the link (the source) and what it was trying to link to (to help you find the right replacement).
Finding Inbound External Broken Links
Google Search Console is the primary tool here. Under Coverage → Not found (404), you’ll see which URLs on your store are returning 404 errors as Google finds them. The “Referring pages” data in the Links section shows which external pages link to your store.
Cross-referencing these two reports — which URLs are 404ing, and which of those have external links pointing to them — gives you the priority list for redirect setup.
Finding Outbound External Broken Links
Outbound external broken links require a scanner that checks external URLs, not just internal ones. Most Shopify-native apps focus on internal links (links within your store) and don’t check external destinations.
General web crawlers (Screaming Frog, Ahrefs site audit) do check external link destinations. If checking outbound external links is a priority, a one-time crawl with one of these tools is the practical approach.
A Prioritized Action Plan
Step 1: Fix internal broken links Run a full internal scan. Fix broken links in product descriptions, blog posts, pages, and navigation. Set up redirects for deleted pages that are linked from multiple places.
Step 2: Fix inbound external broken links Check Google Search Console for 404 URLs that external sites link to. Set up 301 redirects from those URLs to the most relevant live pages. This recovers the authority those external links were sending.
Step 3: Address outbound external broken links For high-traffic blog posts and important pages, check that external links are working. Update or remove broken outbound links. Lower priority than the first two, but worth addressing in your best content.
Step 4: Set up monitoring All three types of broken links recur. Internal links break as your catalog changes. Inbound 404s appear as old URLs get traffic from stale external links. Outbound external links break as other sites change their content.
Scheduled automated scanning for internal links, combined with regular Google Search Console review for inbound 404s, covers the most important ground on an ongoing basis.
Relink scans your Shopify store’s internal content layer for broken links and uses AI to suggest the right fix for each one. For inbound 404s, it also monitors visitor-triggered errors in real time. Install free on Shopify.