The Free Tool I’m Using to Find Every Broken Link on My Photography Website

Okay, family photographer, I need you to be real with yourself for one second. When was the last time you actually checked your website for broken links?

And I don’t mean a quick scroll through your homepage where you think, “Yep, looks great, moving on.” I mean going page by page and confirming that every single link on your website is working and taking people where it’s supposed to take them.

Because here’s what just happened to me: I discovered that my own photography website had over 166 sessions landing on a “page not found” error. Over 166 times, a real person, a potential client, came to my site, clicked on something or Googled something, and hit a wall. A literal dead end. And I had zero idea until I got curious one day and went poking around in my Google Analytics.

When I saw that “page not found” was sitting at number three on my list of most visited pages? I spiraled. For about five minutes. Then I did what any systems-loving business owner would do: I stopped spiraling and made a plan.

If you’ve been putting in the work on your SEO, writing blog posts, adding keywords, doing all of the things you’re supposed to be doing to build visibility for your family photography business, but you’ve never once checked your website for broken links, this post is for you. I’m walking you through why broken links matter way more than you think, sharing the completely free tool I’m using to find mine, and giving you my exact plan of action for fixing them without burning out.

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A Little Backstory on Why I’m Talking About This

Let me give you some context, because I think this will make more sense to you.

I’ve spent the last four years separating my photography business website from my systems and workflow education website. I started this process back in 2022 when I was pregnant with Jack, and it’s taken four years because I’m doing it all myself. No team. No web developer on speed dial. Just me, a solo business owner, wearing every hat in the hat shop.

And I’m okay with that. I believe in slow, sustainable growth for my business. I’d rather do things right over time than rush through a massive project and end up with a bigger mess to clean up later.

Both websites are now in a good place. My photography site makes sense for potential clients. My education site makes sense for the photographers I serve. But when I circled back to the photography side and checked Google Analytics, that’s when I saw the 166 sessions hitting a dead end. And I knew this had to become a priority for Q2 of 2026.

Why Broken Links Matter More Than You Think

I know some of you are thinking, “Dolly, it’s just a few broken links. Is it really that big of a deal?” And the answer is yes. A big, resounding, put-it-in-bold yes. Here are three reasons why, especially if you care about your SEO and your visibility as a family photographer.

Reason 1: Broken Links Waste Your Crawl Budget

Here’s something most family photographers don’t know about. Google sends little bots called crawlers to your website on a regular basis. Their job is to discover your pages, read your content, and decide how to rank you in search results.

But here’s the catch: Google only gives your website a limited amount of time and resources for those bots to do their job. That’s called your crawl budget. Every single time one of those bots hits a broken link on your site, it wastes that crawl budget on a page that doesn’t even exist. That’s time and resources that could have been spent indexing your portfolio page, your services page, or that blog post you spent two hours writing and optimizing.

When you’re trying to rank for keywords like “Nashville family photographer” or “Cincinnati newborn photographer” or whatever your local search terms are, you need Google’s bots to spend their limited time on the pages that matter. Not on dead ends.

Reason 2: Broken Links Leak Your Link Equity

This one is a little more technical, but stay with me because it’s important for understanding how your website’s authority works behind the scenes.

Internal links on your website help pass authority from one page to another. Think of it as a “trail of trust” (as cheesy as that sounds) connecting your pages. When you link from a high-performing blog post to your services page, you’re telling Google, “Hey, this page matters too. Pay attention to it.” That link carries weight. It passes along some of the authority from your blog post to your services page.

But when that link is broken? That trail of trust disappears. The authority doesn’t get passed along. It just gets lost. And over time, this doesn’t just weaken the one broken page. It weakens the overall strength of your entire website. All of those blog posts you’ve been writing, all of that internal linking you’ve been building, if some of those links are broken, you’re not getting the full SEO benefit of the work you’ve already done.

(Would you like a blogging strategy for your family photography business? Here is mine):  https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/blogging-for-photographers-a-realistic-system-for-family-photographers/

Reason 3: Broken Links Create a Terrible Client Experience

This is the reason that matters most to me, because at the end of the day, your website exists to serve your potential clients.

Think about it from a mom’s perspective. A mom in Nashville is Googling “best family photographer near me” or “what to wear for fall family photos.” She clicks on a result, lands on your website, and sees something that looks exactly like what she needs. She clicks. And she gets a 404 error page. “Oops, this page doesn’t exist.”

She’s confused. She’s frustrated. And chances are she’s going to hit the back button and choose someone else from the list Google gave her. She may never come back to your website. That’s a lost inquiry. That’s a lost booking. And you’ll never even know it happened.

Google notices this behavior too. When people land on your site and bounce right away because they hit an error, it signals to Google that your site isn’t providing a good experience. And that can impact your rankings over time.

So broken links don’t just affect the technical side of your SEO. They affect the real human beings who are trying to hire you as their family photographer.

The Free Tool That Found Every Broken Link on My Website

Now for the good news. You don’t need to hire an SEO strategist to find your broken links. You don’t need to pay for some fancy audit tool. There is a completely free tool that I’m using right now, and it’s called Broken Link Check. The website is https://brokenlinkcheck.com/broken-links.php#status

What I love about this tool is how simple it is. You type in your website URL, you hit the button, and it scans your entire website for broken links. It takes about five minutes to generate a report. And when it’s done, it tells you which pages have broken links, what those broken links are, and where on the page they’re located. If it’s a hyperlinked piece of text, it shows you exactly which text has the broken link attached to it.

You’re not guessing. You’re not randomly clicking around your website hoping to stumble on something. You have a clear list and a clear game plan. The tool does the detective work and hands you a report.

When I ran it on my photography website, it found 98 broken links. And honestly, that’s progress. A few quarters ago, when I first started this separation process, it was hundreds. So the work I’ve been doing is paying off. But 98 still needs attention, and that’s why I built a plan around it.

In the full episode, I do a live demo where I walk through fixing one of those broken links in real time. I show you how I updated the URL slug to remove old date-based formatting, made sure the Yoast SEO plugin showed green, and used the WordPress Redirection plugin to set up a proper redirect so the old URL points to the new one. It’s not glamorous, but it’s the kind of backend work that compounds over time.

My Exact Plan of Action (Steal This for Your Own Website)

After I saw that report, I gave myself five minutes to feel all the feelings. Then I made a plan. Here’s what I’m doing, and I want you to create something similar for yourself.

Step 1: Export the list. I exported the full list of broken links from the tool and put them all in a spreadsheet so I can see everything in one place. Having it all laid out makes it so much easier to prioritize and track progress.

Step 2: Prioritize by impact. Not all broken links are created equal. The ones on my most visited pages, my homepage, my services page, and my most popular blog posts with the keywords I want to rank for, those are getting fixed first. Those are the pages where potential clients are actually landing from Google, so they get top priority.

Step 3: Batch the fixes. I’m not sitting down and trying to fix all 98 broken links in one afternoon. That’s not realistic when you’re a mama running two businesses. Instead, I’m carving out one hour every single week during Q2 of 2026 and chipping away at the list. Small, repeatable actions over time compound into real results. That’s the whole philosophy behind everything I teach, and it applies here just as much as it does to blogging or email marketing.

And if you need a place to ORGANIZE this for your business, might I suggest my Master Business Operations Trello Board to help you out? It’s only $7!

SEO Goes Beyond Blogging and Keywords

Here’s the big takeaway I want you to walk away with: SEO is not just about blogging, keywords, meta descriptions, and alt text. All of those things are important, and I’ve done full episodes on every single one of them. But SEO also includes the health of your website. It includes making sure that when Google crawls your site, it’s not running into dead ends. It includes making sure that when a potential client clicks on a link, they actually land where they’re supposed to land. (I know. What a concept.)

Broken links are one of those backend things that nobody talks about, but they can chip away at all of the SEO work you’ve been putting in. The beautiful thing is that checking for them is completely free, and it’s something you can do yourself. You don’t need to be a tech expert. You just need the right tool, a little bit of time, and the willingness to be consistent with fixing what you find.

Your Action Step

Go to brokenlinkcheck.com right now. Type in your website URL. See what comes up. Don’t judge yourself. Don’t be hard on yourself. Just look at the data and make a plan.

And if you want to go even deeper with your SEO as a family photographer, I want you to know that inside the Family Photographers Marketing Society, SEO is a core focus in 2026. I’ve brought in Brittany Herzberg, an actual SEO strategist, who comes in every single month and teaches members how to apply SEO strategies directly to their family photography business. You’re not just learning about SEO in theory. You’re doing it alongside other family photographers who get it. And on top of that, I’m teaching marketing systems for Instagram and email marketing every month inside the membership as well.

If you’re a family photographer who wants to build sustainable marketing rhythms and stop second-guessing what to do next, the Family Photographers Marketing Society is for you.

Don’t forget to grab the FREE Marketing Trends Report for Family Photographers, too. It’s packed with insights to help you stay booked and visible all year long. (I’ll be updating this guide every single year, too!)

As always, I hope you stay streamlined and magical, you amazing muggle you. Now go make some workflow magic and take action!

Meet Your Favorite Marketing Strategist and Business Coach for Family Photographers (Dolly DeLong Education)

Hi, I’m Dolly DeLong, a Nashville-based family photographer, marketing strategist, and systems educator for family photographers who want structure, clarity, and consistency in their marketing.

My photography journey began in 2006, and over the years, I built a sustainable family photography business while navigating motherhood, client work, and the realities of running a solo creative business. Along the way, I discovered something unexpected: I loved the backend just as much as the creative side.

What started as organizing my own workflows turned into helping other family photographers simplify their marketing, build repeatable systems, and stop relying on last-minute posting or panic marketing.

Today, I focus exclusively on helping family photographers intentionally market their businesses (not with trends but with consistently showing up).

I offer two ways to work with me:

• The Family Photographer’s Marketing Society: a systems-first membership that provides a clear weekly marketing cadence for Instagram and email, so you always know what to focus on without starting over.

• 1:1 Strategic Marketing Support for established family photographers who want hands-on guidance in building a sustainable, SEO-supported marketing system.

Through my blog, podcast, and YouTube channel, I teach family photographers how to think like marketers, plan ahead, and create marketing rhythms that support both their business and their family life.

I still photograph families around Nashville because it’s one of my greatest joys. But helping family photographers build calm, consistent marketing systems that actually fit real life is a close second.

I’m so glad you are here, reading this blog, listening to the podcast, or watching the embedded YouTube video. I hope this educational content was helpful. Please let me know what future systems content you would like me to create!