Free broken image checker

A broken image refers to an image element on a website that doesn't display or load properly. Typically a broken image placeholder, often with a small icon, that could be an X, or a blank space appears instead of the intended image.

Broken images appears on websites due to various reasons. It will significantly effect the user experience of a website, and the overall functionality.

One of the main reasons for a broken image is an incorrect URL. The URL is specified for the image source, and if the URL is mistyped, the image file has been moved, or it no longer exists on the server, the browser won't be able to retrieve the image, resulting in a broken image placeholder.

Sometimes, the image file itself might be the problem. It may corrupted, either during upload, storage, or due to file transfer errors. A corrupted image file can't be displayed the way it was intended by the browser, again resulting in a broken image placeholder.

Also, users can from time to time run into the problem of not having permission to view the image. If permissions for accessing the image file are restricted, users might encounter a broken image display.

Yes, broken images absolutely affect page load speed. When search engines stumbles upon a broken image while loading a website, it still needs to make a request to the server to get that image. If the image is broken or can't be found, the search engine will wait for a timeout period before giving up on loading the image. During this time, it's possible that the search engine may be unable to render other content on the page, resulting in delays to load the entire website.

To avoid broken images on your website, you can follow some of these practices:

Check the images URL - It is a good idea to check all the URLs of the images on your website to ensure that they are correct and in the right format. Test each URL to make sure it directs to the correct image file on the server.

Implement error handling - To handle situations where images can't be loaded, you can set up error handling mechanisms. This could be displaying a default image or showing a descriptive error message to your users.

Do regular maintenance - Checking your website regularly helps you to identify and fix broken images as soon as the problem occurs. This can be done manually or by using an automated tool that scan your website for broken images and links, like Morningscore.

Broken images can have a negative impact on your website's SEO in different ways.

Broken images damage the user experience, as your website will look unprofessional and you might come across as careless. Visitors will then find another website for their search intent, increasing the bounce rate and decreasing the time they spend on your website. Search engines looks at user experience metrics such as bounce rate and time on site when ranking websites.

The crawlers, Google and other search engines send out to index and rank websites, may also be disrupted by broken images. The crawlers will most likely encounter errors when trying to access or load a broken image. This can affect your rankings on the search engine result pages (SERPs) in a negative way.

Search engines might also find it difficult indexing images that are missing or broken. Good and optimized images helps provide additional context and relevance to your content, contributing to the overall SEO of your website.

Broken images disrupts the visual flow of a webpage, and it may be difficult for visitors to fully understand the context, as the image would have provided vital information. This can lead to frustration and in general a negative impression of your website's quality and readability. Additionally, visitors may see this as a lack of professionalism and willingness to maintain your site, which ultimately weakens the trust between you and your visitors.

Yes, regularly checking for broken images is highly recommended to be a part of your SEO strategy. Broken images can negatively impact a number of different SEO aspects, which can affect your search engine rankings. By ensuring that your images all shows up as intended, you give yourself a better chance of grabbing one of those priceless top ranking spots.

Yes, fixing broken images can significantly improve both your website's health and overall performance. If your images and the visual flow of your website is up to standard, it is easier to encourage visitors to spend more time on your website, ultimately boosting your rankings.

Yes, broken images can absolutely cause crawl errors and lead to indexing problems for search engines. If search engine crawlers experience any problems when crawling your website, it will lead to your website taking a hit in regard to rankings. This can be because of broken images, but it can also be because of other factors such as links.

One thing you can do is to make sure that all of your images have an alt text. By doing this, you ensure that in the case of a broken image, visitors and search engines still get the context of what the image would have shown.

Another thing you can consider if your broken images can't be fixed immediately, is to redirecting users to relevant content or removing the broken image placeholder altogether. This will lead to a more positive user experience, as it prevents users from encountering errors.