Finding broken links in redirects involves identifying URLs that point to a location returning a 4xx or 5xx status code instead of a successful 200 OK response. In the Yandex Webmaster ecosystem, this process relies on tracking how the robot follows automated jumps and recording instances where the final destination or an intermediate step fails. Fixing these broken paths ensures that search engine crawlers do not waste budget on dead ends and that users successfully reach their intended content.
What happens when a redirect leads to a broken page?
A redirect is a command that tells a browser or a search robot that a page has moved. When this command leads to a page that returns a 404 Not Found or a 500 Internal Server Error, the link is considered broken. For a search engine like Yandex, this is a signal of poor site maintenance. The robot follows the redirect, expects to find content, but finds an error instead. This sequence consumes a crawl request that could have been used for a healthy, ranking page.
Broken redirects often occur after a site migration or a major redesign. If old URLs are pointed to new addresses that are later deleted or changed again, the chain breaks. Yandex notes that such links are excluded from search results. This exclusion happens because the engine cannot index a page that does not exist. Keeping these errors on your site creates a fragmented experience for both the robot and the visitor.
We often see that technical debt accumulates in the redirect map. A redirect that worked last year might point to a page that was removed last month. Monitoring the final destination status is just as important as setting up the initial redirect.
Alien Road SEO team
How does Yandex Browser data help find dead redirects?
One unique feature of Yandex Webmaster is the ‘Clicks on broken links’ report. Unlike standard crawlers that only see what is linked on the page, this report uses anonymized data from Yandex Browser. It identifies links that real users actually followed into an error. This is especially useful for finding broken redirects in places a crawler might not reach, such as within private documents, emails, or messaging apps.
The report is divided into three distinct areas that help you categorize the source of the problem. Each area provides a different perspective on how your site interacts with the wider web and its own internal structure. Understanding these tabs allows for a more organized approach to technical fixes.
- External: This shows clicks from other websites to non-existent pages on your site. If an old backlink is redirected to a 404 page, it will appear here.
- Internal: These are clicks within your own site. It finds links in your navigation or body text that lead to dead pages through a faulty redirect.
- Outgoing: This identifies links on your site that lead to dead pages on other websites. It is a sign of neglected editorial content.
Identifying issues in the Internal links report
The Internal links report is a primary tool for finding broken links in redirects that are under your direct control. It lists the pages carrying the link, the target URL, and the specific HTTP status. If you have a redirect that points to a missing page, the target URL will show a 4xx or 5xx code. This list is self-cleaning; once the link is fixed and the robot re-checks the page, the entry disappears from the report.
There is a limit of 10,000 broken internal links per site in this report. For large e-commerce platforms, this limit can be reached quickly if there is a template error. A single hard-coded link in a footer or header that points to a broken redirect can multiply across thousands of pages. Sorting this report by the target URL is the most efficient way to work. If a hundred sources point to the same broken redirect, you only need one fix to clear a hundred errors.
How Alien Road applies broken link identification
In a typical engagement, the team begins by exporting the full list of broken links from Yandex Webmaster into an XLS or CSV file. This allows for a detailed analysis outside of the web interface. We look for patterns in the target URLs. For example, if many broken links follow a specific folder structure, it suggests a systemic issue with how redirects were mapped during a site update.
We leverage these exports to categorize errors into template-based issues and editorial typos. For a Shopify store selling home goods, a common scenario involves product collections that were deleted but still have active redirects pointing to them. By identifying these patterns, we can implement bulk redirect rules that point those old URLs to a relevant parent category instead of a 404 page. This process involves a discovery phase, a mapping phase, and a final verification phase where we wait for the Yandex report to clear itself.
The ‘Clicks on broken links’ report is a priority for us because it represents real user frustration. A crawl error is a technical flaw, but a click error is a lost conversion opportunity. We always fix the high-click errors first.
Alien Road SEO team
Can redirect chains hide broken links from the crawler?
Redirect chains occur when one URL points to another, which then points to a third, and so on. If any link in this chain leads to a 4xx or 5xx status, the entire path is compromised. Yandex robots follow these chains, but they have limits on how many hops they will execute before giving up. If a chain is too long or ends in an error, the original link is effectively broken.
To find these hidden breaks, you must examine the final destination of the redirect. A link might look healthy because the first jump is a 301, but if the second jump leads to a 404, it is a broken link. Cleaning these chains by pointing the source directly to the final 200 OK destination reduces server load and ensures the robot reaches the content successfully.
Practical steps to clean your redirect map
Fixing broken links is not a one-time task but a recurring part of technical maintenance. Since the web is dynamic, links that work today might break tomorrow. By following a structured method, you can keep the error count in Yandex Webmaster low and ensure your crawl budget is spent on valuable pages. Use the following steps to manage your redirects effectively.
- Export the Internal links report to CSV and sort by target URL to find common failure points.
- Check the ‘Clicks on broken links’ report and prioritize the External tab to save traffic from outside sources.
- Identify template errors where a single broken link appears on every page of the site.
- Update the source link to point directly to a live page rather than relying on a redirect that might break.
- Monitor the HTTP status changes in the report to confirm that Yandex has recognized your fixes.
Where to start this week
Open your Yandex Webmaster panel and navigate to the ‘Links’ section to find the ‘Internal links’ and ‘Clicks on broken links’ reports. Your first task is to download the data for clicks on broken links. Sort this data by the number of clicks to identify which broken redirects are affecting the most users. Fixing just the top five entries on this list can often recover a significant amount of lost traffic.
After addressing the high-traffic errors, look at your internal links for patterns. If you see thousands of errors pointing to the same URL, check your site’s header, footer, and sidebar templates. A single correction in a template file can often remove thousands of errors from your report in the next crawl cycle. Consistent monitoring of these reports will help maintain a clean technical profile for your site.