Find broken images on your site

SiteCurl checks each image tag on your pages and confirms the source URL returns a valid response. Shots that return a 404, 500, or link error are flagged. The check covers standard img tags, picture tags, and background shots in inline styles.

For each broken image, SiteCurl shows the source page, the image URL, and the HTTP status code. You see which shots are broken and on which pages they show.

On a full scan of 100 pages, this can cover hundreds of shots. Results are grouped by page so you can work through fixes one page at a time.

Broken images are quieter than broken links. A broken link shows a 404 page. A broken image shows nothing, or a tiny icon that most users scroll past. But the damage is real. A product page with a missing hero shot looks left behind. A blog post with broken screenshots loses its teaching value. A homepage with a missing logo looks like a site under construction.

The causes are easy to predict. Someone uploads a shot, then later renames the file or moves it. A CDN URL changes after a hosting move. A shot hotlinked from another site goes away when that site removes it. A CMS plugin makes thumbnail URLs that break when the plugin is updated or removed.

The problem grows over time. A site with two years of blog posts can pile up dozens of broken shots without anyone seeing. Each one hurts the page it sits on. Users who land on a page with broken shots assume the content is old, even if the text is still right.

Broken images make your site look left behind. Users judge trust in seconds. A page with a missing product photo or a broken logo does not build trust. If the first image a user sees is broken, they doubt whether the rest of the site works.

Google indexes shots through image search. A broken image URL wastes that index slot. If Google crawls a shot and gets a 404, it removes that shot from search results. You lose a traffic source you may not have known you had.

On online stores, broken product shots cost sales directly. A shopper who cannot see the product will not buy it. On portfolio sites, broken shots destroy the whole purpose of the page.

Online stores with large product lists are hit hardest. Products get removed, shots get moved, and CDN URLs change. Each broken product shot is a listing that cannot convert.

Bloggers and content sites pile up broken shots over time as hosting changes, plugins update, and outside image sources vanish. Older posts with broken screenshots lose their value.

Agencies running client sites need to catch broken shots before the client does. A monthly scan across all client sites stops the awkward call about a homepage with a missing banner.

Step 1: Check if the file still exists. Open the broken image URL in your browser. If it returns a 404, the file was deleted or moved. Search your media library for the filename to find its new spot.

Step 2: Re-upload missing shots. If the source file is gone, upload a new one. Use the same filename and path if you can so other pages that link to the same shot are fixed at the same time.

Step 3: Update image paths after moves. If you changed hosts or CDNs, old image URLs may no longer work. Do a search-and-replace across your content for the old domain or path and update it to the new one.

Step 4: Stop hotlinking outside shots. If you link to shots hosted on other sites, those can vanish at any time. Save the files (if you have rights) and host them on your own server.

Step 5: Add alt text while you fix. While fixing broken shots, add useful alt text to each image you touch. This helps screen readers and gives Google text to index next to the image.

Fixing one link but missing others. The same broken shot may show on many pages. Search your CMS or codebase for the image URL and fix each link, not just the one SiteCurl flagged.

Using mixed path styles. Mixing /images/photo.jpg and images/photo.jpg works in new ways based on the page URL. Use the same path style, ideally starting from the site root.

Skipping CMS-made thumbnails. Your source image may exist, but the CMS-made thumbnail (like WordPress's -300x200 version) may be missing. Rebuild thumbnails after any media library cleanup.

After fixing, run a new SiteCurl scan on the same pages. The broken image count should drop to zero. For a quick manual check, open the page in your browser and look for missing shots. In Chrome, open DevTools (F12), go to the Console tab, and look for 404 errors on image URLs.

You can also check single image URLs with curl -sI https://yoursite.com/image.jpg and confirm the status is HTTP 200.

Broken images are hidden from site owners but clear to users. They make your site look left behind and cost you traffic from image search. Fix missing shots, stop hotlinking, and run scans often to catch new breaks before users do.