Broken images

What this check looks for

For every content image, this check flags one as broken if its src is empty, is literally #, starts with javascript:, doesn't resolve to a valid URL, or resolves to a URL the crawler probed and got back a non-2xx response for. Any broken candidates found triggers a fail, listing each one. A page with no images reports "na"; no broken candidates passes.

Why it matters

A broken image is one of the most visible signs of neglect on a page — visitors see a blank box or a browser's broken-image icon exactly where content should be, and it's a strong, immediate signal that a page (and by extension, the site) isn't being maintained. Search engines that fetch an image asset and get an error can't index it for image search and, more importantly, a page riddled with broken assets reads as lower quality overall. AI systems evaluating page trustworthiness treat visibly broken infrastructure as a red flag about whether the surrounding claims and content are current or accurate.

How to fix it

Fix or remove any image whose source is empty, malformed, or dead:

<!-- Broken: src is empty -->
<img src="" alt="Acme wireless headphones">

<!-- Broken: points at a deleted asset -->
<img src="/products/old-headphones-2019.jpg" alt="Acme wireless headphones">

<!-- Fixed: valid, live asset -->
<img src="/products/wireless-nc-2026.webp" alt="Acme wireless headphones">

Run a periodic asset audit after any CMS migration or bulk content edit, since broken images often appear in batches when file paths change.