How to find and fix broken images
An image that answers 404 shows a placeholder to every visitor and nothing to Google Images. Fix the file path, re-upload the file or remove the tag.
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What it is
A broken image is an <img> whose file fails to load, usually because the URL answers 404, the file was moved or renamed, or a CDN or hotlink rule blocks it. The visitor sees an empty box, a broken-image icon or just the alt text.
Broken images make a page look unfinished, remove product photos from shops, and cannot appear in Google Images. They often come in groups after a migration, when the uploads folder moved or an image CDN rule stopped matching, so one fix can repair hundreds of images.
OK looks like this: every image the page requests answers 200 with a real image file. getReport loads the page in a browser and lists each image that fails, with its URL, so you can see whether the cause is one folder or single files.
What a passing site looks like
- Broken images: passeswarning · −1.5 ptseffort S
Broken images
Why it matters. A broken image shows a placeholder or nothing at all, and every visitor sees it. Moved uploads, renamed files and expired CDN links are the usual causes.
- Fix or replace the src of each listed image; re-upload files that were deleted.
- After a migration, check the uploads folder path and any image CDN rewrite rule.
Questions people ask
Why are images not showing on my website?
Usually the image URL no longer works: the file was deleted, renamed or moved, the path has the wrong upper or lower case, or the site moved to https or a new domain while image URLs still point at the old one. Blocked hotlinking, an expired CDN link and lazy-loading scripts that fail are other common causes.
Why are my images not showing on my WordPress website?
After a migration, image URLs in posts often still point at the old domain or http address, or the wp-content/uploads folder was not copied fully. File permissions, a security plugin blocking hotlinks, or an image optimisation or lazy-load plugin can also stop them. Check one broken image's URL in a new tab to see which it is.
How do you find broken images on a website?
Open the browser's developer tools, go to the Network tab, filter by images and reload: failed files show in red with their status. getReport does the same for a page and lists every image that fails to load. For a whole site, use a crawler that reports 404s for image files.
Do broken images affect SEO?
Yes, a little. A broken image cannot be indexed in Google Images, so you lose that traffic, and product pages without photos convert and rank worse. They also make the page look neglected to visitors. Fix the file path or re-upload the file, and remove the tag if the image is gone for good.