Creator
Broken affiliate links: how to find them, fix them and stop them breaking
Out of stock, discontinued, a dropped tag, a closed service: the six ways affiliate links break, how to find them in old content and how to fix each one.
5 min read
A broken affiliate link is one that no longer takes a viewer to a product they can buy with your tag attached. It usually happens quietly: the product is discontinued, the page goes out of stock, a short link stops resolving, or the service behind the link shuts down. The fastest way to find yours is to paste a video description into our free affiliate link checker, which flags every link that needs fixing and says how.
This guide covers the six ways affiliate links break, how to find broken links across old videos and posts, how to fix each kind, and how to set things up so it stops happening.
The six ways affiliate links break
| Cause | What you see | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| The product was discontinued or removed | A 404 page, or Amazon's "Looking for something?" page | Link to the current model or an in-stock alternative |
| The product is out of stock | The page loads but says "Currently unavailable" | Swap in an alternative until it's back, or use another retailer |
| The service behind the link shut down | Every link on that domain fails | Move the products to a page you control and replace the link |
| The link lost your affiliate tag | The link works but earns nothing | Rebuild it from your affiliate dashboard |
| The retailer changed its URLs or affiliate network | Redirects to a homepage or an error | Get a fresh link from the retailer's current programme |
| The domain expired | Nothing loads at all | Replace the link, or renew the domain if it was yours |
Two of these are easy to miss. Out-of-stock pages still load, so a quick click looks fine even though no one can buy. Untagged links work perfectly for the viewer and earn nothing for you. They often come from copying a product URL straight from the browser bar instead of from your affiliate dashboard.
The most dramatic version is a whole service closing: every link on that domain dies at once, across years of descriptions.
How to find broken affiliate links
Use a link checker
Paste a video description, or a list of links, into the affiliate link checker. It follows each link through any short links and redirects (amzn.to, geni.us, bit.ly and others), checks the final page, and tells you whether it's working, broken, out of stock or untagged. It's free, needs no signup and doesn't store your links.
Spot-check your best content first
You don't need to check everything at once. Start with the videos and posts that get the most views, because that's where broken links cost the most. In YouTube Studio, sort your content by views and work down the list.
Channel-scanning tools
If you have hundreds of videos, Chrome extensions such as BrokenTube scan a whole YouTube channel, report broken links across every description and can replace a link in bulk. Check what access an extension needs to your channel before you install it.
How to fix them
In YouTube descriptions
YouTube Studio lets you edit one video at a time, or apply a bulk edit to the description field across selected videos. It doesn't find one link inside many different descriptions and swap it for another. We cover the options, from editing by hand to bulk find-and-replace tools, in how to update affiliate links in old YouTube descriptions.
In your link in bio or storefront
This is the easy one: update the link in one place and it changes everywhere you've shared your bio or storefront. That's the principle worth applying to your videos too.
Amazon links specifically
For a discontinued product, find the current model on Amazon and create a new link through SiteStripe or the Associates dashboard so it carries your tag. For an out-of-stock product, link to an alternative, or to another retailer if you have a programme there. Under Amazon Associates rules you earn on purchases made within 24 hours of the click (or within 90 days if the item goes in the cart during those 24 hours), so a dead or untagged link costs you the sale entirely.
How to stop links breaking
Every fix above means editing old content. The way to stop doing that is to put one link in your content that points to a page you control, and change what's on the page instead.
- Use one link per set of gear. A Setup101 setup is a page for one set of gear, such as your desk, your camera bag or the kit in one video, with your affiliate link on every product (affiliate links are on the Pro plan). Its link never changes. When a product is discontinued, you swap it in the setup, and every video that links there is fixed at once.
- Check your links every quarter. Put a reminder in your calendar and run your most-viewed descriptions through the link checker.
- Avoid hard-coding single product links in content that will last. Evergreen videos and pinned posts are exactly where individual product links age worst.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if my affiliate link is broken?
Open it in a private browser window and check that it lands on the right product, that the product can be bought, and that your affiliate tag is in the final address. Or paste it into the affiliate link checker, which does all three and handles many links at once.
Why does my affiliate link work but earn nothing?
The most common reason is a missing tag: the link opens the product but doesn't carry your affiliate ID. Rebuild it from your affiliate dashboard. It can also mean purchases happen outside the network's attribution window.
Do Amazon affiliate links expire?
The link itself doesn't expire, but the credit for a click does. Amazon Associates pays on purchases within 24 hours of the click, or 90 days if the item is added to the cart in that window. Links break when the product page is removed or the tag is missing.
How often should I check my affiliate links?
Every three months is a sensible minimum for your most-viewed content, and straight away when a retailer or service announces changes.
Build your own setup
Free to start. Add your affiliate links and share one link that never goes stale.