How To Find And Fix Broken Links Before They Harm Your Ranks

Broken links can significantly damage your website’s credibility and undermine your SEO efforts. This guide offers a practical approach to identifying and resolving broken links, whether they’re internal or backlinks. Discover the common causes of broken links, understand their detrimental impact on your site’s performance, and learn how to effectively use tools like Semrush for detection. The step-by-step guide provided will help you swiftly address these issues and restore the integrity of your site’s SEO strategy.

Identifying broken links is crucial for maintaining a healthy website. Utilizing tools such as Semrush can simplify this process, enabling you to pinpoint broken links efficiently. Once identified, taking immediate action to fix these links is essential to prevent negative user experiences and maintain your site’s search engine rankings. By diligently addressing broken links, you can ensure that your SEO efforts remain effective and your website continues to perform optimally.

Moreover, understanding the competitive advantage that fixing broken links can bring is crucial. Even leveraging insights from your competitors’ broken links can bolster your SEO strategy. By staying proactive in managing and fixing broken links, you not only enhance your site’s credibility and user experience but also strengthen its overall SEO performance.

What Are Broken Links?

Broken links refer to links that fail to direct users to their intended destination. Whether they are backlinks, internal links within your site, or external links pointing to other websites, their dysfunctionality can stem from various common causes:

What Causes A Link To “Break”?

It’s common to encounter broken links on websites, affecting backlinks, internal links, and external links. These issues can arise from several causes:

Misspelled URLs: Typos or missing “https://” or “http://” can render links non-functional. Even a simple extra space in the URL can lead to broken links.
Updated URLs: Changing URLs without setting up redirects can break existing links, both internal and external. External links might break if the linked content’s URL has been altered or the page removed.
Lost or Renamed Pages: During website migrations, pages can get lost or renamed, causing previously functioning links to become broken.
Firewall or Geolocation Restrictions: Some links may be accessible only from specific regions due to firewall settings or geolocation restrictions.
Moved Content: Links to videos or documents can break if the content has been relocated or removed from the server.
Malfunctioning Plugins or Code Errors: Broken links can also result from malfunctioning plugins or errors in HTML or JavaScript on the website.
Site Downtime: If either your site or the linked external site is down, all links to that site can become temporarily broken, affecting user experience and SEO.
Change in URL Structure: Changing the URL structure without implementing proper 301 redirects can break internal and inbound links. Setting up redirects ensures that users and search engines reach the correct page after structural changes.

Ensuring all links on your website are functional is crucial for maintaining user experience and SEO performance.

Types of Broken Links

Encountering a broken link typically results in a 404 Page Not Found error, indicating the page is temporarily unavailable but may return later. However, there are other 4xx status codes that signify broken links:

– 400 Bad Request: This occurs when the server doesn’t understand the URL due to a syntax error or invalid request. For instance, using “https://www.example.com/products/product123/” instead of “https://www.example.com/products/product123” will trigger a 400 error.

– 410 Gone: Similar to a 404 error, this indicates the linked resource is permanently removed from the server. Unlike a 404, a 410 confirms the page will not return.

These errors adversely impact user experience and SEO. While 404 and 400 errors indicate temporary issues, search engines may penalize sites more severely for 410 errors due to the permanent removal of content.

The Dangers of Broken Links

Internal links are crucial for SEO, as Google prioritises them for ranking. Broken internal links can severely impact your site’s performance:

When users encounter a broken link, they land on an error page, disrupting their experience and prompting many to leave your site in search of information elsewhere.

This can harm your site’s reputation and deter return visits. Moreover, Google allocates a crawl budget, limiting how much of your site crawlers can explore. Broken links hinder this process, affecting how pages get indexed and ranked.

In essence, without proper indexing, your content won’t appear in search results, undermining your SEO efforts. Broken links also increase bounce rates and reduce time spent on site, signalling to Google that your content may not meet user expectations.

Additionally, broken external and inbound links suggest to Google that your site lacks maintenance and relevance. This can lead to lower rankings and reduced visibility in search engine results.

Addressing broken links is crucial for maintaining site integrity and SEO effectiveness.

How to Find Broken Backlinks

Broken backlinks, which are incoming links from external domains, occur when another site links to one of your pages that is broken or no longer exists.

To identify broken backlinks, utilize Semrush’s Backlink Audit tool:

Navigate to the “Target Pages” tab.
Tick the box labelled “Target URL error” to filter the list of Target Page URLs.
Next to the Target Page URLs, click on the active keyword number (highlighted in blue).
This allows you to view and assess all backlinks leading to error pages on your site.

Encourage User Feedback and Reporting

Broken backlinks, which are incoming links from external domains, occur when another site links to one of your pages that is currently broken or no longer exists.

While you’re expected to identify most broken links, some may slip through undetected. These broken links can significantly impact user experience. Encouraging users who encounter broken links on your site to report them can help mitigate this issue. Consider creating a custom 404 error page with a contact form or providing clear instructions on how users can notify you, such as through an email address. This proactive approach shows users that you are committed to maintaining a user-friendly website.

How to Fix Broken Links

Now that you’ve identified your broken links, it’s crucial to take steps to fix them. The approach varies depending on whether you’re dealing with broken links within your site (internal and external) or links pointing to your site (backlinks).

Here are the actions you can take to address them:

Internal & External Links

As a webmaster, you have direct control over two types of links: internal and external.

Once you’ve pinpointed broken internal or external links, it’s essential to address them promptly.

There are three methods to rectify broken internal links: implementing redirects, updating the links, or removing them altogether.

Updating or removing

The easiest way to fix a broken link is by updating it. If the issue was a simple typo in the URL, replacing it with the correct one will restore the link’s functionality. However, this approach only applies if the broken link resulted from a misspelled URL.

Another option is to remove the link altogether. If the link is no longer relevant or necessary due to updates in content on either end—either the linking page or the linked-to page—removing it is a straightforward solution.

Inserting a 301 redirect

Using a 301 redirect is the more complex but often necessary solution for SEO reasons.

You should employ a 301 redirect if you’ve relocated a page or ceased offering a product or service but have a similar alternative available elsewhere on your site.

For instance, if a broken link was intended for a product no longer in stock, a 301 redirect can direct users to a comparable product that is available. This effectively resolves the issue of broken links.

If your situation doesn’t align with these scenarios, avoid using a 301 redirect. Redirecting to an unrelated page can harm your site’s rankings and frustrate users expecting specific content.

Implementing a 301 redirect in WordPress is straightforward with plugins like RankMath. Alternatively, you can use .htaccess, Nginx, or PHP for server-side implementations. Properly executed, a 301 redirect transfers most of the original page’s ranking power to the new destination.

Remember, 301 redirects are permanent compared to temporary 302 redirects. Ensure you are certain about redirecting traffic indefinitely before using a 301, or opt for a 302 if you plan to restore the original page in the future.

Broken External Links

If your external links lead nowhere, they’re ineffective and offer no value to your content.

To rectify this, verify the link’s accuracy first. Even a small error in the URL can result in a 404 error page. If the intended page still exists, re-copy the URL to ensure correctness.

If the linked page no longer exists, remove the link. However, if the link provided valuable information, such as facts and figures, consider replacing it with an alternative source. If no suitable alternative exists, consider omitting that section from your content.

Backlinks

Fixing a broken backlink isn’t as straightforward as handling internal site links. Typically, you’ll need to contact the webmaster of the referring domain and request an update.

While the process involves a simple email, crafting it effectively is crucial. Here are some tips to help you compose an effective email:

Greeting: Use the recipient’s name if known.

Introduction: Introduce yourself and your website.

Describe the Issue: Specify the exact page and URL where the broken link is located.

Propose the Solution: Provide the correct URL you want the link to direct to.

Highlight the Benefit: Explain how fixing the broken link can enhance their site’s SEO as well as yours.

Keep It Concise: Avoid lengthy emails. Briefly cover all necessary points.

Be Patient: Allow a few days for a response. If needed, follow up politely without excessive emails.

By following these steps, you increase the chances of successfully repairing broken backlinks.

Monitoring and Regular Maintenance of Your Links

As mentioned earlier, broken links can significantly impact your site’s performance. Therefore, it’s important to check for these issues regularly.

Using Semrush’s Site Audit tool, you can automate checks to run daily or weekly, with reports emailed to you upon completion. This ensures you stay informed and can promptly address any new broken links. For larger sites, daily checks may be preferable, while weekly checks suffice for smaller ones, allowing you to maintain site integrity and user experience.

Monitoring the quality and activity of your backlinks is equally essential to ensure they contribute positively to your site’s performance.