Link-building is one of many factors that contribute to a website’s overall SEO. However, what happens if these links are broken? These broken links stop Google’s crawlers from effectively navigating your site, resulting in lower search engine rankings and poor user experience. A higher bounce rate and lower conversion rate cause immense problems for brand reputation and credibility. Effective SEO strategies by Avancera Solution are the answer to reducing broken links for brand success. Our comprehensive link-building service is designed to identify, minimize and address broken links that improve your site’s SEO. Here’s how we find and fix broken links to improve your brand visit across the digital landscape.
How to find broken links on your website
We understand that manually locating broken links with hundreds or even thousands of pages is almost impossible. Therefore, the following tools and methods help us find broken links and fix them to supercharge your brand.
- Google Search Console: It is one of the widely used and straightforward tools for finding broken links on your website. Check the Coverage tab to locate, fix, and confirm any errors once Google crawls your site.
- Semrush’s Site Audit Tool: Semrush is a free tool that can check your website for broken links. The Issues tab shows you a list of glitches in addition to backlink errors. You can also use a Backlink Audit tool to see if you have any broken backlinks coming from other websites to your website.
- Ahrefs Site Audit Tool: Ahrefs offers a feature called the Broken Link Checker, which allows you to inspect your website for any broken outbound links thoroughly. In addition, you can also identify broken pages that are linked to your site by using a tool called Backlink Checker.
The impact of broken links on user experience
User experience is a significant factor that can affect your organic search engine rankings. The better the user experience, the more likely Google is to prioritize your website. Imagine how frustrating it is when someone clicks on a link in an article they read and encounters a 404 Not Found error. It signals to the reader that your website is outdated or untrustworthy, causing them to leave.
These broken or dead links also negatively impact dwell time and increase the user bounce rate, which, in turn, affects your ranking and SEO strategies.
How broken links can hurt your website’s authority
Search engines use bots to crawl websites and index their content. When these bots encounter a broken link, they often stop the crawling process, which negatively impacts your website authority. This can lead to several issues:
- Poor user experience
- Lower conversion rates
- Loss of Link Equity
- Reduced trustworthiness of your brand
How to fix broken links
Broken links are harmful to the quality assurance of your website, so fixing them is an absolutely crucial step to protect your online presence from damage. SEO experts at Avancera Solution share some practical ways to help you deal with broken links. Let’s explore some of these methods:
- Fixing Broken External Links: Since you don’t have control over broken external links, it is best to either obliterate the link or replace it with a valid link to maintain the quality of your website.
- Fixing Broken Internal Links: Unlike external links, a website owner has complete control over internal links. These are some easy steps you can follow to fix them:
- Typographical error: Typographical errors are one of the common causes of broken internal links and 404 Errors. Use effective tools to find misspellings and fix them.
- Redirects: Google recommends using 301 redirects to fix broken internal links. This method redirects it to a page with relevant content that will keep the link juice flowing and get you more page views.
- Delete the Broken Link: Delete the broken link only when it is no longer needed or crucial to your website.
How to prevent broken links from happening in the first place
The process of finding and fixing broken links takes a significant amount of time and effort, especially if your website has many pages. Unfortunately, broken links are a common occurrence. However, you can only prevent them from occurring in the first place by implementing proactive measures. These include:
- Monitor your website regularly each time you update content or make changes to your site.
- Keep your hyperlinks up-to-date by using links from reliable sources.
- Use link monitoring tools such as Google Search Console that can automatically check for broken links and notify you when issues arise.
Conclusion
If you are looking to improve your SEO or avoid potential issues with Google crawling and indexing, get in touch with us today. Avancera Solution is here to help you succeed online with proven SEO methods and link-building strategies. Our team of SEO specialists analyzes every aspect of your business, website, and customer base before crafting a tailored solution that meets your unique needs.
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Frequently Asked Question
What is the difference between a 404 error and a 500 error?
The 404 (not found) status means that the page you are looking for simply does not exist or has been deleted. This type of error adversely affects user experience and link equity. On the other hand, the 500 error indicates an issue preventing the server from handling the request entirely, which hinders site indexing and damages user trust.
How can I check if my website needs links that need to be fixed?
Finding and fixing broken links is crucial to maintaining the quality of your website. We suggest you use these effective tools to automate the process.
- Google Search Console
- Zelolab’s Broken Link Audit
- W3C Link Checker
- Semrush’s Site Audit Tool
- Ahrefs Site Audit Tool
What is the best way to fix broken links?
Once you have identified the internal or external links that are broken, it is time to fix them. You can choose from three options:
- Redirect broken pages
- Update URLs for pages that still exist
- Remove the link
- Recreate the deleted page