How to Find and Fix Broken Links for SEO

Search engine optimization, SEO for short, has become an increasingly important part of companies’ marketing strategies to be seen online.

Since more consumers than ever begin their customer journey in a search engine, it is no wonder that companies invest large resources to appear high in the search results. This is where SEO comes in.

SEO is about optimizing a website to improve its ranking in search engines and thus increase its visibility. At the same time, SEO is a complex marketing method that consists of a variety of different components. Search engines use hundreds of ranking factors when determining where a page should appear in the search results for a specific keyword. Your goal is to accommodate these factors as best you can.

Links play an important role in SEO and something that you should avoid as carefully as you can is broken links. But what are broken links, why should you avoid them, and how?

We will take a closer look at that in this article.

What are broken links and why are they problematic for SEO?

Broken links are also known as dead links and refer to web links that no longer lead to valid content or pages. You’ve probably clicked on a link at some point that led to a website that no longer exists or a page that has been removed. These are examples of broken links.

Broken links can occur for a variety of reasons, but they are primarily the result of pages being removed, URL structures being changed, or a website being no longer available.

When we talk about broken links, we are mainly talking about links that are on your own website. Broken links can be both internal (links pointing to another page on your site) or external (links pointing to a site other than your own).

Broken links have a negative impact on the user experience and also your website’s SEO.

When working with SEO, it is important to know that the absolute number one thing that search engines think about is the user experience. It can be difficult to keep track of all the hundreds of different ranking factors, but just knowing that the user experience is at the center goes a long way when working with SEO. If everything you do to optimize your site is done with the user experience in mind, it will contribute to improved SEO results.

This brings us to the focus of this article: broken links.

Why are broken links a problem for SEO?

Having broken links on a website can have a huge negative impact on the user experience. Encountering error messages such as “404 Not Found” or “the page was not found” can create frustration and lead to leaving the website altogether. Many broken links on a website also indicate to search engines that it is not being updated which can indicate that the information on the page is out of date or irrelevant, which can negatively affect its ranking in search results. In addition, broken links tend to lead to a higher bounce rate, which is a factor that search engines look at. If your bounce rate is high, it’s an indicator that users are either not finding what they’re looking for, or that your site is of low quality.

For all these reasons, it is of course important to avoid broken links on your website. This is important both for a good user experience but also for visibility on search engines – but of course these two go hand in hand.

That being said, it is important to regularly monitor and fix broken links on your website.

How do broken links affect website credibility?

A website acts as your online storefront. Your face to the outside, simply. Having said that, of course, you want to strive to build as professional and stylish a brand as you possibly can.

Although it may seem unimportant, broken links can actually undermine trust in your website. Users may conclude that the site is not reliable or does not have enough resources to maintain a properly functioning link structure. It is simply perceived as unprofessional.

The reduced credibility can ultimately affect users’ willingness to engage with the website’s content, interact with its services or complete various conversions.

Tool to detect broken links

It might sound difficult to hunt down broken links and fix them, but thanks to the many tools available today, it’s actually very easy and smooth.

Google Search Console: Search Console is the most used tool for SEO, developed by Google and also completely free. Search Console provides information on any crawl errors including broken links, and also provides insight into how Googlebot is indexing the site.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider: This is a comprehensive tool that scans websites and identifies various types of link problems, including broken links. It gives you detailed information about each link and its status code.

Ahrefs: Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO tool that not only tracks links but also provides insights into your competitors’ link structure. It can detect broken links and report them in real-time.
There are several advantages to using different SEO tools to keep track of your links.

First of all, these tools can generate automated reports that provide a quick overview of your site’s link status. This facilitates rapid detection and action. Additionally, with these tools, you have continuous monitoring of link status on your site so you can quickly intervene and fix broken links before they negatively impact user experience or search results.

Examples of popular tools for identifying broken links

In addition to the tools we discussed above that primarily focus on the whole, there are also tools that focus specifically on identifying broken links.

Broken Link Checker: A web-based tool that scans entire websites and reports on broken links. It also provides information about where on the website the broken links are located.

Online Broken Link Checker: A user-friendly tool that allows users to scan websites for broken links by simply entering the URL. It provides fast and detailed reports.

Dead Link Checker: A simple tool that focuses on finding broken links. It allows you to scan entire websites or individual pages to identify and report problematic links.

How to fix broken links

The first step is to detect broken links but of course, the most important step is to fix them so that you avoid negatively affecting the user experience and search results.

Different types of broken links

404 Errors: When a page is no longer available and visitors get a “404 Not Found” page, it’s important to either restore the page or redirect visitors to a relevant replacement page.

301-redirect: If a page has been moved permanently to a new location, you should use a so-called 301 redirect. This instructs the browser and search engines that the old URL has been replaced by a new one.

Proper use of HTTP status codes to handle broken links

301 Moved Permanently: Use this status code when a page has been permanently moved to a new location. It ensures that search engines transfer the page ranking and link value from the old page to the new one.

302 Found (Temporary Redirect): Use this status code if a redirect is temporary. This means that the old page will come back and the link value of the original page will be retained.

410 Gone: If a page has been removed and will remain removed, you should use this status code instead of a generic 404. It helps search engines understand that the page has been intentionally removed.

301 redirects and how they affect SEO

Identify the new locations: Before implementing 301 redirects, make sure the new URLs are correct and related to the content visitors expect.
Use correct syntax: Ensure that the syntax of the 301 redirects is correctly implemented in the web server or through your CMS (Content Management System).
Update Internal Links: If the broken link is in internal links on your site, make sure to update those links to the new landing pages.

Go through your website and update all internal links that point to pages with broken links. This can be done manually or using various linking tools.

If other websites link to your pages with broken links, you should consider contacting the website owners to update or correct the links. As you know, backlinks are incredibly important for SEO so of course you want to ensure that your backlinks are also working and not broken.

Preventive measures for broken links

Having both external and internal links on your website is important for SEO optimization but when you have links on your website you also need to be aware that some of these links may be broken.

For this reason, you need to work with preventive measures to avoid this.

Here are some important steps  to avoid the appearance of broken links and maintain a stable website.

Schedule regular link checks: Make it a habit to regularly check the links on your site. This can be done both manually and with link tools. The latter is of course much simpler and more practical. With regular link checks, you can identify any broken links quickly and take action before they affect the user experience or your SEO performance.

Automated Monitoring: The easiest way to keep track of broken links is to use automated tools and services. These tools can generate reports and inform you when they find any problems.

Permanent URL structure: Try to keep the URL structure consistent and change as little as possible when it comes to your URLs on your own page. If a page really needs to be moved, you should use 301 redirects to guide users and search engines to the new location.

Update links if pages change: If content is updated or pages are removed, you should always make sure to update links internally and externally to avoid broken links.

Create informative 404 pages: Most pages have generic “404 error” pages that just say the page no longer exists. One tip is to design custom 404 error pages that provide useful links to other relevant parts of the site or a clear path to guide visitors to the desired content. This improves the user experience compared to a visitor just arriving at a dead page without getting any information about what to do next. Provide clear instructions on the 404 pages to explain that the page does not exist and offer links to main pages or a search function.

Sitemaps for search engines: Another tip is to create a sitemap for search engines. This gives search engines a structured overview of your website. This helps prevent search engines from indexing old pages or information, and can also find new pages faster.

HTML and XML sitemaps: Offer both HTML and XML sitemaps. HTML sitemaps are useful for visitors and help maintain easy navigation while XML sitemaps provide instructions to search engines.

How broken links affect user experience

When users encounter broken links when visiting a website, it can create frustration and a negative experience. Here are some ways broken links affect the user experience:

Loss of trust: Visitors expect website links to lead them to relevant and useful content. When they encounter a “404 Not Found” page or similar error messages, it can damage their confidence in the site’s reliability and professionalism.

Waste of time: Clicking on a link and finding it broken results in wasted time. Users have to navigate back or search for alternative sources which can create irritation.

Negative impact on your brand: The experience of broken links can be associated with a lack of maintenance or an unprofessional company. This can affect users’ view of your brand as a whole and potentially damage your reputation.

Bounce and Decreased Engagement: As we discussed earlier, broken links increase your bounce rate, which is when a user visits a website and then leaves immediately after. This is something that search engines look at, which can therefore lead to poorer rankings in search engines.

Fewer Return Visits: If users consistently encounter problems with broken links, they will likely be less likely to return to your site.