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Broken Links: How to Find, Fix, and Benefit from Broken Links

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Dmitry
Web Hosting Geek

Links are what holds the web together. Essentially, the web is named as such because of the ability for pages and sites to link to other sources and relevant information. So, if links are broken, a visitor has no way of moving to the other resource.

Not only are broken links bad for a number of reasons, but they frustrate visitors. Imagine finally finding the information you need only to be denied because of a broken link.

broken links - frustrated visitor

This short article will help you understand what broken links are, what causes them, the harm they do, how to find them and then how to fix them. The information provided here will help you make sure that there are no broken links on your site and help you deal with broken links that should be bringing visitors to your site.

What is a Broken Link?

In a test run against a subset of the websites of the S&P 500, Link Tiger found that all of the sites had broken links. The average number of broken links per site was 2.4%. Some of the bigger companies had numbers even higher than that:

  • Tech Data – 8.62%
  • Cisco – 4.85%
  • CenturyLink – 4.64%
  • Apple – 4.57%

While others fared far better:

  • Comcast – .01%
  • Dell – .14%
  • WDC – .33%
  • Xerox – .37%

However, before we dive any deeper it is important to understand what a broken link is. Technopedia defines a broken link as, “a hyperlink which is linked to an empty or non-existent external webpage.” Broken links are also called dead links.

Quite simply, a broken link is a link that doesn’t take you to the expected resource. When you click on a link you expect to visit another webpage, view an image, open a PDF file, etc. When the link is broken you receive a 404-page error instead. This page will tell you that the webpage or file you are looking for is not available.

When a website has not checked for broken links and fixed these dead links for a long time it suffers from link rot. This term describes websites with an abundance of broken links.

What Causes Broken Links?

There is a number of things that cause broken links. Some are the fault of the webmaster and others are the fault of the websites a link is pointing to.

broken links causes

Regardless of who is to blame, broken links are caused by errors that include:

  • The wrong URL used by the website owner for the link. This can happen from a simple typo or mistake when entering the URL into the <href> tag.
  • The destination website removed the resource that you linked to. This happens when content grows stale, images are used without permission or just when the webmaster decides to take something down.
  • The destination website has permanently moved to a new URL. This can result from a merger/acquisition or even a domain name change.
  • The destination website no longer exists. Older studies show that the average lifespan of a webpage is 100 days. There is any number of reasons why someone would take their page, or site, down.
  • The resource you are linking to sits behind a firewall that prevents access to the content. Remember, not everyone makes their content accessible to the rest of the web. Perhaps it was open at one time but now sits behind a paywall.

Understanding why a link is not working is just as important as finding it in the first place. The obvious reason is that if you know why a link is broken, you will know how to fix it. However, let’s take that a step further. If you know what causes broken links, you are also less likely to make those mistakes in the first place.

By lessening the chance of a link breaking from the outset, you are reducing the chance that they will harm your website down the road.

It is unfortunate that many webmasters, marketers and business owners only view broken links as a nuisance rather than a larger problem. Google’s John Mueller once addressed the question:

— Do redirected links cause ranking issues?

by answering:

— The web changes, sometimes old links break. Googlebot isn’t going to lose sleep over broken links :).

Google on Broken Links

So, some people made the assumption that broken links aren’t that big of an issue.

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Unfortunately, this is wrong. While a few broken links aren’t going to crush your SEO efforts, they certainly aren’t going to help. Of course, there are other ways that they will cause your website harm as well.

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

I know, Google says that Googlebot isn’t going to punish you for broken links. However, there are some ways that broken links will hurt your efforts to rank in search engines like Google.

For one, if you are linking to a page within your site and that link is broken the search engine spiders are going to have trouble finding it. When they hit that page not found 404 error, the content you worked so hard to create and promote is getting no love from the search engines.

Once it hits that broken link, it moves on to the next one and any pages that it does not crawl do not get indexed. Pages that aren’t indexed don’t receive a ranking and therefore cannot be found by search engine users.

seo digital marketing

Another way broken links harm your search engine optimization comes from how long visitors stay on your site. If they encounter broken links they are likely going to look elsewhere for the information they need. After all, they can’t find it on your site.

Most experts agree that pages with high bounce rates don’t rank well. They also agree that the time a visitor spends on your site affects your ranking as well. The assumption is that the search engines will think that your site is full of relevant information because visitors spend a lot of time there.

If they are leaving quickly, it’s because your content isn’t relevant or your site isn’t easy to use.

2. User Experience

Users are easily frustrated. If pages don’t load fast enough they leave. If there are too many advertisements, they leave. If there is a paywall, they leave.

ux

If your visitors can’t access the information that they came to your site to find, they are going to leave. They would rather be on a site that works and broken links are a sure fire way to frustrate your visitors.

3. Reputation & Revenue

When a visitor encounters a website that is full of broken links, they are going to avoid it in the future. They simply won’t trust that site to provide the information they need. If that site is yours, your reputation is ruined.

Not only do you run the risk of damaging your reputation with that user, but others as well. KISSmetrics published a study that showed 44 percent of people will tell their friends when they have a bad experience online.

Website Performance Infographic

That same study showed that 79 percent of shoppers who are dissatisfied with a website’s performance are less likely to buy from that site again. So broken links can cost you money as well.

Of course, if links to your product pages or your affiliate products are the ones that are broken you are losing sales as well. You don’t need a degree in economics to see that this too will affect your revenue.

How to Find Broken Links

Now that you are aware of what effect broken links have on your site it is time to fix the issue. We recommend that you check for broken links on a monthly basis at least. This will give you the opportunity to take action and minimize the negative effect of having dead links on your site.

find broken links

If you have the time, or if you are consistently adding new pages to your website, then you are going to want to check more frequently. You don’t need to become obsessive over this, but making it a habit to check for broken links will certainly benefit your website.

As broken links are a problem for webmasters and businesses, there are a number of different tools available to check for them. Some of these tools are completely free while others will require an investment.

1. Google Search Console

One of the most popular, and effective tools is the free Google Search Console.

When you open this tool click on Search Traffic in the right-hand menu and then Internal Links. If you are missing an important page, or the number of links looks off, it could be due to a broken link.

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Find broken links with Google Search Console

Next, click on Crawl -> Crawl Errors. Scroll to “Not Found” Section. This will give you a report of all the missing pages on your site with both internal and external links pointing to them.

Find broken links with Google Search Console

2. Xenu

Another popular tool to check for broken links is Xenu. Like the Google Search Console, this is a free product. Since its primary focus is looking for broken links, it is also much easier to use and gives a complete report about the links on your site.

Start by opening Xenu and clicking File and then Check URL. The following window will open for you and you enter the URL of the page you wish to check.

You also have the option of only checking for internal links that are broken. To do this, uncheck the Check external links box.

Once you run the tool, you receive a report of the links found and their status.

Xenu Broken Link Report

Xenu provides you with some other tools as well so you can export the report, build sitemaps and perform some other tasks. If you wish to check a local file, before you upload your code to the web, that option is available too. You also have the option to examine a list of URLs so you can check your entire site at once.

3. Domain Hunter Plus

The final tool we will look at is actually a Chrome extension called Domain Hunter Plus. This allows you to analyze a page you are on to find broken links.

Once you add the extension you will see a small green target on your browser.

domain hunter chrome extension

Navigate to the page you wish to check and click that target. It will run a check on that page and provide you with a report of all the broken links it finds. You can export this report to refer to later if you choose.

domain hunter fabthemes

4. WordPress Broken Link Checker Plugin

If you’re using WordPress for your website, then there’s a free plugin you can install that will automatically monitor your site for broken links.

Broken Link Checker WordPress plugin

After installing the Broken Link Checker plugin on your WordPress website, you’ll get dashboard notifications when a dead link is found. You can then fix the offending link directly through the plugin dashboard without even having to open and edit the page itself.

These are four of the more popular tools. You can find other tools available as well by searching for link checkers if you wish to use something else.

Fixing Broken Links

Now that you have found the broken links on your website it is time to start fixing them.

The way to fix internal links requires you to examine each link to see why it is broken.

  • Did you mistype the URL? If that is the case change it to reflect the correct address for the content you are linking to.
  • Did you rename or move a page? When this happens, you need to update the link to reflect the change.
  • Did you remove the page from your website? If this is the case you need to either remove the link or find another piece of relevant content to link to.

For external links, the process is a bit more difficult.

If the site you were linking to is gone you will need to find somewhere else to link to or remove the link altogether. If the link was to content that supported a claim or statement, find another resource so you keep your credibility intact.

If the broken link is due to an error on your part, you may be able to easily find the correct URL. If you can, change the link. If you cannot find the correct page, search for the site’s main URL using the site: operator and keywords related to the topic.

Search Google for Relevant Sites

You may be able to find the original content or at least something else relevant that you can link to.

What About Incoming Broken Links?

Up until now, we have focused on broken links that exist on your website. However, these are not the only links that cause you problems.

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Link building, when done properly, is still an effective SEO technique.

However, if the links pointing to your site are broken you are losing any SEO benefit you could be enjoying, such as improved rankings in the search engines and more visitors to your site.

ahrefs broken links

Therefore, checking for incoming broken links is just as important as looking for broken links on your own site.

You should, as a best practice, keep track of any links you earned through guest posting or other link building strategies. Periodically, you are going to want to audit these links to ensure that they are still working.

Should you find any broken incoming links, reach out to the site owner and ask them to fix them. Check back to see if everything is working properly.

WebMeUp Backlink Checker

Some tools you can use to keep track of and monitor links pointing to your site include AhrefsMajestic, Raven, and WebMeUp.

These backlink checkers are paid tools but many offer free trials to help you decide if they will be beneficial for your website.

Using Broken Links to Your Advantage

Some site owners and organizations don’t bother checking for broken links. Due to this, they may be linking out to content that no longer exists or through user error they might have created the link incorrectly. If their site is one that you would like to earn a link from for SEO purposes, you can use this to your advantage.

First, start looking for sites that relate to a keyword you are trying to rank for. You can start by using some well-known search strings:

  • keyword + “resources”
  • keyword + intitle:resources
  • site:.gov keyword + “links”
  • site:.edu keyword + “recommended sites”
  • keyword + “related links”

When you see a page that is relevant to your site and would make a good link, check the page using a tool like “Domain Hunter Plus”. For the greatest SEO benefit, look for pages that have a high domain authority. Aim for a DA of at least 50 and you will start to see some rather impressive results.

When you find broken links and you have relevant content that the site could use as a resource, you have a match. Contact the webmaster of that site and let them know that you found a broken external link on their page. At the same time, let them know that you have content that they may wish to consider replacing their broken link with.

If you really want to increase your chances, dig into the broken links a bit further. If the site itself is down or you can be sure the page is gone let the webmaster know this as well.

Further Reading on Broken Link Building

Broken link building is an effective, white-hat, content-focused link building strategy. Just spend 30-40 minutes of your time to go through these awesome articles. You won’t regret it, I promise.

Conclusion

There is no question, broken links cause some business headaches. There are webmasters who aren’t even aware of the problems they cause. Whether broken links are hurting SEO efforts or keeping visitors from buying products these are solvable problems. It just takes time and dedication to resolve them.

Start by establishing a strategy on how you will deal with broken links. Set up a schedule for checking, be it monthly, twice a month or even weekly, and stick to it. The right tools can reduce the your workload significantly. Then, deal with broken links immediately. Don’t wait and address them later. Remember, each day that a broken link sits on your website is another day you are losing out.

Finally, remember that you can use broken links on other sites to your advantage. If you really want to take your SEO efforts up a notch, start building new links from sites that have a broken link problem of their own.

Broken links are a problem that all websites will have at some point, even large companies with a team of webmasters at their disposal. However, it is a problem that has an easy solution if you are willing to take the time to fix them.

Good luck!

Comments

30 Comments

  • Avatar Theresa Turner says:

    you explained very well about broken links, thank you so much for sharing such a nice article with us.

  • Avatar Gomummy Hosting says:

    Hello,

    I just came across such good article and will definitely try to do such informative article with our blogs.

  • Avatar theQA says:

    XENU seems not working on website with dynamic reference on link (angular framework). Anyone having better tool to check broken link for all website including angular framework based website (e.g: https://angular.io/)

  • Avatar sohbet says:

    Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

  • Avatar Siri A says:

    Your article Broken links is good. It is very helpfull for me,It is More Informative .Thanks For Sharing a Great Posting.

  • Avatar Nagesh says:

    Useful post, I have been using a tool called dead link checker to find the broken links website.
    Your information is useful,
    Thanks for sharing.

  • Avatar SiteAnalyzer says:

    I recommend testing SiteAnalyzer – a free program for auditing and technical analysis of the site. At the same time, the set of functions is practically not inferior to paid counterparts.

  • Avatar jack says:

    Nice article. It is wise to make use of relevant broken links for a good traffic mileage.

    Jack from Piqued Digi Media

  • Avatar tom alex says:

    Hi
    I’d like to share your post because of relevancy..
    Really very informative post.
    do you have any post about SEO ?

    Thank You!

  • Avatar sufiyan says:

    sir you are providing interesting knowledge and deep deatils about broken links
    thankyou

  • Avatar Monihin says:

    Interesting! Thanks for the tutorials. I’ve learnt something very important here. I was going to ask the possibility of going through all my pages to spot broken links before I scrolled down to the tools you mentioned. I think I’m going to opt for WordPress Broken Link Checker Plugin since I owned a WordPress blog. Thanks!

  • Avatar Mehedi Hasan says:

    Hi,
    I am a new blog owner and while I do have experience working on other people’s blogs, broken links are something I need to fix. Every time you update website software be it WordPress or something else, you need to check for them.

  • Avatar Ryan says:

    Broken Links are disaster for your SEO and your website promotion efforts. Make sure you check your broken link with broken link checker tools online. But before your check these hefty links which are not working anymore, you need to find all your broken links or often termed as dead links. A website analysis using the Google Webmaster Tools or any other online tool will help you discover these links, which are responsible for a bad user experience.

  • Avatar GrabBestOffer says:

    Everything is covered which I need thanks for sharing this I really agree with your link find and fix benefits i will try my own website for improving my SEO result.

  • Avatar Tina says:

    Definitely right about broken links being beyond frustrating or annoying for the users. I can’t stand it when I try to access a link and it doesn’t work. I guess the best method would be for someone to test your site for you or every month do random checks to make sure everything is in good working condition.

  • Avatar Md Istiaq Hossain says:

    I am really happy to know about all the information. you pprovide. It helps me a lot. I visited many website to know about these content. But I was not satisfied. But now I am really.
    Keep it up.

    Thank you

  • Avatar David Keeper says:

    I found a few sites that are older and have several broken links. I am not sure if the person just renews the domain and keeps the site going for the heck of it or what. It looks like it hasn’t been touched. I can’t find any contact information either. It is a site in the same niche as me and I would love to work with them. I know the site gets decent traffic as well. How can I actually contact a web domain owner if there is no contact information?

  • Avatar Frank says:

    How does one get a link to work exactly if there is a firewall in the way?

    I am a new site owner and I am completely dumbfounded. If you can give me any kind of help on this I would really appreciate it. Do you have maybe an article just covering that? I can’t seem to figure out why a lot of my links keep breaking. It is making my site look like a trash bin.

  • Avatar Mr. A says:

    I noticed that when I do fine broken links and fix them, my site does run smoother and loads faster. I guess this is because it isn’t spending time trying to find a link that doesn’t exist anymore?

    Either way, great information. I am bookmarking the page now and will be back for referencing tomorrow. Doing a HUGE face-lift to my main blog and fixing broken links is one of the first things on my to-do list.

  • Avatar Nichole says:

    Fantastic information and an easy guide to fixing a problem every site owner should already have fixed! I am horrible when it comes to keeping up with things like this but I can tell you, if you don’t, it will bite you in the rear end over time. A friend of mine found out thanks to broken links, she was missing out on a good amount of money she could have been generating every month!

  • Avatar Mike Samuel says:

    You seem to know a bit on Google so can I ask a question?

    I set up adsense on my blog about 3 years ago. Is there a chance for any of those links to be broken or will they automatically be redirected? If they are broken, is there an easy way to check this? I run a “shopping aid” site where I recommend products and deals and tie in adsense deals as well. I am worried that broken links could be harming my income now.

  • Avatar James P. says:

    I only just started using the Broken Link Checker Plugin on WordPress and holycow was my blog a mess! I have been running it for nearly 10 years now so you could imagine the amount of broken links I had that I didn’t even realize were there. A lot of them were down to pictures or videos being deleted or products not longer being found at said link. I completely recommend this plugin for any WordPress user. It saves you a lot of time.

  • Avatar Ellen says:

    I run several blogs and have writers beneath me so it is a bit of a task to keep up with broken links but I did notice that a lot of issues do come from typos. One letter or even symbol missing and it is bye-bye link or image. Most of my issues and the issues on other sites I see is broken images. I guess that would be a great way to slip your own picture (by offering it to the web owner) to get a free backlink.

  • Avatar Paul Rouge says:

    I spent many years online, trying to perfect how to become successful and gain traffic… I have to tell you – This is the first, yes FIRST time I am hearing (or rather reading) anything on benefiting from broken links on someone else’s page. I am going to see what I can do with this and how I can actually use this to help further grow my business online.

  • Avatar Mack M. says:

    I would have never thought to actually contact a web domain owner about a broken link and offer them what I have. That is such a genius way of really offering your hand and in return, they do you the favor. I feel like for some niches out there, this could do wonders for their sites be it shops, blogs, or even forums.

  • Avatar Britanica says:

    I am a new blog owner and while I do have experience working on other people’s blogs, broken links is something I need to fix. Every time you update website software be it WordPress or something else, you need to check for them. I once had 20 posts with SEVERAL broken links. It was a mess!

  • Avatar Michael Jenkins says:

    Hi, I came to your site looking for good hosts. I’m considering to switch my host. Anyway, I was browsing through you blog posts and came across this article. Broken links have been a concern of mine. Before reading this article, I was on the mercy of my readers reporting broken links. Now I find out broken links as soon as they break 😉 Thanks for sharing this article.

  • Avatar Jeannie Nard says:

    Hi, I’m a webmaster and your article is the best article I’ve read on broken links. You have shown me step by step how to find broken links and I respect you for that. I like the WordPress Broken Link Checker Plugin. I’ve also bookmarked your site for future reference. Good work!

  • Avatar Gabriela says:

    Thanks, Dmitry! I got to knew a lot about broken links and the methods to fix them. I really appreciate you sharing your post with us!

  • Avatar Catherine Matt says:

    Interesting! Thanks for the tutorials. I’ve learnt something very important here. I was going to ask the possibility of going through all my pages to spot broken links before I scrolled down to the tools you mentioned. I think I’m going to opt for WordPress Broken Link Checker Plugin since I owned a WordPress blog. Thanks!

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