What are Broken Links? How to optimise this in SEO?
Broken links are those links that do not work because the page they lead to, either has been deleted or moved to another link. You will get to see an error page displaying a 404 error message or other errors similar to it, when you click on a broken link. Here in this article we will look at what is a broken link and how to optimise it for SEO.
What Are Broken Links? How To Optimise This In SEO?
Broken links are non-functional links that impact SEO of a website adversely. Broken links not only create problems for the users but also affect indexing of the content.
In simple words you can say broken links are like dead ends that affect the SEO of a website very badly and decrease the chances of getting higher ranks in search engines. Let’s talk about what is the role of broken links and how they impact on SEO.
Impact of Broken links on SEO
Broken links impact very negatively on the SEO of the website. They not only degrade the user experience and create negative effects on user stay on the website but also result in increased bounce rate. Since search engines focus particularly on user experience, when ranking the websites, if the website has negative user experience, there are high chances that it will result in lower rankings.
Furthermore, broken links not only affect users but also impact search engine crawlers from efficient indexing. This is because when crawlers come across broken links they are unable to access and index the content. This results in less content being indexed, ultimately resulting in affecting the search visibility of a website negatively.
Moreover, the presence of internal links in a website also increases page authority. In case your web page has broken internal links, there would be a decrease in the spread of link equity that affects SEO significantly. You need to make sure to focus on the broken links and fix them on time, to boost the SEO of the website.
You can go with regular audits and can go with using tools like Google Search Console to look for the presence of broken links and fix them. Undoubtedly, identifying and fixing broken links, right on time, not only helps in increasing SEO but also maintain the efficiency, authority and effectiveness of a website.
Optimising Broken Links In SEO
The first and foremost important step to fix broken links is to identify them. You can use tools like Google Search Console or other softwares and tools available to analyse and detect the broken links.
The tools are able to scan the URL of the website to check for the presence of the links or error code like a 404 Not Found or 500 Server Error. After that you have to analyse the importance of the broken links present in the website.
Make sure to first analyse those broken links that are present on the web pages with significant traffic or those that are on high quality pages. Then you have to look for the alternative and relevant URLs on the same website.
This is because after identifying the broken links, you have to replace them or remove them entirely. Remember if there is any alternative relevant URL present on the same site, you can go with the replacement option. Alternatively, if there is no alternative link available on the site, you can go with removing the link entirely.
Now you can fix and replace the link by editing the HTML or content management system to replace the broken link after making changes. Now you have to revalidate the fixes and confirm that all fixes are successful or not.
FAQs
Conclusion
Understanding broken links and their impact on SEO is an important practice that you must have knowledge about. This is essential to minimise the chances of affecting SEO negatively due to the presence of broken links. Pay attention to this above article to understand the details about how to fix broken links, to boost SEO of a website.