Do you need help with broken internal links on your website? These troublesome links frustrate your visitors and damage your SEO, making it harder for search engines to navigate and index your site effectively.
In this guide, we’ll learn the causes of broken internal links, their impact on your website and practical solutions to fix them.
Whether you’re dealing with outdated URLs, site restructures or simple typos, understanding how to identify and fix these broken links is essential for maintaining a seamless user experience and enhancing your site’s SEO performance.
Let’s get your website back on track by fixing those broken internal links!
What Are Broken Internal Links?
Broken internal links are hyperlinks within your website that point to a page that no longer exists or cannot be found. These links lead to a “404 error” page, indicating that the requested page is unavailable.
Internal links are important for navigating a website, allowing users and search engines to find related content easily. However, when these links break, they disrupt the user experience and can negatively impact your website’s SEO.
What Causes Broken Internal Links?
Broken internal links are a common issue on many websites, leading to a poor user experience and negatively impacting SEO. Here are some common causes of broken internal links:
- Site Restructure: Changes in your site’s structure can result in broken links. When pages are moved or reorganised without updating the internal links pointing to them, they will have broken internal links.
- Renaming Pages: Renaming a page’s URL without adjusting the links pointing to the old URL causes broken links. This is a frequent issue during rebranding or updating content.
- Deleting Pages: Deleting pages linked internally without removing or updating those links creates broken links, leading to an error page.
- Moving Pages: Similar to renaming, moving pages to a different URL structure without updating the internal links results in broken internal links.
- Incorrect URL: Sometimes, a link’s URL is entered incorrectly, leading to broken links. This can happen due to typos or outdated links.
- Outdated Content: Links in older blog posts or pages that haven’t been maintained can become broken if the linked content no longer exists.
Importance Of Fixing Broken Links
Fixing broken internal links on your website is essential for several reasons. Here’s how addressing broken links can benefit your site:
- Improve Site Usability: Fixing broken internal links ensures visitors can navigate your site easily and find relevant pages without encountering error pages. This enhances the user experience and encourages visitors to stay on your site longer.
- Reduce Bounce Rates: Broken links can frustrate site visitors, leading them to leave your site quickly. You can reduce bounce rates and keep visitors engaged with your content by fixing broken links.
- Enhance SEO Rankings: Search engines favour sites with a strong internal linking strategy. Fixing broken internal links helps search engines crawl all the pages on your site effectively, improving your site’s presence in Google search results.
- Maintain Link Equity: Broken links disrupt the flow of link juice throughout your site. By fixing broken links, you ensure that link equity is preserved, boosting the rankings of important pages.
5 Ways On How To Find Broken Links
Detecting broken internal links within a website is essential to maintain optimal SEO performance and a positive user experience.
Here are five effective methods to find broken links on your site:
1. Manually Look For Broken Links
While manually checking for broken internal links on your website can be effective, especially on smaller sites or specific pages, it’s often not the most efficient method, particularly for larger or enterprise sites.
What do we mean by “manual”?
Essentially, you would need to visit each page on your site and click every link to ensure they all function correctly. This method is incredibly time-consuming and impractical for websites with much content.
However, this method may not be practical for larger sites due to the extensive number of internal links to check.
2. Chrome’s Inspect Tool
Detecting broken internal links on your website can be efficiently managed using Google Chrome’s Inspect tool.
This tool is especially handy for quickly identifying any broken links that lead to 404 errors, indicating pages that cannot be found—essentially spotlighting broken internal links.
To use this feature, right-click on any page of your website and select “Inspect” from the dropdown menu. This action will open the Inspect panel. Click on the “Console” tab within this panel and refresh the page.
As the page reloads, the Console will display all 404 errors. Each 404 error signifies a broken link, showing that the linked page no longer exists or the link’s URL is incorrect.
This method is a straightforward way to find broken links, ensuring that your site maintains an effective internal linking strategy, preserves link equity and supports a healthy site structure.
By routinely checking for 404 errors using Chrome’s Inspect tool, website owners can quickly identify and rectify broken links, enhancing both the user experience and the website’s performance in Google search results.
3. Google Search Console
Google Search Console is an invaluable, free tool that helps website owners monitor their site’s presence in Google search results and identify issues that could impact their performance, including broken internal links.
One of Google Search Console’s key features is its ability to detect 404 errors, which are often a clear indication of broken links.
To use this tool to find broken links, log into Google Search Console and click the ‘Coverage’ section. Here, you can view a detailed report of any crawl errors encountered by Google’s spiders, including 404 errors.
These errors indicate that Google attempted to reach a page on your site but failed because the page either no longer exists or the URL was incorrect.
Identifying these 404 errors is important as they point directly to broken internal links that need fixing. By addressing these errors, you can ensure that all the pages on your site are correctly linked, enhancing your site’s SEO by improving link equity and ensuring effective internal linking.
Fixing these links helps prevent site visitors from encountering frustrating dead ends, thereby improving user experience and potentially boosting your rankings in Google search results.
4. Google Analytics
Tracking broken internal links in Google Analytics is straightforward, with the creation of a custom report specifically to filter out 404 errors.
Start by logging into your Google Analytics account and navigating to “Customization” to create a new custom report.
Focus the report on monitoring response codes by setting the filter to only show 404 errors, which indicate broken links.
GA4, the latest iteration of Google Analytics, simplifies this process further by automatically tracking 404 error responses. To access this data, go to the ‘Pages and Screens’ report section and use the search bar to locate any error pages.
This feature lets you quickly identify which pages on your website are generating 404 errors, pointing you directly to the broken links that need your attention.
Setting up this custom report helps you continuously monitor and quickly address broken links, ensuring your site maintains internal linking and optimal user experience.
5. Utilise Other Popular SEO Tools
To complement Google’s tools, several popular SEO tools can also enhance your ability to detect and fix broken internal links.
Screaming Frog, a desktop crawler favoured by SEO professionals, allows for an in-depth scan of your website. Utilise the ‘Response Code’ filter to pinpoint 404 errors and review the ‘Inlinks’ feature to isolate internal broken links.
Another powerful tool, Ahrefs, includes a Site Audit feature that sifts through your website to uncover various issues, including broken links. It categorises links by HTTP status codes, making it easier for you to identify and remedy any 404 errors.
Semrush also offers a similar Site Audit tool, which is particularly adept at revealing on-site issues that could hinder your website’s performance. After running an audit, check the ‘Issues’ tab to promptly find and address broken internal links.
Utilising these SEO tools can significantly streamline the process of identifying and resolving broken links, boosting your site and ensuring a better experience for both users and search engines.
How To Fix Broken Internal Links
Fixing broken internal links helps maintain your website’s usability and SEO. Here are effective strategies for addressing and correcting found broken links:
Redirect The Link
When you find a broken internal link because the original page has a new URL, setting up a 301 redirect is the most effective method to preserve link equity and ensure users are redirected to the correct page.
A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect that passes most of the ranking power (or link juice) to the redirected page, helping maintain your site’s SEO strength.
Adding a 301 redirect means that any time a user or a search engine accesses the old URL, it will automatically be redirected to the new URL.
This prevents users from landing on a 404 error page and tells search engines that the move is permanent, thus preserving your page’s rankings.
For instance, if you’ve merged several product pages into a single, comprehensive page, you should set up 301 redirects from the old product pages to the new combined page. This ensures that any links pointing to the old URLs will seamlessly lead users to the relevant content on the new page.
Remember, it’s critical to redirect to relevant pages only. Redirecting to unrelated pages can frustrate users and harm your site’s credibility and rankings.
Tools like WordPress offer plugins that simplify setting up these redirects, making it easier to manage even for those with minimal technical expertise.
Through careful use of 301 redirects, you can effectively fix broken internal links, enhancing your site’s user experience and SEO performance.
Update The Link
If a target page still exists but has moved to a different URL, the most straightforward fix is to update the link directly.
This method ensures that the link remains functional and continues to lead users to the correct destination without the need for redirects, which might be unnecessary if the change is minor, such as a corrected typo or a slightly altered URL structure.
When you identify broken links through SEO tools like Google Search Console or SEMrush’s site audit tool, check the link’s anchor text and the intended page.
If the page has simply moved, update the original link to reflect the new URL. This immediate correction maintains the user experience by preventing access to error pages and helps preserve link equity, which is key for maintaining your site’s SEO health.
After updating the link, always test it to ensure it directs to the right page. For outdated content, replace the old link with a link to more current, relevant content on your site, enhancing the overall value and relevance of your page.
Remove The Link
In cases where the content linked is outdated, irrelevant or the page no longer exists, the best course of action is often to remove the link entirely.
This approach prevents users from encountering dead ends on your site, which can negatively impact user experience and increase bounce rates.
If the content to which the link pointed has been permanently removed and there is no relevant replacement within your site, consider linking to a reliable external resource if it adds value and relevance to your content.
However, if no suitable external or internal replacement is available, it’s best to remove the broken link altogether.
Removing non-functional links helps maintain the integrity of your content and avoids misleading your visitors.
Regularly auditing your site to identify and remove or replace broken links is vital in keeping its structure clean and navigable. This not only improves user experience but also supports romSEO practices.
Conclusion On How To Fix Broken Internal Links
Throughout this guide, we’ve explored various effective methods for identifying and fixing broken internal links, an essential aspect of maintaining a healthy website.
Keeping your internal links in check is essential for ensuring that your website performs well in terms of SEO and provides a smooth and satisfying user experience.
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Frequently Asked Questions On How To Fix Broken Internal Links
How Many Internal Links Per SEO Page?
The number of internal links per SEO page can vary depending on the content length and purpose of the page, but a general rule is to include as many as are useful for the reader.
Overloading a page with too many internal links can dilute the value of each link and potentially confuse readers.
It’s essential to focus on creating natural, contextually relevant links that enhance the user’s experience and help search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of your website.
What Are The Typical Signs That My Website Has Broken Internal Links?
Typical signs of broken internal links include:
- Receiving 404 error notifications.
- Noticing increased bounce rates on certain pages.
- Reports from users about dead links.
These indicators can be confirmed through tools like Google Analytics or Google Search Console, which track page errors and site navigation issues. Regular audits with SEO tools can also help identify and address these broken links proactively.
Can Broken Internal Links Affect The Loading Speed Of My Website?
Broken internal links themselves do not directly affect the loading speed of a website, but they can lead to poor user experiences and increased server requests.
When users encounter a broken link, the browser may spend additional time trying to load a non-existent page, which can increase page load times perceptibly if it happens frequently. Moreover, search engines may waste time attempting to crawl these non-existent links, which is inefficient for site indexing.
How Often Should I Check For Broken Internal Links To Maintain Optimal Website Health?
Performing regular checks for broken internal links is crucial for maintaining website health. A monthly check is a good practice for most websites, but more frequent checks may be necessary for larger sites or sites that frequently update or delete content.
Using automated tools to monitor the status of links continuously can help catch and fix broken links as soon as they occur, ensuring the website remains accessible and SEO-friendly.
