How to Find (and Fix) Broken Links: Technical SEO

Broken links can silently harm your website’s SEO and user experience. Whether you're a small business owner or a digital marketer, knowing “How to Find (and Fix) Broken Links” is important for maintaining a healthy website. 

This blog will provide a step-by-step guide to finding and fixing broken links, ensuring that both users and search engines have a smooth experience navigating your site.

What Are Broken Links?

Broken links, also known as dead links, are hyperlinks that no longer lead to the intended destination. Instead, they result in a "404 error" page or lead to content that no longer exists. This disrupts the user experience and negatively impacts your SEO, as search engines consider broken links a signal of poor site maintenance.

Why Fixing Broken Links is Critical

Broken links can affect your website in several ways:

1. SEO Impact: Search engines like Google prioritize websites that offer a smooth user experience. Broken links can lead to lower rankings because they suggest that your website is outdated or poorly managed.
2. User Experience: When users click on a link that leads to an error page, they may get frustrated and leave your site, leading to a higher bounce rate.
3. Lost Conversions: Broken links can disrupt your sales funnel, causing potential customers to abandon their journey.

How to Find Broken Links

There are several tools and techniques that make finding broken links simple. Here's how you can easily locate them:

1. Google Search Console

Google Search Console is one of the most reliable free tools for identifying broken links. It provides a "Coverage" report that lists all URLs on your website that have encountered errors, including broken links.

• Step 1: Go to the Coverage section.
• Step 2: View the error report and click on the "404" errors.
• Step 3: Review and fix the broken links.

2. Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Screaming Frog is a powerful SEO tool that crawls your website to detect broken links. This tool is highly recommended for larger websites.

• Step 1: Download and install Screaming Frog.
• Step 2: Run a site crawl, which will list all broken links.
• Step 3: Fix any detected errors by updating or removing the links.

3. Online Broken Link Checkers

There are several free tools available that make it easy to check for broken links, including:

• Broken Link Checker: A simple tool that scans your website and reports broken links.
• Ahrefs: Offers an in-depth backlink analysis with broken link reporting.

4. Manual Checking

For smaller websites, manually clicking through links to ensure they work properly is an option. While time-consuming, this ensures accuracy, especially on key pages.

How to Fix Broken Links

Once you've found the broken links, it’s time to fix them. There are several ways to handle broken links depending on the issue.

1. Update the Link

If the content has moved or the URL has changed, update the link to point to the correct destination. This is the most straightforward fix for broken internal links.

2. Redirect the Link (301 Redirect)

If the page is no longer available but a similar page exists, use a 301 redirect to guide users to the new page. A 301 redirect helps maintain SEO value and ensures users find relevant content.

3. Remove the Broken Link

If neither an update nor a redirect is possible, remove the link entirely. Removing broken links is better than keeping non-functional links that harm your website's credibility.

Tools to Find and Fix Broken Links: A Comparison

Best Practices for Regular Link Audits

Performing regular audits of your website to check for broken links is crucial for maintaining your SEO health. Here are some best practices:

1. Check Links Every 3-6 Months: Use tools like Google Search Console and Screaming Frog to identify broken links periodically.
2. Prioritize Important Pages: Focus on fixing broken links on your homepage, sales pages, and other high-traffic areas first.
3. Monitor External Links: Regularly review external links as they are more likely to break if the destination site changes.

Knowing “How to Find (and Fix) Broken Links” is important for keeping your website user-friendly and SEO-optimized. With tools like Google Search Console and Screaming Frog, you can easily identify broken links and fix them to ensure a seamless experience for users and search engines alike.

Regularly monitoring your website for broken links will not only boost your SEO but also improve your credibility and user satisfaction.