Causes of broken links and why pay attention to them at all?
The Internet is subject to permanent changes. Every minute new pages are put online, new web addresses and content are added or abandoned. Therefore, it happens faster than expected that the set link of a website leads to an error page. There are numerous causes for these “dead links” or also “broken links”:
- Deleted domain: The linked domain has been deleted by the domain owner and no longer exists.
- Change in URL structure or domain move: If the URL structure of a website changes or the domain moves, the internal links of the page must also be adjusted or correct redirects to the new URLs must be made.
- Renamed or deleted files: If a file on the server is renamed or deleted, links to that file will lead nowhere.
- Linked page has been deleted: if a linked page is deleted, the link will lead the visitor to an error page
- Syntax and spelling errors: Not all broken links are caused by technical errors. Incorrectly spelled URLs or endings, for example, due to a number or letter misspelling, can cause a link to result in an error.
- Faulty 301 redirects: When redirects are set up to direct links to new URLs, they must be set up correctly. Otherwise, the links will lead nowhere or end up on the wrong page.
Any reputable web development agency advises that all links set on a website should be checked regularly to ensure that they are working properly. This has two main reasons:
- Visitors to one’s website can be put off and lose trust in one’s website if it links to a 404 error page.
- Search engines like Google and Bing pay attention to such links during crawling and devalue a website if it has dead links.
How to recognize broken links
For the operator of a website, it takes a great deal of effort to regularly check all the links set on one’s own website. Especially for websites with numerous subpages and hundreds of set links, it is hardly reasonable to manually click on all set links again and again.
This is not necessary, as there are powerful tools for checking links. A professional web development agency is able to analyze a website in many ways with special software, the existence of broken links is one of them.
For your own test, free, simple versions of such tools can be downloaded or used online. These are often limited to a maximum number of sub-pages during the check, for a comprehensive analysis a commercial version is necessary. In order not to invest in them yourself, permanent cooperation with a web agency will help.
Understand the causes of broken links and react
If tools show that there are broken links, they should be eliminated as soon as possible. Ideally, a check should take place before the next search engine crawl, so that the dead links do not affect the achieved ranking. Possibilities to deal with broken links are for example:
- The complete removal of the link. This is a sensible decision in the case of links to websites that no longer exist. Powerful tools find out if the website is still on the web at all, in the negative case the broken link can be easily removed.
- An adjustment of the link. It is not uncommon that the page to be linked actually exists, but typos or incomplete links cause the problem. Here, a simple adjustment can ensure that the broken link is exchanged for a functioning link.
- Setting a new link. This assumes that the “correct” subpage to which the link should actually be made is known and that it exists. Possibly something has changed in the menu structure or naming of the page. All this can be included in the new link.
Catch Broken Links with Special Websites
For large web projects, eliminating all broken links can be very time-consuming. Think of an online shop that refers to websites of manufacturers and brands in product descriptions. If one of these websites is no longer accessible, this can have consequences for dozens or hundreds of links of the own store.
As a professional web development agency, ONELINE recommends thinking about a central redirection of the link. The goal is to not let the site visitor arrive at a 404 page and thereby lose trust in one’s own web offer.
Broken links can be redirected to a central landing page, for example. On this page, the user can be informed that the originally linked content no longer exists. Although this does not satisfy the user’s interest, it does maintain trust and a positive impression of the company’s own website.
Correct handling of internal broken links
Dead links can not only occur when linking to external pages. It can also happen that internal links are broken due to restructuring of the own website. In this case, the consequences would be even more far-reaching for the ranking on Google or Bing, since crawling immediately gives the impression of a poorly maintained web presence.
Whether a broken link should simply be removed here depends on the previous popularity of the linked website. Thus, analysis tools for one’s own website can reveal that the linked content received many search queries and was gladly accessed within the site.
Simply removing the link would result in lower traffic and declining rankings. Here, it makes more sense to recreate the page that no longer exists and thus activate the link in a meaningful way. A redirect to a renewed page is also conceivable, as long as the broken link is permanently repaired.
Simple adjustment of the links in the CMS
Every major web development agency works with a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress when creating new websites. With these systems, web design and content can be separated and content can be adjusted and renewed very easily in the backend.
With regard to broken links, a CMS has the advantage of being able to set a redirect for the dead links by means of special plugins. A simple analysis of the page for broken links is also conceivable, in order to determine an action for all found, non-functioning links. The most common action: a direct redirection to an active internal or external website until all dead links are removed.
Website optimization with a web development agency
Since dead links can cause significant damage to a website’s reputation and its ranking in search engines, they should be removed as soon as possible. Broken links are just one of numerous problems that can occur when maintaining a website.
Working with a web development agency like ONELINE is a great way to leave site maintenance and upkeep in professional hands. With additional support in areas such as SEO and online marketing, the service of such agencies goes beyond mere site functionality.
