Broken internal links are sure ways to truncate your credibility and destroy your SEO efforts. The good thing is that they can be fixed, but damages might have been done before you notice something is wrong. Another negative feature of broken internal links is the fact that it is a recurring issue.
Do not be discouraged or feel ashamed; it does not mean you or your team are negligent. Unknowingly, inserting a broken internal link or deleting a page without adding a ‘redirect’ can happen to anyone. Fixing these broken links will help your SEO have a neat boost and improve the user experience.
Examples of Broken Internal Links
Broken internal links are types of links that show users that a page on your website does not exist. Broken links can occur for diverse reasons, such as:
- When a page is deleted
- If there is a typographical error in your URL
- If the page was modified or moved without updating the link
- When your internal links are pointing to the wrong page
How Can Broken Internal Links Affect SEO?
This issue can have numerous negative effects on your SEO. These effects include, but are not limited to, the following:
- You might lose website traffic because search engines cannot crawl your website efficiently because of these broken links.
- Internal links assist search engines in understanding your website’s structure. Therefore, if these links are broken, it could break your SEO efforts.
- Imagine a user clicking on a broken link, and a “404 error” page pops up. That could frustrate users, and they might leave your website to find what you offer elsewhere.
How Can You Find Broken Internal Links?
You can use SEO tools to automatically find broken internal links. You can use tools like Screaming Frog and Morning Score to crawl your website and provide results. That makes it much easier to find and address these issues compared to using a manual approach.
How Can It Be Fixed?
You have possibly understood how to find these broken links; now it is time to learn how to fix them. Consider the following practical steps:
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Recreate the page
Recreating your page is a sure way to fix broken internal links, especially when the missing page has a backlink pointing to it. Do not panic; this does not cause more work for you. However, if you no longer offer the services of the deleted page recreating, it will not be necessary.
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Typo
One of the common causes of broken internal links is a typo. Check if the broken links were the result of a misspelled URL, then fix it.
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Remove the link
Removing broken internal links is very easy; however, you might lose your chance to boost page views and time spent on the website. You can delete the link if the services involved on the page are not crucial.
Once you get a hang of it, fixing these links will become easier over time, and the processes needed to identify them will be seamless.
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Redirects
One of the effective methods Google recommends for fixing broken internal links is implementing “301 redirects.” This method redirects a page to another page with relevant content like a tag page, category, or post. If you have tried to redirect to those sites, and it proves abortive, redirect to your home page.
Conclusion
In most situations, human errors result in broken internal links. You or your backend team can make mistakes when updating or creating content. “It is crucial to train your content-creation team and all staff on the importance of effective internal linking,” says Bill Fukui of MedShark Digital.
