{"id":6626,"date":"2022-06-28T12:54:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-28T12:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/5minutesseo.com\/?p=6626"},"modified":"2022-07-18T06:48:52","modified_gmt":"2022-07-18T06:48:52","slug":"do-broken-links-affect-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/5minutesseo.com\/seo\/do-broken-links-affect-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Broken Links Affect SEO?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Have you ever clicked on a link on a website only to find that it’s broken with an error message- the dreaded 404 page? Or worse, takes you to an unrelated website? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This can be extremely frustrating for users and is often caused by outdated or incorrect links. You click on a promising-looking link only to be taken to a dead end. Not only is it annoying, but it can also be detrimental to your website if people are constantly running into broken links when trying to access your content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t worry – broken links happen to everyone. In this article, we’ll show you how broken links affect your SEO and how to fix them so that your website is up and running again in no time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are Broken Links?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A broken link is a link on a website that no longer works. When you click on a broken link, you will be taken to a 404 error page. Broken links can occur for many reasons, such as when a website is redesigned, the new pages do not have the same URL as the old pages, or when a website is no longer available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do broken links impact your website and affect SEO?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you have a website, chances are you have broken links. According to a survey by Terry Sullivan’s All Things Web, 6%<\/a> of the links on the web are broken. While most people know that broken links can be frustrating for website visitors, few realise that they can also have a negative impact on your website’s search engine optimization (SEO).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broken links can affect your SEO in several ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. User’s experience on your website<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

88%<\/a> of site visitors are less likely to return to a website after having a poor experience. Broken links provide a poor user experience, which can lead to people leaving your site without converting into customers or subscribers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broken links are links linked to keywords that help users find the right information about something. If the links are not working, users will get annoyed, and they will leave your website immediately. They will instead visit the website of your competitors to get the required information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Impacts website reputation, traffic & revenue<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Website owners invest a huge amount of money in ranking their website in search engine results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, if the website carries too many broken links, it gives the impression that your site is outdated or poorly maintained, which could hurt your reputation and make it harder for people to find you in the search engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When people spend less time on your site, search engines assume that your website is providing relevant quality information to the users, resulting in decreased traffic and total revenue of your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Your SEO efforts<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Source<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we go by the words stated by Google, one or two broken links on the website will not affect the SEO. However, it does affect your website’s overall SEO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broken links can prevent search engines from being able to crawl and index your site properly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a search engine crawls your website, it follows each link to see where it leads. If it comes across a broken link, it will flag it as an error. This not only makes it more difficult for the search engine to index your website properly but also hurts your website’s ranking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides this, when the user visits the broken link, he will leave your website immediately. Google will assume that you are not providing the right information or that the content on your website is of low quality. This will directly impact the search engine rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Find Broken Links?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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If you’re running a website, it’s inevitable that at some point, you’ll have to deal with broken links. Whether it’s because you’ve moved content around or because an external site has changed its URL, broken links can be a real pain. Not only are they bad for user experience, but they can also hurt your site’s ranking in search engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luckily, there are a few tools that can help you find and fix broken links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Google Search Console<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The easiest way to find broken links without spending money on premium tools is using the Google Search Console. This is a free tool that allows you to see how Google crawls and indexes your site. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following steps will show you how to find broken links using Google Search Console. <\/p>\n\n\n\n