A broken link is a link that goes to a page or a picture or a video that no longer exists on the internet.
There are 2 main reasons why you do not want them in your website.
1. They are annoying and look unprofessional.
2. But more seriously, they can have serious consequences for the performance of your website in Google because Google penalises websites with broken links.
They do occur from time to time as websites that you have linked to close down, or they delete images or articles that you may have referred to.
Imagine that you were using Yellow Pages (remember what they were?) To find a business, and every second business you called was either closed or did not exist.
You would not be very happy and you would soon ditch the Yellow Pages.
Well, Google wants to protect it's position as the # 1 search engine in the world by only giving people hyperlinks that work, and so it views broken hyperlinks in your website very badly.
We are not sure how quickly the impact comes, or how many you can have before the penalties start. That probably changes all the time.
So you should be vigilant and always minimize the amount of them detected in your website.
How do I Know if I have Broken Links
Most good website software will send an email to your admin email address to notify you when you have them in your website. (Ours does!)
From there it is a few simple steps to:
- click on the link in the email
- review the link that is broken
- fix it or delete it
You will receive an email with the subject – [your website name] Broken links detected
At the bottom of the email is a link that says: You can see all links here
When you click on that link, you will be taken to a page in the admin area of your website where they all are listed.
For each website hyperlink that is not working, you have 4 options to select:
- Edit URL
- Unlink
- Not broken
- Dismiss
You should review each link and attempt to fix the link, but failing that, you should Unlink the link.
It is better to not have the link active, than to have an active link going nowhere.
Well, that is quite simple really!
What should you do now?
- Check that your website has no links broken.
- Fix or delete any that you do find.
- Do this regularly.
- Want some help or ideas? Just contact us at Hotpink Websites now.