Opening a webpage only to receive error 404 is annoying. These are broken links which can harm your SEO marketing efforts.
Visitors need to see a functional website without broken links. This portrays professionalism and helps you improve your ranking on search engines
How To Detect Broken Links
The first thing you need to do is to detect broken links in your website.
It can be a difficult task to check every link on your page to detect the broken ones. This is especially if you have a large website. There are two types of broken links and to easily detect them, you need to understand each one of them.
Internal Link
These are links that take users from one page of your website to the other. As an SEO marketer, you should already know that internal linking is very important. You are in control of internal links and therefore it’s your responsibility to ensure they are working correctly.
If you happen to update anything on your website, determine whether the links are working correctly.
External Links
These links point to other websites. You have less control over these links and therefore you need to keep on checking whether the links are working.
Harms Caused By Broken Links
Broken links can have a hit on your SEO. The following are a few things that get affected because of broken links.
Low Ranking
Too many broken links affect your website ranking on search engines. When visitors find broken links they don’t continue browsing and they are likely to quit immediately. This can lower your ranking on search engines.
High Bounce Rate
Search engines rank your website if people are spending some time on your website. If they encounter broken links they end up exiting your website and this increases your bounce rate.
The best way to check the website for a broken link is to manually go through all the links whether external or internal. If you have a large website, there are tools you can use to detect broken links.
There are several SEO link management tools to help you detect broken links and help you manage all your website links effectively.
If you need help on content marketing, contact Anchor Digital. They are a digital marketing solutions company offering social media, SEO and content marketing services.
