Broken Links Suck for Everybody

We all know what it is like to get to a website….see something cool…click on the link and NO JOY. Up pops a page similar to the one below. There are few things more frustrating and few events that will more quickly drive visitors from your site. Google strives to return the best results for the people that use its search engine. That said, please understand that Google notices sites with a large number of broken links; that notice is not favorable. So, if you have a small business website, a personal blog, etc., here is what we think. Let’s dive into Fix Broken Weblinks Atlanta, my topic for the day.

There are lots of components to the “why” of how links on your site get broken . Here are a few:

1. a page on your site was removed or renamed and you forgot to change your internal links.
2. there are links to internal or external content (PDFs, images, videos, etc.). That content has been moved or deleted and you have taken no action.
3. there were links to a third party page, and that third party moved or changed the URL.

Now. what can you do? If, like so many of us, you are a WordPress user, then there are many options for adding easy plug-ins. One that we use is called Broken Link Checker and it’s simple as can be. Here are a few of the features available:

1. monitors links in your posts, pages, and comments.
2. detects links that don’t work, missing images and redirects.
3. notifies you either via the Dashboard or by email.

Please take particular note of the third item above. This can create an almost bullet-proof scenario for you in terms of broken links. Below is a screen shot of how easy the notification process is to set up.

Here is the last piece. How to fix a group of broken links on your site in terms of a methodology? This is not definitive but it is certainly a common sense approach:

1. if the context of the text link content can stand alone without the link, and still make sense…simply unlink the text.
2. if the link is needed and you can not find the content it was linked to …then revise the content as much as possible to be ok without the link.
3. if the link was broken inside an image that can live without the link ….then just unlink the image.
4. perform site searches to see whether broken links have a new location on the site.

Perhaps this is drinking from the proverbial firehose or is an overly simplistic approach. Either way, thanks for reading. Reach out to me anytime at 305.986.1046. Yes I do live in atlanta“>Atlanta!