No one likes it when this word appears on a page. Imagine searching for important information urgently, you click on a link, and it says, “Error! Cannot find this page.”
It ruins the experience, and as a business owner, you should ensure that this doesn’t happen with your customers. Google has also made this a ranking factor, but it also knows that finding errors is not something that users like, and the search engine gives importance to its user experience. If your website has broken links, there’s a high chance that Google will not rank it higher because it doesn’t want its customers to waste their time on useless links.
We have worked with many clients who weren’t aware of how dead links can affect their website ranking, and we, as a digital marketing agency in the UK, have the responsibility to ensure that our clients don’t face any such problem with their ranking.
Fixing a broken link is not that difficult once you find out if you have any on your website; however, not many business owners know about it. Think about the last time you checked your website for broken links. You cannot redesign your website without knowing whether you have broken links or not. The best SEO services in UK help you find out the dead links that can come between you and your Google ranking. We have created this blog to help you understand the same.
What is a Dead Link?
A dead link, or in other words, a broken link is a link that you click on, but instead of taking you to the page you are supposed to see, it shows you an error. Imagine you are searching for something, and while reading the content, the creator has advised you to visit a link, but when you do, it shows you an error. You might leave the page out of frustration, and it will also prevent you from having full information. There can be several reasons for broken links.
- If the original author of the content has deleted the image, video, or webpage.
- You made a typo when creating the link.
- Renaming the page without updating internal links.
- Changing domain names and having a new URL without updating.
How Do They Harm Your Website?
Broken links can harm a website in many ways, but the following are the biggest drawbacks of having dead links attached to your website.
It Ruins the User Experience
As we mentioned, no one likes to see errors when they open a link. If your website is full of broken links that prevent the customers from getting the information they want, it will ruin their experience, and they might never want to visit again. It can also damage your brand image, so don’t be surprised if you see your customers moving to your competitor’s website.
Your Reputation
If you have too many broken links on your website, it will eventually damage your reputation. Customers will continue to think that your links don’t work even if you have identified and replaced them. This is really long-term damage if you don’t identify broken links soon enough. No matter how much time you have spent building your website and how great your interface is, it is of no use if your customers are landing on dead links and are unable to find answers.
Your SEO is Useless
Google has made the prevention of dead links a ranking factor, which means that if a website has dead links, it won’t get ranked on the first page of Google. Hence, if you want your website to rank higher on Google, you need to identify and replace broken links on your website. Otherwise, all your efforts for SEO will be useless, and you won’t be able to get ranked.
How to Fix Them?
Following are some of the common and easiest ways to fix broken links on your website.
Update Content
Optimising existing content is important for many reasons, and one of them is fixing broken links. When you update your existing content, you check all the links attached to it, and if there’s a dead link attached to your content, you can easily identify and replace it with another working link.
Check for Typos
Another reason for dead links is common typing mistakes that people make. There might be a typo in your link, which is the cause of the error. You need to check all the links mentioned on your website for typos, and if you find some, correct them as soon as possible and link to the right website.
Delete the Link
If you cannot find a problem on your end, but the link is still not working, there might be an issue with the original website. In this case, it is better to eliminate the link entirely from your page. If you have another link you can use to replace it, you can do it as well. But if you don’t have another link, deleting the dead link is the best option to save your website ranking.
If there’s an issue with internal links, you can solve them by doing the above-mentioned things; however, if the issue is with external links, there’s nothing you can do. In such cases, only deleting the link completely or replacing it with another valid link is an option. You cannot fix a broken external link through an audit. You will either have to replace it or delete it.
Conclusion
The best SEO services in London can help you get rid of these broken links from your website. If you want to hire a digital marketing agency in the UK, reach out to Trajital UK, and their team will help you create the best digital marketing strategies for your website. They have years of experience, and their marketers are passionate about SEO which helps them create efficient strategies for the clients.
Contact them now, and they will help you reach new heights of success.
