Google Premier Partner
Meta Business PartnerWhat are broken links?
Broken links are links that point to a page that no longer exists or cannot be reached, so visitors usually see a 404 error. They can be internal links to a page on your own site or outbound links to another website that has disappeared or moved.
Why are broken links important?
- Frustrating experience: visitors land on an error page and are more likely to leave.
- Wasted crawling: Googlebot follows links that lead nowhere.
- Lost link value: a backlink to a deleted page passes on nothing.
Examples of broken links
- A menu link to a product page that has been removed from the range.
- A blog post linking to the website of a partner that has closed down.
- A backlink from another site to an old URL without a redirect.
How do you find and fix broken links?
Run a crawler such as Screaming Frog over your site, or check the not found (404) pages in Google Search Console. Update the link, remove it, or redirect the old URL to a relevant page. This kind of maintenance is part of technical SEO.