Imagine a lead landing on your website only to navigate to a page saying “404 page not found”. As stressful as this thought is, fixing these errors are as easy as you might not think.
Broken links are signals that something is wrong with the website. As a business owner or website developer, it is challenging to understand the technical aspects of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). Fixing broken links is a part of SEO strategy but when you don’t have an in-house team for SEO in Melbourne, it is obvious to find an SEO agency for best solutions.
For this reason, this blog will guide you through the causes of broken links and tools to identify dead links. At last, we will learn different ways in which an SEO expert can fix a broken link.
What Causes Broken Links?
A broken link is a link to a page that no longer exists. If your website or a web page fails to redirect users to the linked page almost every time, it means that the website has broken links. Here are some reasons why this happens.
- You are changing the web page structure.
- You are removing pages from the website.
- You are renaming the website.
- You are not updating the old links.
Furthermore, if your website links external websites, PDFs, or forms but the link signals 404 Bad Request, it is likely due to the following reasons. It is best to hire a professional SEO in Melbourne to fix these issues:
- Changes in External Website’s Content.
- Deleted external website.
- Skipping 301 redirects when updating URL.
- Changes in external website hosting.
- Typo errors in the URL.
- Outdated HTTP protocols.
Finding Broken Links
Now that you know why broken links exist on a website, here are some ways to find them.
1. Google Search Console:
Google Search Console is an amazing tool that offers site coverage features. To use this tool, locate the search bar to find your website URL, click, and find errors in the coverage report.
Under this, you will find pages that show 404 errors, export them, and test each error with a URL inspection tool. For more assistance, look for an award-winning SEO agency in Melbourne to help you with technical issues.
2. Ahrefs:
It is an online link checker tool that finds broken external and internal links. On the site explorer, click on external or internal links to find every broken link. If your website is more extensive, consider using the site audit tool.
3. Chrome Extension: Broken Link Checker:
Google has the most powerful extensions for finding internal and external links with errors. You must install this free broken link checker tool to save your time and effort. To use this tool, simply login and search for your website’s URL at the search bar. Hit enter and you will be able to view the report showing broken links.
Finding broken links through these above mentioned online tools are pretty straightforward. But at the same time, it also signals your failure to update the website on time and again. If updating the website manually seems to be a time-taking effort, it is best to have a professional award-winning SEO agency in Melbourne to assist you in every step.
Fixing Broken Links
After finding the broken links, taking the next step to hire a professional SEO in Melbourne must be a definite approach. When a professional arrives, he will fix each of the broken links. But before that, knowing their broken link fixing process can make your decision affirm. Here are few ways in which professionals help:
- Checks your website’s internal links to see if the spelling is correct. They ensure there are no typo errors in the URL.
- Uses 301 redirects for pages that are moving to different locations on a website
- Uses 301 redirects for a webpage if it finds that the website owner has modified the content of a particular web page.
- If the content is outdated, they create missing pages or remove broken links.
- Tests the website status and monitors the website performance
All these tips are important for you to understand, even when you are hiring a professional award-winning SEO agency in Melbourne to expect everything in order.
Final Words
We hope you found this blog useful. We expect that you are now able to fix any broken links with the help of a professional SEO expert, should you find them in your website. Clearly, websites containing broken links can eventually lose potential customers. As mentioned above, if you are changing the web content, moving the content, or altering the URL structure, it can affect the existing links.
Finding the non-working links within a website or links to other websites and fixing them before you start losing more revenue is crucial. Fixing them with the help of above tips is a full proof strategy, however, the assistance of a professional SEO in Melbourne can assure that the problems would not reappear with time and again.
If you are already finding a professional company offering SEO and web design in Melbourne, trust Make My Website Pty Ltd in Melbourne for best services.