Broken link

Why broken links matter

Broken links frustrate visitors who click expecting content and encounter error pages instead. This damages trust and increases bounce rates. Users question your site's quality and professionalism when basic links don't work.

Search engines view broken links negatively. They waste crawl budget on dead ends, leak link equity that could strengthen other pages, and signal poor site maintenance. External sites linking to your broken pages lose patience and may remove those links entirely.

Common causes of broken links

Deleting pages without setting up redirects creates broken links from any internal or external links pointing to that URL. Changing URL structure during site migrations breaks existing links unless properly redirected.

External links break when sites you reference move or delete content. A case study linking to a client's product page breaks if they redesign their site and change URLs. Regular audits catch these before visitors encounter them.

Finding and fixing broken links

Tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, and Google Search Console identify broken links across your site. Run audits quarterly at minimum, or after any significant content changes.

Fix broken internal links by either restoring the deleted content, updating links to point to new locations, or implementing 301 redirects from old URLs to appropriate replacements. For broken external links, update to current URLs or remove citations if the content no longer exists.

Prevention strategies

Before deleting pages, check what links to them using site search or SEO tools. Set up 301 redirects to relevant alternatives. Plan URL structures carefully before launch—changing them later creates redirect chains and complexity.

When linking externally, favour stable URLs from established sources. Link to homepages or top-level category pages rather than specific articles when possible—they're less likely to move or disappear over time.