Backlinks are a crucial aspect of SEO, often serving as the backbone of a strong website ranking strategy. When they work, backlinks can boost your site's visibility and authority. However, broken backlinks—links that lead to non-existent pages—can hurt your SEO efforts, leading to lower rankings and diminished user experience. In this article, we’ll delve into how to find broken backlinks and, more importantly, how to fix them to maintain your site's SEO health.
Why Are Broken Backlinks a Problem?
Before diving into solutions, it’s essential to understand why broken backlinks can be so detrimental:
Loss of SEO Value: When backlinks break, you lose out on the SEO benefits they were meant to provide.
Negative User Experience: Clicking on a link only to land on a 404 page frustrates users, reducing the credibility of your site.
Wasted Crawling Budget: Search engine bots may waste time trying to crawl non-existent pages, leading to inefficient indexing.
Thus, fixing broken backlinks is essential for maintaining your SEO rankings and user engagement.
Step 1: Identifying Broken Backlinks
Finding broken backlinks might seem like a daunting task, but there are various tools that can streamline the process.
1. Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free tool that provides valuable insights into your website’s performance, including identifying broken links.
How to Use It:
Log in to your Google Search Console account.
Navigate to the "Pages" section.
Google will list any 404 errors (broken pages). From here, you can view the links that are broken.
2. Ahrefs’ Site Explorer
Ahrefs is a premium tool but offers in-depth backlink analysis.
How to Use It:
Go to Ahrefs and enter your domain in the Site Explorer tool.
Click on "Backlinks" in the left-hand menu.
Filter the backlinks by "404 not found" errors to view broken links pointing to your site.
If you have the paid version, you can directly utilize the "Broken backlinks" tool provided.
3. SEMrush
SEMrush is another comprehensive SEO tool that can help you identify broken backlinks.
How to Use It:
Open SEMrush and enter your domain.
Navigate to the "Backlink Audit" tool.
Filter by "lost" backlinks to see the broken ones.
4. Screaming Frog SEO Spider
This desktop-based crawler can find both internal and external broken links.
How to Use It:
Download and install Screaming Frog SEO Spider.
Enter your website’s URL and run a crawl.
Navigate to the “Response Codes” tab and filter by 404 errors.
(looks like our SEO team has some work to do 🤔)
5. Broken Link Checker (Online Tools)
If you're looking for a free option, there are plenty of online broken link checkers that can provide basic functionality. Examples include:
Dead Link Checker
Dr. Link Check These tools may be more limited in scope but are effective for small-scale audits.
Step 2: Fixing Broken Backlinks
Once you’ve identified the broken backlinks, you’ll need to take steps to fix them. There are multiple ways to approach this, depending on the scenario.
1. Redirect the Broken Page
If the broken backlink is pointing to a page on your site that no longer exists, a 301 redirect is the simplest solution.
How to Do It:
Identify the broken page’s old URL.
Set up a 301 redirect to a relevant, functioning page on your site.
If there’s no related content, consider redirecting to the homepage.
This solution preserves the backlink equity and directs users to a useful page.
2. Recreate the Missing Page
In some cases, recreating the missing content can be the best option, especially if it was highly valuable or received substantial traffic.
How to Do It:
Analyze the old content using tools like Wayback Machine to understand what the page previously covered.
Recreate a new version of the page and publish it.
Ensure that the old URL and the recreated page match closely for optimal results.
3. Request a Link Update
If the broken backlink originates from an external website, reach out to the site owner and request that they update the link.
How to Do It:
Find the contact details of the webmaster or the owner of the linking site.
Send a polite and concise email explaining the issue, providing the correct URL, and asking them to update the link.
This is a straightforward yet effective way to regain the backlink equity.
4. Disavow Spammy Broken Links
In some cases, broken backlinks may come from low-quality or spammy websites. If you determine that a broken link isn’t worth keeping, you can disavow it.
How to Do It:
Collect all the URLs from low-quality or harmful sites.
Use Google’s Disavow Tool to disassociate your site from these backlinks.
This method should be used sparingly, as disavowing too many links can reduce your backlink profile’s overall strength.
Step 3: Prevent Future Broken Backlinks
While fixing broken backlinks is necessary, preventing them from happening in the first place should be your ultimate goal. Here are a few strategies to avoid future broken links:
1. Regular Site Audits
Make backlink audits a part of your regular SEO maintenance routine. Tools like Ahrefs and Google Search Console can alert you when broken links occur, allowing you to fix them promptly.
2. Keep Content Up-to-Date
Ensure that all pages on your site remain active and relevant. When you delete or move content, always set up proper redirects.
3. Maintain Relationships with Linking Sites
Build strong relationships with websites linking to your content. This increases the likelihood that they will update or repair any broken links upon your request.
4. Monitor Competitor Backlinks
Another effective technique is to monitor your competitors’ backlinks. If you find broken links in their profile, you can offer your content as an alternative to the linking site.
Conclusion
Broken backlinks can undermine your website’s SEO efforts, but with the right tools and strategies, you can easily identify and fix them. Regular backlink audits, coupled with prompt fixes, can ensure that your site retains its authority and ranking power.
By using tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, and SEMrush, and employing solutions like 301 redirects and outreach, you can effectively manage and enhance your backlink profile.
Maintaining a healthy backlink profile is a long-term commitment, but the rewards in terms of SEO and user experience make it well worth the effort
If all these seems too much, you can also opt for a marketing agency to do all these for you. Elevate Digital is a Singapore-based digital marketing agency that focuses on quality and data to help small to medium businesses achieve their growth objectives. Contact our professionals today.
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