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Broken Links contribute to a WordPress site’s poor user experience. When a user clicks on a broken link, a 404-page not found message is displayed.
There are several reasons for broken links in a WordPress website. For example, a link can become broken if the target page changes to a new URL, the HTML is modified, or the link moves to a different location.
In this resource, you’ll learn how to deal with broken links in WordPress. You’ll also know what broken links are, how they occur, and how to fix them correctly on a WP webpage.
What are Broken Links in WordPress?
Definition
Links in a WordPress site lead to non-existing error pages that display error codes referring to broken links. For example, there are two pages – A and B.
In this case, Page A links to B, the non-existing page on a WordPress site. Clicking the link on Page A triggers a broken link scenario.
Impacts
Broken links and link errors can’t affect enough – more than a website’s user experience and SEO. In this case, users don’t see valid pages when they click on a broken link.
Similarly, if a site has internal broken links, errors in Google Search Console are created, affecting the site’s rankings on search pages.
Next steps
Broken links affect a site’s indexing on Search Engines – too.
After you’ve fixed broken links in WordPress, submitting re-crawl requests in Google helps you improve broken link issues.
Broken Links occurrence
Let’s address – why broken links occur.
Management of pages in WordPress
A broken link occurs when a page’s URL has been changed in WordPress or contains a typo.
WordPress may fix broken links with an automated redirect; however, it needs attention when no redirection is in place.
Similarly, moving a target page from one location to another creates broken links on a WordPress website.
Website Migration
Website migration involves moving a site from one host to another.
In such scenarios, backup restoration, DNS issues, SSL installation, and HTTPS redirection may create link issues on a WP site.
Hacking incidents
Hacking incidents can also create broken links on a WordPress website.
For example, it is planting manual backdoors, removing website defacements, and removing the site’s pages that create broken or dead links.
The first thing you can do is – scan your site with a malware scanner. Hiring WordPress security professionals is best if you don’t prefer manual routines or lack WordPress knowledge.
How do you deal with Broken Links in WordPress?
How to Fix Broken Links in WordPress?
STEP 1 – Find Broken Links in WordPress
No tool is better than Google Search Console or a broken link checker plugin for finding the causes and common reasons for broken links.
Note: You can proceed to find culprit URLs with GSC – if you’ve configured GSC for your WordPress site. In this case, GSC shows broken links on your WordPress site over time.
Once you’ve logged into GSC, the Indexing -> Pages page shows a list of crawl errors and broken links, as shown in the screenshot below.
Clicking on Not Found (404) lists the broken links on your site. You can also export the list of broken URLs here.
Now – as you have a list of bad URLs on your WP website, you can proceed to the next step.
STEP 2 – Fix Broken Links in WordPress
The way you create a link in WordPress is how you edit and fix a broken link.
Once you have a list of broken links in GSC, you can click and experience if the page triggers a 404 Not Found page error message on the screen.
You can make changes manually, as you have a list of broken links in Excel. To start, find which pages on your site link to non-existing pages.
Of course, this doesn’t seem easy to most—you can hire people for assistance. Once you’ve done this, you must change the links’ targets to valid pages in WordPress.
When changing a broken link’s target, consider the following aspects.
- If the target page is missing, you can link to a different – but relevant page on your WordPress site.
- If the target page’s link changes, you should configure redirects for the old URL structure. If WordPress hasn’t set automated redirects, you can create redirects with a WordPress plugin, such as Redirects. WordPress must set redirects when a user updates a page or posts a URL.
- If a page links to a page behind a login, make sure you’ve changed the page’s target to a relevant, freely available page on your site.
- If, for example, a link pointed to a non-existing page on another site, change the link’s target to a relevant page on the same site. You can also remove the link if it doesn’t confuse readers.
Note: According to SEO best practices, every hundred words should contain a link – internal or external. If, for some reason, you don’t understand the context of a broken link (dead-end), you can remove such links. In such scenarios, ensure you’ve driven readers with the conceptual flow – without sounding bad.
Professional Tips
Broken links affect a site’s SEO, user experience, and conversions. When dealing with broken links in WordPress, consider the following tips and suggestions.
- Ensure the content is copied correctly from a different editor, such as Google Documents. The difference between documents’ types, formats, and versions may affect link structure in content.
- If using automated plugins for internal links in WordPress, be aware of the possible consequences. For example, Internal Link Juicer is a WordPress plugin that helps users add internal links to WordPress content.
- Sometimes, for file management – you may need to create custom directories on the server. In this case, renaming, moving, or changing directories may create broken internal link issues in WordPress.
- Mass campaigns – are one reason WordPress content is populated with broken links. For example, running automated tools for SEO audits may create link problems in a website.
- You must set proper redirects if you’ve changed a page’s URL, content, or position in WordPress. Sometimes, a site’s database doesn’t create automated redirects, which may create broken links (400 bad requests) or server errors for updated content.
- There are hundreds of plugins for setting WordPress redirects. Sometimes, a plugin may work differently than your expectations. If you need help checking the plugins’ performance, you may need help with broken link issues in WordPress.
- You can also use SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMRush, and Screaming Frog to find and identify dead links, broken links, broken backlinks, broken external links, and other crawl errors. These tools also help you determine your organic traffic and search engine rankings. Some of these features are offered as free tools.
Note: Don’t allow WordPress automation regarding links. At some point in life, when things get more complicated, automation may create broken links and page issues in WordPress.
Wrapping up
As described above, broken links negatively impact user experience, functionality, bounce rate, and a website’s SEO.
In this article, you learned how to deal with a site’s bad URLs – from finding broken links to fixing routines with manual methods and Google Search Console (Webmaster Tools) to correct URLs.
You can hire our WordPress support specialists if you need more technical expertise. Learn how we can help you find, fix, and manage broken links in WordPress.