Introduction
You click on the link, and it doesn’t get opened. Page not found! A broken link is frustrating.
Yeah! So is the case of your website visitor—more than it will hurt your page’s Google search results. As per Google search quality guidelines, it will consider such pages as either abandoned or neglected sites that are not updated.
But don’t worry, in this article, we’ll show you how to find broken links on your developing WordPress website so that you can fix them as soon as possible.
Let’s begin with understanding broken links.
What are broken links?
Block links can occur for several reasons, such as when the links are not updated for the web page, which is moved or renamed, or when a link pointing to a non-existent page gets included on your site’s web page.
Why are broken links a problem?
First, they can frustrate visitors to your site who click on a link and expect to view the page they’re interested in, only to find that it doesn’t exist.
Second, broken links can negatively impact your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. To crawl and index websites, Search engines use links, and if they encounter too many broken links on your site, it can hurt your ranking.
Finally, broken links can make your website look unprofessional and untrustworthy.
Let’s now move ahead to see how we can easily find them on our site.
Now that we know about broken links, let’s see how to find and fix them
Finding broken links and how to fix them on your WordPress site?
We have some good news there are some easy ways to fix broken links on your WordPress site.
Broken Link Checker
First, install the plugin, then activate it, and then go to Tools » Broken Links to see a list of all the broken links on your site. The plugin will display the broken link’s URL, the name of the page where it is situated, and whether or not it gets fixed.
To fix a broken link, click the “Edit URL” button and enter the correct URL. Once you’ve updated the URL, click on the “Mark as fixed.
Google Search Console
You can use online tools like Google Search Console.
Once logged in, click on the “Crawl” menu item and select “Crawl Errors.” Here, you’ll see a list of any errors that Google has found when trying to crawl your site. If you see any 404 errors, that means there are broken links on your site.
Click on the 404 error to get more information, and then look at the URL that is getting reported. It will give you a fair idea of where are the broken links located on your site. You can fix or delete the broken link if it’s no longer needed.
However, if the broken link is part of a larger piece of content, such as a blog post or page, then deleting it isn’t an option. One of the ideal ways to do this is to use a plugin like Broken Link Checker.
Dead Link Checker
Another option is to use a link checker tool like Dead Link Checker. This tool will crawl your complete website and report any broken links.Simply Delete
The other option is to delete the broken link simply. It might be fine if the link was only included in one place and isn’t particularly important.404 Logs
Another way is to check your site’s logs for 404 errors and pick up all the broken links.
One of the best ways to fix them is to redirect the broken links to the correct pages on your site. It will ensure that visitors can still access your content, and it will also help improve your search engine rankings.
Once you’ve replaced all of the broken links on your site, it’s a good idea to run another scan to ensure everything is working correctly. You can then delete the installed Link Checker plugin if you want to.
Conclusion
If you have site development in WordPress, it’s essential to check for broken links regularly. Not only can broken links be frustrating for your visitors, but they can also hurt your search engine ranking.
As discussed above, there are a few easy ways to find and fix broken links on your WordPress site. You can maintain your website functioning by following this article’s advice smoothly and avoiding any negative impact on your traffic or SEO.
