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Website Broken Links Hurt Your SEO

website broken links seo 404 error page not found robot

Broken links on your website have a negative impact on various aspects of your website's performance, including user experience and SEO organic rankings.

Broken links can destroy your conversion rates and harm SEO by affecting bounce rate, time on site, and how you pass link equity and Google's Page User Experience. Broken links also harm SEO rankings by sending signals that your website is old and outdated.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown, and we will look at how it can be corrected.

Conversion rates

Broken links on a website can be a real issue for your visitors. They may be looking for specific information or trying to take a particular action, only to be thrown off by a link that doesn’t work. This can create frustration and annoyance, leading to a poor overall user experience. Not only that, but broken links can also directly impact your website’s conversion rates. Visitors encountering broken links multiple times may lose interest in your website and be less likely to engage further. As a result, it’s essential to regularly monitor and fix any broken links on your site to ensure that your visitors have a seamless browsing experience and are more likely to convert into customers or take other desired actions.

Bounce Rate and Time on the Website

As a business owner, ensuring all links on your site function correctly is essential. Broken links can hurt your website’s user experience. It can be frustrating and confusing when someone clicks on a broken link and ends up on a “404 Not Found” error page, discouraging returning to your website. Broken links can harm your website’s overall performance by increasing your bounce rate – the percentage of visitors who leave after only viewing one page – and decreasing your visitors’ average time on your site. This not only affects your site’s user experience but can also impact your site’s search engine ranking. Regular broken link audits on your site can improve its functionality and increase the likelihood of visitors staying longer and exploring more of your content.

Link Equity

Broken links disrupt the flow of link equity, also termed link juice, which is a very important factor for search engines to understand the relevance and importance of the pages on your site. Broken links prevent the necessary flow of link equity, which can negatively impact the prioritization and ranking of your website in search engine results when compared to your competitors. Since search engine rankings can play a vital role in your website’s online visibility, it is crucial to ensure that your site does not have any broken links. Conducting a broken link audit is important to regularly check your website for broken links and correct them immediately when found. By repairing links, you can improve your website’s overall performance and visibility and outrank your competitors!

SEO Rankings

It is important to note that search engines nowadays consider a website’s content and the user experience. That means the usability and functionality of a website play a crucial role in determining its search rankings. One aspect of user experience that search engines pay close attention to is broken links. When search engines detect broken links on a website, they interpret it as a sign that the website may not be well-maintained or regularly updated. This perception can harm a website’s ranking, as search engines prioritize delivering the most relevant and up-to-date results to their users. Therefore, it is highly recommended that website owners ensure all links on their site remain active and functional to maintain a strong presence in search engine rankings.

Crawl Efficiency

Keeping your website content up-to-date is crucial to ensuring search engine bots can successfully index your site. Broken links can cause significant problems with indexing, as bots may become distracted by following these links, wasting valuable time and potentially missing essential content. Plus, your customers may become frustrated and avoid visiting your site due to these broken links. Regularly checking and correcting these errors is necessary. By doing so, you can guarantee that your site quickly and easily appears in search results, resulting in a better overall experience for your customers and ultimately increasing traffic to your site.

Mitigate Negative SEO Impacts

To mitigate the negative impacts of broken links, it’s essential to regularly audit your website for broken links and fix them promptly. Here are some steps you can take:

  • Use tools such as Google Search Console or third-party link checkers to identify broken links on your website.
  • Replace broken links with correct URLs or remove them altogether if the linked content is no longer available.
  • Implement proper 301 redirects for pages that have been moved or deleted to ensure a seamless user experience and maintain link juice flow.
  • Create a custom 404 error page that guides users back to relevant content or provides a search bar to help them find what they’re looking for.

Maintaining a well-functioning website with accurate and functional links can enhance user experience, retain visitors, and positively impact your SEO efforts.

We can help by running a FREE link audit. Complete the form below!