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Links must point to a valid and active URL

Links are the fabric of the internet and maintaining your links is import for SEO and User Experience

The web is built on hyperlinks. Linking between web pages is a fundamental feature.

For various reasons, a broken link is a web page that can’t be found or accessed by a user. Web servers often return an error message when a user tries to access a broken link. Broken links are also often known as “dead links” or “link rots.”

There are various reasons that broken links can occur, for example:

  1. The URL structure of your site recently changed (permalinks) without a redirect, causing a 404 error.
  2. The external site is no longer available, offline, or permanently moved.
  3. Links to content (PDF, Google Doc, video, etc.) that has been transferred or deleted.
  4. Broken elements within the page (HTML, CSS, Javascript, or CMS plugin interference).
  5. Firewalls or geolocation restrictions do not allow outside access.

Why it is important

When somebody clicks on a link, the intended result is to take the customer closer to its destination.

Sending the customer off to a broken link is a source of frustration and it gives the impressions that you don't caer about your website.

As a result broken links harm your credibility as an authority.

Additionally broken links will harm your SEO position. Search engines are looking for high quality websites that provide the best user experience to their audience and this includes linking to valid and active websites.

How the audit works

The broken link audit uses various techniques to identify broken links or resources

  • The server returned a status code above 400.
  • The server DNS name is unavailable.

Due to the nature of the internet and potential availability of a server, the audit will try several times to access the link. After several tries it will give up and identify the reason.

The audit will work around SSL errors, and try to access the link regardless of SSL errors.

Fixing the problem

Links can be fixed in different ways depending on the reason for the broken link.

If the link returns a status code between 400 and 500, it might be possible to identify the problem.

The URL structure of the website might have changed, the file might have been moved.

If the broken link is due to DNS issues or a broken SSL certificate, these problems might not be under your control.