{"version":"1.0","provider_name":"123 Reg Blog: Small business tips, insight and advice","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.123-reg.co.uk\/blog","author_name":"Alexandra Gavril","author_url":"https:\/\/www.123-reg.co.uk\/blog\/author\/alexandra\/","title":"Why broken links can hurt your website and what to do about them | 123 Reg Blog","type":"rich","width":600,"height":338,"html":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"Yj0r54nrxi\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.123-reg.co.uk\/blog\/seo-2\/broken-links-can-hurt-website\/\">Why broken links can hurt your website and what to do about them<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/www.123-reg.co.uk\/blog\/seo-2\/broken-links-can-hurt-website\/embed\/#?secret=Yj0r54nrxi\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" title=\"&#8220;Why broken links can hurt your website and what to do about them&#8221; &#8212; 123 Reg Blog: Small business tips, insight and advice\" data-secret=\"Yj0r54nrxi\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script>\n\/*! This file is auto-generated *\/\n!function(d,l){\"use strict\";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&\"undefined\"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!\/[^a-zA-Z0-9]\/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),c=new RegExp(\"^https?:$\",\"i\"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display=\"none\";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute(\"style\"),\"height\"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):\"link\"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute(\"src\")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener(\"message\",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll(\"iframe.wp-embedded-content\"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute(\"data-secret\"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+=\"#?secret=\"+t,e.setAttribute(\"data-secret\",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:\"ready\",secret:t},\"*\")},!1)))}(window,document);\n\/\/# sourceURL=https:\/\/www.123-reg.co.uk\/blog\/wp-includes\/js\/wp-embed.min.js\n<\/script>\n","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/www.123-reg.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/padlock-597495_1280-e1522075973191.jpg","thumbnail_width":451,"thumbnail_height":451,"description":"How do you feel when you click on a link and end up on a page like this? It\u2019s frustrating, isn\u2019t it? You click on one of the results expecting to see a web page with the courses you were promised in the search results. When the link is broken, what you see instead is a 404 not found error page that tells you that the page you\u2019re looking for is not available. Now imagine this is happening to people who visit your site. What do you think they\u2019ll do next? Well, they\u2019ll most likely hit the back button, which means you\u2019ve just lost a potential customer. And who knows how many more before that? Fortunately, you can fix them and in this article we\u2019ll show you how. We\u2019ll start by explaining what broken links are and what causes them, then move on to how to find and fix them so your visitors never hit that back button again (at least not because of a broken link). What is a broken link? A broken or dead link is a link that you click but doesn\u2019t work or doesn\u2019t take you to the page you were meant to see. You can try to convince yourself that they\u2019ll come back but, unfortunately, the stats are against you. In fact, 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience. So, that broken link not only drove prospects away, but it also damaged your reputation in the process. The phenomenon is sometimes described as \u2018Link rot\u2019. Research suggests that 8% of external links (those to other websites) may be broken after just the first three months. After seven years, nearly 44% of those links would likely be gone. This shows how quickly online information can get lost, making it especially hard to find older content. When was the last time you checked all your links to ensure they work properly and aren\u2019t broken? If you\u2019ve ever redesigned your site, deleted images and videos or changed the URL of a product page, then you may have broken links you\u2019re not aware of. What causes broken links? So, what causes broken links? The most common causes are: \u27a4 Incorrect hyperlinks \u27a4 Deletion of web pages or individual images, videos, files \u27a4 Renaming or moving a page and forgetting to update your internal links \u27a4 Linking to content like images, videos, PDFs, that has been deleted or moved \u27a4 Changing domain names and moving the site to a new URL \u27a4 Whatever the cause, broken links are frustrating errors that need to be fixed immediately. Let\u2019s look at some of the ways in which a dead link can hurt your website. Why and how do broken links harm your website? A broken link may not seem so bad on the surface. But the truth is it can do some serious damage to your website, your reputation and your business. It can hurt your search engine rankings and your site\u2019s user experience, and it can also result in lost customers and revenue. Here\u2019s how: User\u2019s experience on your site. If your site is a chaotic mess of broken links that prevents users from accessing the information they need or from completing a task, don\u2019t be surprised if they move on to the next site that actually works. And it\u2019s probably going to be one of your competitors. Your reputation and revenue. No matter how much time and resources you\u2019ve invested into getting potential customers to your site, if what they find is a broken site, all of your efforts will have been wasted. How can they trust to hand over their information or credit card details to an unreliable site that doesn\u2019t even work? Trust takes time to build, but only a moment to lose. Your SEO efforts. While Google has stated that simply having a broken link or two on your site won\u2019t affect your rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPs), the impact shows in other ways. When crawlers run into a broken link, they will waste time crawling the link to verify it is broken so it can be categorised as such. This wastes crawl budget which could have been used on pages that are ok, harming the chances of those pages ranking well on in search results. (And of course a broken link won\u2019t pass on the SEO value that a normal link passes.) But that\u2019s not all. Usually, when visitors land on a broken page, they leave within seconds. By spending less time on your site, search engine algorithms will assume it\u2019s because you aren\u2019t providing visitors with high-quality content or information that\u2019s relevant to their search. This, of course, results in lower rankings. Now that you know how much damage broken links can do to your online business, let\u2019s look at how you can find them. How to find broken links on your website There are lots of tools you can use to find broken links, many of them free. Google Search Console (GSC) is great at detecting pages on your site that return errors. You can find a list with 404 pages on your site in\u00a0Crawl-&gt; Crawl Errors -&gt; Not Found.\u00a0 If you\u2019re not familiar with GSC, you can learn how to set it up and use it to find broken links on your site (and more) from our beginner\u2019s guide to Google Search Console. Make sure you check GSC regularly for these errors and, if you find any, try to fix them as soon as possible. Xenu Link Sleuth is another free tool we\u2019d recommend to help you check your entire site for broken links. The way it works is by analysing every link on your site, on images, frames, and scripts. Open Xenu and click File-&gt; Check URL. Next you\u2019ll need to enter the URL you want to check for broken links. If you\u2019d like to check for broken links on your site alone, simply uncheck the Check external links"}