How to Fix Broken Links Share

Author Landon Fanetti

Posted Mar 10, 2023

Reads 12.2K

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Broken links can be a headache for website owners and users alike. They occur when internal or external links pointing to a webpage no longer work, leading to an error message instead of the intended content. In some cases, broken links are due to typing errors, while in other cases, the internal links were not modified when changes were made to the website's structure.

Internal links that lead to armchairs inside your online store may suddenly become broken if you change the URL structures or delete certain pages. External broken links can also harm your site's reputation from a search engine's perspective as well as impact customer experience. Broken links affect SEO by reducing the site's ranking on SERPs and leading to fewer clicks and conversions.

To prevent broken links from happening, it's important to create well-thought URLs and type them correctly. Random numbers or letters in URLs are often hard for customers to remember and prone to typos. To fix broken links, website owners should regularly check their sites for any issues and update internal links as needed. By keeping internal links up-to-date, users will have a positive customer experience while also improving your site's SEO ranking.

Why Broken Links Can Damage Your Customer Experience

In a highly competitive online landscape, a single bad experience can cost you customers. A hypothetical scenario shows dead links translate to terrible customer experience. Imagine a user finds a great resource on your website, only to be met with a 404 error when they try to access it - they'll feel disappointed and frustrated.

Customers broken links can derail your conversion funnel. A key place where this happens is in the checkout process, where an unreliably projecting poor image can lead to lost sales. A 2022 Emplifi report showed that fixing broken links boosted engagement and reduced bounce rates.

Fixing broken links isn't just about avoiding negative consequences; it also creates a significant competitive advantage. Customers appreciate businesses that solve problems for them, so ensuring that all links on your website are functional will help you stand out from the competition. In short, fixing broken links is essential if you want to provide a great customer experience and boost your bottom line.

Easily Locate Broken Links in Excel with One Click

Broken links in Excel can be a real headache, especially when dealing with large spreadsheets. Fortunately, there's a simple solution that can help you locate them quickly and easily. With just a single button click, you can check broken links in your workbook and get the cell address of the problematic link.

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The solution lies in using VBA code or an add-in that finds broken links within your spreadsheet. This powerful tool will scan through all the formulas in your workbook and highlight any cells that contain broken links. It's an incredibly efficient way to find all types of broken links including those that are hidden deep within your worksheet.

Whether you're working on a small or large project, it's important to regularly check for broken links to avoid any errors or inaccuracies in your data. With this simple technique, you'll be able to locate and fix broken links quickly and efficiently, leaving you more time to focus on other important tasks within your spreadsheet.

How Broken Links Can Ruin Your SEO and User-Friendliness

Broken links are nothing but dead ends on your website. They are links that no longer exist, resulting in a frustrating experience for human visitors. When they click on a link they're interested in, it makes sense that they expect it to take them somewhere. If the link is broken, they end up on a page with an error message or a 404 page. This can lead to disappointment and loss of trust in your website.

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Broken links aren't just bad for human visitors; robots specifically, crawler bots used by search engines like Googlebot also crawl your website. When Googlebot encounters broken links, it wastes crawl equity (the time and resources spent crawling the site) and negatively impacts the SEO efforts you've made so far. To fix broken links, one good incentive is to maintain the internal linking structure of your website. A well-structured internal link helps distribute the link equity throughout all of the pages on your site.

When fixing a broken internal link, remember that replacing it with another live page adds SEO benefit too. Internal linking sends signals to search engines about which pages are most important on your site. If you replace a broken link with another relevant live page, you're telling search engines that this page is important enough to be linked internally from other pages on your site. In conclusion, fixing broken links should be an essential part of maintaining any blog post or webpage's user-friendliness and SEO efforts.

How to Correct Broken Links in Excel: A Simple Guide

Detecting non-working links is the first step in fixing broken links. When workbooks perform external references, they may become broken if the source of the reference is changed, moved or deleted. To detect these links, click on the Data tab and then select the Edit Links button. This will open up the Edit Links dialog box where you can see all external sources referenced by your current workbook. If any of them have a status of unknown or error source, you likely have broken links that need to be fixed.

To review and update these links diagnosed as broken, click on the right-hand side status column and then click on the Check Status button. The status will change from unknown to OK if it has been updated or corrected. If any erroneous sources are found, click on the Change Source button and a Change Source window opens up. Navigate to the correct workbook select it and then click Close button. Repeat this process for each problematic source individually.

If there are multiple occurrences of broken links in your workbook, this process can become cumbersome but it's important to fix each one individually. For example, let's say you have a file called "colrado_report.xlsx" which you misspelled when linking it to another file called "florida_report.xlsx". You'll want to make sure that you correct each instance of "colrado_report.xlsx" with "florida_report.xlsx". By following these simple steps for correcting incorrect sources, you can ensure that all of your external references are working properly and that your workbooks remain accurate and functional!

Discover If Your Website Has Broken Links Easily

Fixing broken links is essential to keep your website running smoothly. Broken links are those that lead to web pages that no longer exist, which can be frustrating for visitors trying to navigate your site. There are several common methods for detecting broken links on your website. One such method is using Google Search Console or a WordPress plugin like Broken Link Checker.

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Google Search Console is a free tool that allows you to monitor your website's performance and identify any issues, including broken links. Once you've signed up and added your site, head to the "Coverage" section on the right-hand side of the dashboard. Here, you'll find a list of excluded links and 404 errors that need fixing. For WordPress users, installing Remember Me Active Installations from the official plugin repository is an excellent option as it covers internal links within the website and provides a broken link checker in the WP admin panel under the Tools tab.

Another great benefit of using these tools is that they allow you to fix dozens of broken links quickly without wasting time manually checking each page on your website. However, one significant downside of having too many active plugins on your WordPress website is that it can be pretty resource-intensive, which could affect site speed and performance. If you prefer not to use plugins or online tools, manually entering problematic links into your website's admin panel can also help find and fix dozens of broken links with little effort involved.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to fix broken links on your website?

To fix broken links on your website, identify the broken links using a tool like Google Search Console or Broken Link Checker, then either update the links or redirect them to a relevant page on your site. Regularly checking for broken links can improve user experience and boost SEO.

How do I remove broken links from a workbook?

To remove broken links from a workbook, go to the "Data" tab and click on "Edit Links". Then select the broken link and click on "Break Link".

How to fix broken backlinks?

To fix broken backlinks, you need to first identify the broken links using a link checker tool. Then, either update the URL of the link or replace it with a new one that is relevant and working. Finally, reach out to the website owner to inform them of the changes made.

How do I know if a link is broken?

To know if a link is broken, simply click on it and see if the webpage loads. If it doesn't, you'll receive an error message such as "404 - Page Not Found".

How to find broken links in Google Search Console?

To find broken links in Google Search Console, navigate to the "Coverage" report and select the "Excluded" tab. From there, you can filter by "Error" to see all of the URLs that are returning a 404 status code.

Landon Fanetti

Landon Fanetti

Writer at Exgenex

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Landon Fanetti is a prolific author with many years of experience writing blog posts. He has a keen interest in technology, finance, and politics, which are reflected in his writings. Landon's unique perspective on current events and his ability to communicate complex ideas in a simple manner make him a favorite among readers.

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