Once your website has been live for some time, there are a few maintenance tasks that you need to carry out to ensure that your site stays relevant and reliable. One puts in a lot of  hard work and effort into making the website a valuable resource for the visitors. If your links are not working, it can derail your hard work. So it is important to make sure that all the links in your website content are working properly. GrayCyan, web design company toronto, website design toronto, provides Wordpress web development services to its clients.

Broken internal links have a negative impact on Wordpress SEO rankings. To avoid such pitfall and to improve your user experience and SEO rankings, you should regularly check for broken links on your entire website.

What exactly is a broken link?

A broken link is a hyperlink on a web page that no longer works. When a user tries to access a broken link, it cannot be found or accessed by a user and web sources will often return an error message. Broken links can happen due to a number of reasons:

• The website owner entered or misspelled the wrong URL.
• There has been a change in the URL structure of your website, causing a 404 error.
• The external website is either offline or has been permanently moved without proper redirection.
• The site has been moved to a new domain name.
• Links to content (PDF, video, etc.) have been deleted.
• There are broken elements within the page.

How do broken links affect your SEO for web design company Toronto?

Broken links have an effect on Google search results, but it does not impact your overall SEO. Having too many broken link on a page indicate that the site is neglected. As long as you are constantly checking and fixing broken link, you will be able to maintain a high quality website.

User experience is a primary factor that affects SEO. Search engines understand that there can be some broken links on the site, but when an actual user goes to your site and finds broken links, it will inevitably reduce the reputation of your website. Broken links can be frustrating to the users and can result in them, giving up on your site. The visitors visiting your page will base their decision on usability, load time and content. Broken links can make your content come across as unprofessional and untrustworthy. If the user cannot access proper information, they will move to a different site to get the information they need. Lesser time spent on the site will result in higher bounce rate.

Cause and effect of broken link in Wordpress:

You know how frustrating it can be to click on a link, only to be shown an error, be taken to the wrong page or told that the information you are looking for no longer exists. In a scenario, where the page has been moved, deleted or if the URL has been changed, the link you added to your content in the first page will not take the visitors to the right place, but will instead show a 404 error.

Ways to fix broken links in Wordpress:

Broken links are bad for your Wordpress site and can create a frustrating experience for your visitor. Hence it is a good incentive to find and fix broken links on your site. The question is – how can you fix broken links in Wordpress?

Read through the following five ways on how to fix broken links in Wordpress:

Web based SEO audit tool:

Using a web based SEO audit tool like Ahrefs and SEMrush is a primary method that is recommended to find and fix broken links in Wordpress. With these tools, you can automatically scan your Wordpress site for errors.

Google Search Console:

This helpful tool helps you monitor, maintain and troubleshoot the presence of your website in Google search results. To get started, you first need to verify your website with Google Search console and then you can start benefiting from its features. Google Search Console includes a Crawls Errors report that will show you all pages that returned a 404 error to Google. Clicking on these links will open a popup that will show you which page link to the error page, which let you correct the broken link to those pages.

Dektop Software:

You can find broken links using desktop software like Screaming Frog on Windows and macOS. One needs to install the program and then add your site’s URL at the top of the box and click Start. You can then use the Response Codes to filter out 404 pages and then use the Inlinks feature to find links to the 404 pages. If you are using a Mac, you can find broken links using Integrity, which is a great desktop SEO tool.

Online Broken Link Checker Tool:

If you have a small website, you can use a free online broken link checker tool to find broken links. Online link checker tools are very easy to use. You just need to head to the website, plug in your URL and find the broken links. The online tool helps you list out both broken internal as well as external links and even provide links to the page where the broken link appears. After that, you just need to go in and fix the offending link.

Broken link checker Wordpress plugin:

Wordpress plugins are not the first choice to check broken link as they can be a big drag on the performance of the websites. It is better to use a separate tool, but if you absolutely must use a Wordpress plugin, run the plugin once and then delete it from your website, after you have fixed the broken link. After you install and activate the plugin, go to tools and then the broken links to view the report about all the internal a well as external links. To fix the broken links, hover over the link and choose Edit URL to edit the link, without opening each individual page.

Why us?

At GrayCyan, web design company toronto, website design toronto, we understand the importance of having a website that helps you achieve your goal. So, we custom our WordPress development services to each individual client. We ensure that your website engages with your audience and drives conversion. Our designers and developers at GrayCyan, web design company toronto, website design toronto, can create a modern and an attractive website that reflects your brand. We offer comprehensive WordPress website design and development service, along with giving you tools to edit and add pages or publish blogs.

Whether you are looking for a new website for your business or are revamping your current one, a powerful content management system is important for the success of your online business. You can learn more about our web development services. Our web design company toronto, website design toronto, is among a few companies in Canada that provides web development services based on client requirements at affordable prices. To achieve desired success and to reach your business targets, hire our web development services. Our designing and development team is experienced and our custom web designs, user friendly navigation, commitment to quality and cost effective web development solutions have made us one of the best web development agencies in Greater Toronto Area. For more information about web design company toronto, feel free to call 1(888)-WEB-DEV-0 or e-mail nbatta@buzois.com for more information.