Broken links, also known as dead links, are links on a website that no longer work. They can be caused by a variety of reasons, including changes in website structure, website migration, or the removal of pages. Broken links are not just a minor inconvenience; they can have a significant impact on the user experience and search engine rankings of a website.
Poor User Experiences
Simply put, broken links cause poor user experiences. Recent studies have shown that 77% of web visitors who encounter a broken link will leave your website and not return. When a user clicks on a link that is broken, they will often be presented with an error message, such as a 404 error, or they will be re-directed to a page in which they did not intend to travel to which can be frustrating and confusing. You’ve probably encountered this problem yourself. This cause users to lose trust in the website and may even lead them to leave the site altogether. In addition, broken links also affect the navigability of a website, making it difficult for users to find the information they are looking for.
Impact on Search Engines
Broken links undoubtedly have a negative impact on search engine rankings. Search engines like Google use complex algorithms to determine the quality and relevance of a website, and broken links can signal to search engines that a website is poorly maintained and not up-to-date. Furthermore, broken links impact your bounce rates and time on page results as people are unintentionally removed from the site and for the most part do not return. As a result of having broken links, search engines lower the ranking of the website, making it less visible to potential users.
Broken links can also have an impact on website traffic. When search engines crawl a website and encounter broken links, they may stop crawling the website altogether, which means that other pages on the website may not be indexed. This can significantly decrease the amount of organic traffic a website receives, which can be detrimental to businesses that rely on website traffic for sales or leads.
Lost Revenue
We’ve heard countless stories of companies losing unknown amounts of revenue due to broken links. One such story comes from a customer of ours who is the Director of Growth Marketing for a product company. Their main way of driving revenue is through the “Request a Demo,” link on their website. Since he wasn’t using any effective tools at the time they had no idea that this link was broken until a prospect called to let them know about. Pretty lucky considering that 77% of people who run into a dead link simply leave the site and probably go to a competitor. The problem is that they have no way of knowing how many leads were lost or how long this error existed on the site. Stories similar to this one are far too common and completely avoidable with a solution like Sitio.
The Solution
Broken links are avoidable but let’s admit it, the last thing that a marketing professional, webmaster, or business in charge of website wants to do is check for broken links. It can be time consuming and obviously not the most fun part of your day. There are free solutions out there but they are not easy to use and are littered with false positives. Essentially, these tools will give you an excel spreadsheet of the link that are potentially broken and the page it’s found on. Not sure about you, but sifting through excel spreadsheets isn’t my cup of tea. Sitio automates this monotonous, time-consuming task for you and directs you to the exact whereabouts it’s occurring on your webpage.
We make it so much easier to find and fix broken links. Our intuitive, extremely to use platform allows you to provide great user experiences to your users, have a positive impact on your SEO, and ensure that you’re not losing any money due to dead links.
