Website owners surely put a lot of effort to create huge impact on their visitors. However, if your links don’t work, it will surely hurt all your hard work which you put on your website. There are two ways in which broken links can be harmful on your website: it impacts rankings negatively and may create a bad user experience. So, we thought of giving you the steps on how to find and fix broken links.
Step #1: Finding the broken links
For you to avoid the possible harm on your website with broken links, it is essential for you to check your entire website. You may use different kinds of tools to easily identify broken links. Lucky for you to find many of them free.
1. Google Analytics
One of the most known free tools to find broken links is Google Analytics. Its primary usage is to track website performance and very helpful in finding broken links easily as well. What you have to do is log into your Google Analytics account first. Then, set the evaluation period for the amount of time you want to look at. From there, you have to go to Content – Content by Title which is under Dashboard. At the bottom, you can create a filter just by typing in the title of your website’s 404 error page in the blank box after Filter Page Title: Containing.
All of the possible broken or nonexistent links will trigger the 404 error page. The thing is, site visitors tend to end up frustrated with websites because website owners do not do something with this particular page. Some websites put Contact Us form instead just below the error.
After the last move, click the Go button of the filter page. To view details, click on the page title. The good thing about Google Analytics is how it offers the ability to set email alerts to get these broken link reports on a regular basis.
2. Xenu
Xenu Link Sleuth is another free tool you can use. The first thing you have to do is go to File – Check URL and enter your website’s domain. Don’t forget to uncheck the box with check external links and click the OK button to run the analysis.
Step #2: Creating a report and tracking the changes
If you have already identified your broken links, have an Excel spreadsheet ready for you to track link redirect processes. You can name it as Broken Link Redirect Report.
Step #3: Analyzing data
This is an important stage of all. After having the list of broken links, you should first analyze the pages and possible reasons why they are not working properly before redirecting them.
Step #4: Redirecting in CMS
Now that you’ve finally analyzed the data, then it’s time to redirect the broken links in our content management system (CMS). Depending on your CMS, mostly have the Administration page, then Site building and URL redirects after. From there, click Add redirect. Fill in the From and To blanks by simply copying and pasting from the final Broken Link Redirect Report. During the process, take note of the link format. Select 301 Moved Permanently in the drop-down Redirect Type menu. From there, click Create new redirect.
And that’s it! This surely makes you soar your pride high as all of your website links work. It will not only make your user happy but your website’s search engine rankings as well!
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