{"id":29966,"date":"2024-11-12T12:39:58","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T12:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/blog\/wiki\/broken-link\/"},"modified":"2025-02-26T09:23:26","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T09:23:26","slug":"Broken_Link","status":"publish","type":"wiki","link":"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/wiki\/Broken_Link","title":{"rendered":"Broken Link"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Definition\">Definition<\/span><\/h2>\n<div class=\"thumb tright\">\n<div class=\"thumbinner\" style=\"width:452px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/wiki\/images\/6\/6f\/Broken-Links.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Broken Link\" src=\"\/en\/wiki\/images\/thumb\/6\/6f\/Broken-Links.png\/450px-Broken-Links.png\" width=\"450\" height=\"340\" class=\"thumbimage\" srcset=\"\/en\/wiki\/images\/thumb\/6\/6f\/Broken-Links.png\/675px-Broken-Links.png 1.5x, \/en\/wiki\/images\/6\/6f\/Broken-Links.png 2x\" \/><\/a>  <\/p>\n<div class=\"thumbcaption\"><b>Figure:<\/b> Broken Link &#8211; Author: Seobility &#8211; License: <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/creative-commons-license-by-sa-4-0\" title=\"Creative Commons License BY-SA 4.0\">CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Broken links, also called dead links, are hyperlinks that point to a page that no longer exists. Usually, this is caused by a website owner moving the page without a 30X redirect, changing the URL structure of the website without the correct implementation of 30X redirects, or deleting the page entirely.\n<\/p>\n<p>Broken links are considered to have a negative impact on a site\u2019s SEO performance and preventing them is, therefore, an important part of SEO.\n<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Negative_effects_of_broken_links\">Negative effects of broken links<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Broken links can have a negative effect on both the website\/page the link is on as well as the website\/page the link is pointing to. Below are a few ways in which broken links can negatively impact a site.\n<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"For_the_site_the_link_is_on\">For the site the link is on<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li> Harms the user experience \u2013 By sending users to pages that don\u2019t exist, a poor <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/User_Experience\" title=\"User Experience\">user experience<\/a> is created, as navigating to the non-existent page wastes a user\u2019s time.<\/li>\n<li> Creates incomplete content \u2013 Links are used to provide supporting information, so when a link points to a non-existent page, there is a gap in the information the page originally provided via the link.<\/li>\n<li> May show search engines that a site isn\u2019t maintained \u2013 Broken links may indicate to <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Search_Engine\" title=\"Search Engine\">search engines<\/a> that the site isn\u2019t being updated, potentially signaling that the site is outdated.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"For_the_website_the_link_is_pointing_to\">For the website the link is pointing to<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li> Waste \u201clink juice\u201d \u2013 <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Backlinks\" title=\"Backlinks\">Backlinks<\/a> pointing to non-existent pages on a website are considered wasted backlinks as they waste <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Link_Juice\" title=\"Link Juice\">link juice<\/a> flowing through the link.<\/li>\n<li> Negatively impact user signals \u2013 By sending traffic to a page that doesn\u2019t exist, the overall <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/User_Signals\" title=\"User Signals\">user signals<\/a> on a site worsen due to a high <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Bounce_Rate\" title=\"Bounce Rate\">bounce rate<\/a> and low <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Dwell_Time\" title=\"Dwell Time\">dwell time<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Link_rot\">Link rot<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Link rot is a term closely related to broken links. Link rot is used to indicate the tendency of links to turn into broken links over time due to content moving and pages being deleted. Link rot is something that webmasters should actively manage in order to ensure the links on their site continue to point to relevant trustworthy pages\/sites.\n<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Broken_link_building\">Broken link building<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Broken link building is a form of link building that leverages broken links on other websites. By using a backlink analysis tool like <a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/backlink-analysis\/\">Seobility&#8217;s Backlink Analysis and Monitoring Tool<\/a>, it\u2019s possible to search for broken links to competitors&#8217; sites.\n<\/p>\n<p>When doing broken link building, a webmaster or SEO will reach out to the website owner and pitch a page on their own website as a potential substitute for the page the broken link pointed to. Broken link building is considered a white hat link building tactic, as it adds value to users.\n<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Relevance_to_SEO\">Relevance to SEO<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Monitoring for broken links is an important part of both <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/On-Page_SEO\" title=\"On-Page SEO\">on-page SEO<\/a> and <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Off-Page_SEO\" title=\"Off-Page SEO\">off-page SEO<\/a>. Broken links can also be used for building links, allowing website owners to reach out to websites in a bid to replace the broken link with a link to relevant content on their site.\n<\/p>\n<p>Broken links on a site can be fixed by replacing the link with a link to another relevant piece of high-quality content. Broken links pointing to a site can be fixed by contacting the website owner linking to the site and asking them to link to the page the content has moved to, or by redirecting the non-existent page to a similar page on the site using a 301 redirect.\n<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Related_links\">Related links<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li> <a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external free\" href=\"https:\/\/backlinko.com\/hub\/seo\/broken-link-building\">https:\/\/backlinko.com\/hub\/seo\/broken-link-building<\/a><\/li>\n<li> <a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external free\" href=\"https:\/\/www.searchenginejournal.com\/link-rot-solutions\/349270\/\">https:\/\/www.searchenginejournal.com\/link-rot-solutions\/349270\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Similar_articles\">Similar articles<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li> <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Backlinks\" title=\"Backlinks\">Backlinks<\/a><\/li>\n<li> <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Link_Exchange\" title=\"Link Exchange\">Link Exchange<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n   {\n     \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\/\",\n     \"@type\": \"ImageObject\",\n     \"contentUrl\": \"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/wiki\/images\/6\/6f\/Broken-Links.png\",\n     \"license\": \"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\",\n     \"acquireLicensePage\": \"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/wiki\/creative-commons-license-by-sa-4-0\"\n   }\n   <\/script>\n<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n{\n  \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n  \"@type\": \"Article\",\n  \"author\": {\n    \"@type\": \"Organization\",\n    \"name\": \"Seobility\",\n    \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/\"\n  }\n}\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Definition Figure: Broken Link &#8211; Author: Seobility &#8211; License: CC BY-SA 4.0 Broken links, also called dead links, are hyperlinks that point to a page that no longer exists. Usually, this is caused by a website owner moving the page without a 30X redirect, changing the URL structure of the website without the correct implementation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-29966","wiki","type-wiki","status-publish","hentry","wiki_categories-search-engine-optimization"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What is a Broken Link? Definition + Explanation - Seobility Wiki<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Broken links, also called dead links, are hyperlinks that point to a page that no longer exists. 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