A broken link is originated when a web developer deletes a linked page, uses an incorrect URL, or changes a URL without updating the URL in a correct manner. It is important for every website owner to keep a track of all the broken links on his website. And also, care should be taken to remove these broken links in order to maintain the SEO standards of a given website. When a user finds a 404 error on a website then he simply doesn’t take that website seriously. And the presence of broken links on a given website also hurt its SEO. In this post, we have mentioned the ways in which broken links can hurt the SEO of a given website.
Affects the SEO Negatively
Search engines rank websites by crawling their links and hence it is crucial for every website owner to maintain all the links of a website in a good state. In case, broken links are present on a given website then it would simply stop the search engine from crawling that website and then the web pages of that website will not be indexed.
Poor Impression on Users
When a visitor comes on a website and fails to open a link then it simply leads to frustration. Then, he looks for information on some other website and discards the former website. 404 error disappoints every visitor and it prevents the user to visit again and again on the same website. And all this results into a poor reputation of that website which lowers the conversion rate and affects the repeat user ratio. Hence, it is important to fix the broken links on every website in order to increase the traffic on that website.
Lowers Ranking on the Search Engine
In order to rank well on Google, it is important to follow the guidelines of the search engine. Google provides a user-friendly experience to all the visitors on websites by working against the broken links. And it is important to provide the proper link on a website in order to make it rank well on Google.