Broken links not only make you look unprofessional, they can actually wreak havoc on your search results. Yes, Google can tell if links are broken on your website. And there's nothing worse than getting punished for having broken links or even getting banned by Google for links that don't go anywhere.
How can a website link get broken? After time, if you don't stay on top of it, sites that you once were linking to can get bought out, go out of business, get redirected to some other source or the domain ceases to exist. When a visitor clicks on the link, it could go to a 'page not found' message or even worse, go to a site that Google doesn't like such as a link farm, ad site or blacklisted URL. Linking to websites in 'bad neighborhoods' can hurt you in the search results.
Just like a car, websites having moving parts that flow evenly from one place to another through anchor text or page navigation. And just like a car, websites need tune-ups. Having a spring cleaning is a must: make sure you go through each and every page of your site with the main navigation links and site maps, make sure the pages redirect to where they are supposed to and click on each link going from your site making positive that they are still viable.
This is something you need to do on a regular basis. You can even get friends or family members to help out. Sites with broken links are one of the most popular problems that goes unnoticed by website owners. Think about how terrible it would be if one of your visitors clicked on a link you provided and ended up with a computer virus. It's your responsibility to make sure your visitors are browsing through a safe environment. The most common place for multiple broken links are in a resource section you may have on your site to provide people with information, just because of the shear amount of website links that may be there. I've seen up to nearly 20% of resource directory links go bad or redirect to a site they weren't' supposed to in just a year's time.
On WordPress sites, simply updating a version or theme can cause links to break. It's happened to me many times. Most people just love their websites and when they're new, we click all over the place to see if things flow. But after time, we forget to stay on top of them and some entire sites or pages may be broken and we don't even know it. Our visitors won't tell us anything -- they'll just leave and go somewhere else. Think about who you're trying to attract to your site and why. Customers? Prospects? Clients? How many have already come and gone because you didn't tune up your site?
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Keep on posting these types of articles. I like your blog design as well. Cheers!!!
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