In this post, I’ll show you the method I use with my clients to identify and fix broken backlinks.
What are Broken Backlinks?
Backlinks are links to your website from other websites.
Broken backlinks happen when another website links to a page on your website that does not exist. This can happen for 3 reasons:
- The link on the other website has a typo
- The page on your website they linked to has been moved or deleted
- The page on your website they linked to never existed in the first place.
Why is this a Problem?
A user who clicks a broken link expecting to reach a page on your website would get a 404 error page instead. Not a good user experience.
But users rarely click these links. The most important reason broken backlinks are a problem has to do with how Google uses backlinks to judge the trustworthiness of web pages.
Google Uses Backlinks as a Proxy for Trust
According to Google, “if other prominent websites link to the page (what is known as PageRank), that has proven to be a good sign that the information is well trusted.
In other words, Google looks at backlinks as “votes of confidence” in a web page. If other people are linking to a page on your website, Google takes that to mean that the page on your website is trustworthy. But Google ignores these links completely if they result in a 404 error.
Backlinks are a major factor for Google in determining how highly to rank a page in search results. Because higher rankings means more traffic (and thus more brand exposure and new business inquiries), it’s important to make sure you fix any broken backlinks.
Some good news….
If you fix a broken backlink to one page, that will benefit other pages, and the site as a whole. Meaning if you fix a broken backlink to one blog post, it will pass a benefit to all the other pages on that blog, as well as a much smaller benefit to the other linked pages on your website.
How do I find Broken Backlinks?
There are a few SEO tools that can do this, but I like ahrefs. I think they have better backlink data than other SEO tools.
Just navigate to the Broken Backlinks report in the sidebar menu:
How do I fix Broken Backlinks?
The best way is to use a 301 redirect to take the user to the correct page on your website.
There are other ways to fix broken backlinks (like putting a missing page back up, or asking the other website to fix their link), but the 301 redirect is much easier, and doesn’t require help from a 3rd party.
How do I know which page to redirect to?
In the case of a typo or misspelled link, create a redirect from the incorrect URL to the correct one.
If the broken backlink is to a page that no longer exists, find the closest possible replacement for that page. A good method is to use the site: search operator to find the best replacement page on your website.
If the broken backlink is to an image or other media that no longer exists, try to find a replacement, or put that media back up.
FAQ
Isn’t this the other website’s problem?
Often it is their mistake, but it’s our problem because the broken links can affect how our website’s pages rank in search.
Can’t I ask the other website to fix their link?
You could, but this approach is very hard to scale because:
- The number of broken links is very high
- The chance that you could find the right person to reach out to, or get that person respond to your request is very low.
What if the broken backlinks I’m fixing are low-quality?
Generally speaking, while the task of fixing broken backlinks is monotonous, the value of having more links to your site outweighs the small amount of time it takes to fix a link.
This is especially true if the linked-to page has a low number of links. In that case, even a single additional link from a low-quality site can help it achieve better rankings.
And, most established, successful websites have a large number of low-quality links. So even if the benefit is very small, it’s usually worth your time to fix as many broken backlinks as you can.
The exception would be if the site linking to you is obviously spammy or toxic. But even a low quality link can help you, so don’t mistake “low quality” for “zero benefit.”
What if I have other questions?
Feel free to reach out to me. I’d be happy to help.
I run a small SEO consulting business in San Francisco, CA. I like to write a little bit and get in arguments with my friends. It’s the only way I can make sense of the world.