Do you know how important for you to fix broken links in your WordPress site? It is not only important for your customer’s user experience but also important for SEO ranking.
Here in this blog, we will help you to find broken links in your WordPress site and fix them.
Have you ever clicked a link to a website and found yourself at a dead end where you got a 404 not found error? Tell me how you have felt at that time. Not happy of course.
After finding this error you may be promised yourself not to visit that website again. Think about what will happen if your visitors feel that way.
Don’t want that right? Then, read this full blog and remove this problem from your site for good.
If you’re thinking of creating a travel and tour booking website within minutes, without the hassle of coding or hiring expensive developers, there’s something for you at the end of this article.
You might be interested: SEO Checklist For Travel Sites (A Complete SEO Roadmap)
Table of Contents
What is a broken link?
A broken link is a link that will lead your visitors to a 404 error. That means when your visitors will click on the link to find more information they will reach a page that will show them not found error.
This is not only harmful to your SEO but also it will make your visitors frustrated and leave your site.
Broken links are harmful to both SEO ranking and user experience. Besides, your visitors who have experienced this problem might not come to your page anymore.
No matter how useful content you are providing they don’t want to see a 404 error in the middle of the content. This is not good for your website at all.
What are the reasons for having broken links?
After knowing that broken links are very harmful to your site, you may want to know the reasons for having these broken links. Here are the reasons for having it:
- Maybe you have changed the site to a new domain.
- The URL of the page has changed and redirection hasn’t been done.
- Someone has deleted the page.
- Or your redirection is not working correctly.
How can you find and fix broken links in your WordPress website?
You can’t allow having broken links on your WordPress website. Before fixing broken links on your site you need to find that broken link.
You can fix WordPress broken links without a plugin or you can remove that as well by using a WordPress plugin.
Let’s learn how to find and fix broken links on your WordPress website.
Identifying broken links in your WordPress site:
Before fixing it, you need to find those broken links to maintain SEO and UX. Here I will provide you six ways to find broken links on your site. Here they are:
- Using Google Search Console.
- Using the SEMRush tool.
- Use the broken link checker plugin.
- Use WordPress Website.
- Use the Toptal Web Developer Checklist.
- Using Screaming Frog.
1. Find it with the Google Search Console
Google Search Console will provide you with information about your site’s traffic, performance, and errors that prevent you from ranking on the search results.
Besides, here you can find a 404 not found error that is caused by broken links. If you don’t know how to set up your account then read the ultimate guide to Google Search Console.
For finding broken links go to your Google search console account and click on the coverage.
After that, click on the 404 not found error. It will lead to a page that will contain all the URLs of the broken link.
Finally, click on the export button that is on the top right side. By doing it, you can export all data to a Google sheet or you can download Excel or CSV files.
2. Find the broken link with SEMRush
You can also find broken links to your website with the SEMRush tool for free. Sign up on SEMRush and after that, log into your account and click on the site audit on the left side.
Now, enter the domain of your website then, press start audit.
After that, a site audit setting form will pop up.
Here, you can set the pages per audit and crawl source. If you are using their free service then you can increase pages.
As for the free version pages per audit is 100. Finally, click on the start site audit.
Then, you will get an audit report. Now, click on the broken that is marked on the screenshot.
Finally, you will find all the broken links to your site. You can export this result by clicking on the export that is situated on the top right side.
3. Find broken links with the Broken Link Checker plugin
The last method is removing broken links with the WordPress broken link checker plugin. But, it is not a healthy method.
As it consumes lots of resources. Many WordPress hosting services block broken link checker plugins for this reason. So, we won’t recommend you to do it.
You need to first go to plugins>> add new and search for broken links in the search box. After that, install and activate it.
Finally, go to tools>> broken links. Then, you will see the URL of the broken links.
4. Fix broken links on your WordPress website
After finding the broken links to your site, you have to fix them.
There is one system that redirects your URL of the broken links to a new URL that is similar to the resource of the broken link resource. Use Redirection plugin for redirecting broken links on your site.
To redirect broken links, go to tools>> Redirection.
Then enter the URL of the broken link in the source URL box. After that, fill the target URL box with the URL that you want your redirection to go.
Now, click the color-wheel button and select moved permanently redirection. Finally, press adds redirection. Your broken link is fixed now.
If you want more detailed information about broken links then read how to redirect a URL in WordPress.
5. Find and Fix broken links with the Toptal Web Developer Checklist
Toptal offers a web developer checklist to guarantee that your website meets the best practice guidelines in the industry.
The checklist includes all the areas such as performance, SEO, Usability, Analytics and Monitoring, availability, etc., which may be significant for developers who strive to build effective and efficient websites.
Besides this, Toptalβs Web Developer Checklist also assists you in searching and excluding all the broken links.
For broken links, go to the checklist entitled βFix Broken Links” dropdown menu and click on the W3C link checker.
This will take you to a link checker webpage. At last, input the address (URL) of a document you would like to check.
This will present a list of the broken links as well as other related issues such as a list of redirects, list of duplicates, empty anchors, etc.
6. Find broken links with Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is one of the effective tools capable of improving on-site SEO by crawling and fixing the most typical problems.
The basic version of this tool includes the possibility to crawl and analyze up to 500 URLs. If you need to add more links than allowed, you can either buy a license or analyze your links in batches and make do with the free version.
Hereβs a step-by-step guide to finding broken links using the Screaming Frog Spider tool:
Step 1: Crawl Your Website
Enter your websiteβs URL into the search bar and click “Start” to begin the crawling process.
Step 2: Set filter out to view broken links
Once crawling is done, go to the βResponse Codeβ tab at the top right side and apply the filter by selecting βClient Error (4xx).
Step 3: Analyze the Broken Links
Check the list of 404 errors to know which of the pages in your site are affected. You can select the URL of any link in the list and select βInlinksβ in the bottom navigation panel to see which pages contain these broken links.
Conclusion
Therefore, it is necessary always to control and fix the broken link problem in WordPress to sustain a higher SEO ranking and enhance the user experience.
Some of the broken link-checking tools that can be used by website owners are, Semrush, Ahrefs, Screamingfrog, and Google Search Console.
These actions ensure that the visitor will be able to find their way through the site and search engines will be able to crawl through the content and provide increased visibility and ranking.
Also, if you are looking to create your travel website, WP Travel allows you to create a fully functional tour/travel booking website within minutes.
That too without any coding for less than $220 (WP Travel Pro $99 + Domain $10 to $20 + Hosting $100).
While WP Travel Pro costs you $99/year, we provide an additional 25% discount on renewal as well.
To learn more on how you can create your travel website using WP Travel check out the video below.
The WP Travel SEO Team is a group of seasoned SEO experts with over 5 years of experience specializing in SEO for travel websites. They help tour operators and travel agencies businesses improve their online visibility and drive traffic through targeted SEO strategies.
From SEO packages and checklists to marketing ideas and content optimization, the team shares their knowledge and expertise to ensure that businesses can reach their full potential online. Trusted by travel businesses around the world, the WP Travel SEO Team delivers strategies that help businesses not only rank higher but also convert visitors into loyal customers.
