Concept of BROKEN LINKS on the path to a successful SEO strategy
- rwangchuk
- Sep 15, 2020
- 4 min read
Words: 4426 Time: 4:56”
The concept of broken links for any content on the internet should be taken seriously for the sake of the content-creator as well as for the whole article in question. The right usage of broken links can contribute towards the betterment of the content created and the article on the whole in question.
The following would be the ways to deal with and explain the relevance of broken links;
error 404 message image credit: FaviFake – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=88720914
Definition of broken links and reasons for them?
Broken links are as the name suggest links which are not working in the article. Links that have been initially been linked to some other article or site and now give an error 404 message! Other ways to think about the broken links are namely websites which do not work anymore, not applicable, links to websites that could have been moved to other sites without any redirect and the URL (unique resource locator) have changed.
How does it impact sites?
Some ways to think about the impact broken links could have on the sites would be giving out a bad user-experience i.e. when a user clicks on a hyperlink/ directed to a new tab and the link it needs to connect to does not work, it leaves the user unhappy even though the content he or she could be reading is good and most relevant. It could certainly discourage the person from reading on, hamper the brand the article could be based on and it also simply gives a feeling of the creator of the content not paying enough attention for the user reading, hence work adversely for the content on the whole.
How to check for broken links on any site? Sites for references?
It is imperative one needs to check on the broken links in a website and whether all the references given in an article works promptly and without a glitch. Some of the known reliable sources for broken link checking would be namely google link checker, ahref, screaming frog, webmaster tool and wp tool for link checking. Several of the good reputable sources are for a nominal payment. It depends on what size of the organization do you really need it for. Whether the cost-benefit analysis check out? If it is a startup like ours, we would certainly recommend looking for some of the free tools out there or perhaps the trial versions of any of the sources mentioned above before going in for the full service?
How can one use broken links to their advantage? Broken link building?
The advantages taken out of the broken links by smart seo specialists could turn out to be one of the smartest tactics in the process of search engine optimization really. Compared to the state if one has a broken link in their bank of articles, which of course does not lead to anything relevant further on, a smart seo-specialist can make this an opportunity for themselves by taking some very simple steps, also termed as broken link building. Let’s say, you being the seo-expert, have all the right tools at your disposal, that is a tool for scraping the web for broken links with the relevant parameters on which you would judge the relevancy of the site/ broken links such as backlinks, PA, DA. The backlinks here would simply show you where all has the content been linked to and getting traction from, depending on the relevancy of the backlinks, one could judge the quality of the content in question itself. Once, this step which is of course very important is done the right way, one would analyze the broken link’s content as to what it was about? What does it talk about? At this junction, there are a couple of ways, one could play this, one way could be to simply inform the owner of the content about the broken link and politely request them to correct it, totally benefiting them in the long run or the other smart way would be, having analyzed what the content was about, create a similar content, reach out to the owner of the content in which the broken link exists, at first make the person aware of the broken link and then suggest politely a replaceable link with similar content and provide one immediately on demand, it that works out? Good on you! The conversion rate of this process happening in the industry is a mere 6% if I am not mistaken, hence the more tries you take reaching out to a bunch of them (out of the backlinks), the higher are the chances of you getting a response from someone.
Link bait?
Another fascinating topic is the angle of link bait. It is said that articles with the fine qualities of link bait does work wonders for the content created. As the name suggests, for the sole reason of creating backlinks to your created content, link bait works wonders! Some of the elements which works like magic for link bait content are controversial content, data driven content, guides (informative) content and newsworthy content. The content must also be very visually appealing for it to qualify as ‘link bait content.’
broken link Image credit: pixabay
Conclusively, as one reads more and more on the concept of search engine optimization and with the several rules of the game changing every now and then, the concept of broken links and the ability to make that a link building opportunity is certainly one to stay for the times ahead.
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