Broken link check tool for bloggers – When starting a blog as beginners, there are many things that hit us totally unaware. We probably get to learn about them along the way as we actually run the blog.
But just like in any other form of business, the most important part is to get started. After you have started the blog, now you need to come up with great content for your readers.
Free Broken Link Check Tool for Bloggers
When creating the content, at some point we need to interlink our blog posts..
But do you ever realize that you may have linked to another site in your post and in one way or another, the publishers of the other site takes down the pages you had linked to?
Guess what! Those links on your blog leading to the external site now become broken. Since users can’t reach where the link is supposed to take them. Your bounce rate goes up in return. Here is bounce rate on google analytics explained.
That can be a hard task to check from link to link confirming whether it is still functional or not. In this post, we will be looking at a free broken link check tool to help spot all broken links on your blog.
Did you know broken links can affect your monetization?
Just so you know, if you have applied for the Google AdSense program in the past and got a rejection email indicating that your blog is still under construction, the presence of broken links on your site is most likely the cause.
This is because the approval process is usually performed by bots. When they come across broken links, they will translate it that you are yet to complete constructing your site.
To fix that, you need to redirect the broken links to functional pages.
Below is a process of how to identify all broken links available on your site.
How to check broken links on website
Brokenlinkcheck.com – This is a website where you can be able to identify all broken links on your site. It is completely free to use. So you do not have to worry about incurring more costs in your blogging business.
How do I check my broken links?
Below is a simple step-by-step guide on how to use broken link check tool
1. Go to brokenlinkcheck.com
2. Enter your site URL
3. Click on “Find Broken Links”
4. Enter the security code in the space provided as it is. If you cannot see the code clearly, generate a new one by clicking on the option displayed next to it
5. Check the “All occurrences of each broken link (may be slower)” box. This will ensure that no broken links are left unchecked during the check
6. Finally click on “Find broken links now!” Wait for the check process to complete
How do you fix a broken link?
After the check you will get a “COMPLETED!”. If you have zero broken links, you are good. But if you have broken links, you will see them in the results. You can click on them to see the error they lead to.
From there, you get to decide on the appropriate redirect to make or whether to remove them from the site completely.
To know where the broken link is located, click on the “src” option. This will lead you to the exact position of the link. You also get to know the exact phrase or word that it is linked to. This makes it easier for you to identify and act on it appropriately.
That is all you need in order to identify broken links on your site and get rid of them.
If you were facing the problem I mentioned earlier on the post about Google AdSense application, you can resubmit your site again for review.
Why are broken links bad?
Broken links affect your site in ways that are not easily noticeable as it is not something that you can easily think of not unless you actually experience its negative impact on your site.
- Affects your site user experience
This is because users come to your site looking for something and cannot find it since broken links lead to errors thus being useless to them. This can lead to your visitors opting for your competitors sites instead to get the information they are looking for.
You do not want to lose your site visitors because of that trust me we all know the efforts it takes to drive traffic to your site and retain it. Learn how to increase traffic to your blog for free.
- Loss of revenue
Not unless you are just blogging for fun as a hobby, you will know the value of losing site visitors in relation to your blog revenue.
If you are monetizing your blog with display ads, the more traffic you have is obviously the more you can earn and on the other hand as well, if you are doing affiliate marketing or selling your own products, you will need more visitors interacting with your content to increase the chances of getting potential customers in front of your affiliate product or your own products.
The same applies for sponsored posts. Your sponsors will need to evaluate your site traffic levels as a requirement to partner with you. Nobody wants to invest in something that is not viable anyway.
Do broken links affect SEO?
Yes broken links affect SEO as your rankings will be impacted a lot negatively.
Google rewards sites that offer value and if your site has nothing to offer but broken links, then you are set for failure with SEO as Google will crawl your site from time to time and when it finds broken links on your site, it will be an indication that your site is not up to the standards.
Once you start seeing some good results with Google SEO, you need to work to maintain your site in the best state possible as you work to increase the value with time.
Why are broken links important?
As nature has it, some negative news on this side can be positive news on the other end.
Now how do broken links turn to be important? Well think of it, the broken link check tool does not need any account or password authentication to run the checks for a site.
So take for instance your competitor running a check for your site and finding the broken links on your site, analyzing the topics that the broken links are about and majoring on that to come up with great content to rank for?
That is an opportunity to your competitors created by the broken links available on your site.
Conclusion
We have come to the end of the post “Free Broken Link Check Tool for Bloggers” I believe you found it valuable and helpful.
If you need any help or have any suggestions or questions, feel free to comment down below it will be my pleasure to be of hear from you and be of help.
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Hey, I’m Frank! A Digital Entrepreneurship enthusiast. I help people understand the fundamentals of digital entrepreneurship. I created this site originally to hone my web design skills, motivate & inspire people who also love to dream big! Read more...