How to Fix Broken Links In WordPress 2022: Why You Must Use Broken Link Checker WordPress Plugin!
Want to know how to fix broken links in WordPress the simple way? Have you ever got an email message from WordPress support stating that you have broken links on your website? Did one of your readers tell you? What does this really mean and does it affect your SEO? If you currently have WordPress links not working on your site, then today I will show you a super easy way how to fix broken links in WordPress!
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO is something that can either break or make a website online. When it’s done incorrectly or neglected, then it can have some bad results.
We all are super busy each and everyday and even more so if we run or manage a blog or website. It doesn’t matter how small or big of a website you have, writing content with great SEO is key to out rank your competitors online. However, as you publish more content regularly online on your website and begin to link to external pages, it is possible at some point or another that you will get a broken link 404 error.
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What are 404 errors?
These result primarily when a website that you link to has made change in the url or permalink of a post or article. Perhaps the webmaster or owner of the website or blog updated a post or article or even did a redirect. Well, don’t fret! This is something that happens in the industry often with websites and it is to be expected.
It’s terrible when a visitor lands on your page and get a message “Oops, this page doesn’t exist” or that the link doesn’t work. It’s embarrassing, right? It is something that we have all seen happen on a website.
Although it’s not the end of the world, will this have an affect on your website SEO rankings?
Keep watching to see..
What Can You Do to Monitor and Fix Broken Links in WordPress Using A Plugin?
As mentioned in the video, this is a really great question that I found a simple answer to some time ago and I wanted to share it with you today. The secret is all inside of a simple, but very needed WordPress plugin called Broken Link Checker by ManageWP! I think that it’s the absolute best broken link checker for WordPress.
Obviously you can’t stay awake 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. But this is exactly what plugins like BLC are doing for the SEO health of your website.
- Prevents search engines from following broken links
- It detects links that don’t work, missing images and redirects
- It will notify you either on your dashboard or send you an email
- You can even monitor internal & exteranal links in your posts, pages, comments, blogroll and custom fields & more!
NOTE: 700,000+ installations by users have already have it on their WordPress websites.
I’ll be honest and say that when it comes to installing WordPress plugins, I don’t personally believe in having too many of them on my website. In fact, the truth is that you don’t really need too many installed on your website for it to perform its day-to-day functions. I typically keep about 10 plugins on my sites.
I kind of compare plugins to apps for phones, if you have too many of them downloaded on your phone, it can take up too much space and essentially cause your phone to run slow or even malfunction. The same is true with having too many WordPress plugins.
However, the Broken Link Checker WordPress is an absolute plugin that I think every blogger MUST HAVE to save you a lot of time, frustration and stay up to date with your links. It’s the best solution on how to fix broken links in WordPress.
It basically performs daily scans of your website to check for missing images and broken links on pages, posts, and blogrolls. Even you if you update posts on your blog, change permalinks or do redirects these errors could also result.
Other Broken Link Checker Alternatives [Plugins]
- Broken Links Status Checker by Pau Iglesias & SeedPlugins – 20,000+ installations
- Custom 404 Pro by Kunal Nagar – 9,000+ installations
- Link Checker by Marco Beierer – 10,000+ installations
- Advance Broken Link Checker And Link Manager – by jannatqualitybacklinks – 300+ installations
Why Is It Important To Fix Broken Links on WordPress Websites?
If you take the time to learn how broken links affect SEO, you will definitely see the need to take action fast when you get these 404 errors in your WordPress dashboard. If you ignore them, then this may have a bad effect on your website rankings and user experience. So to avoid this, it would great to install the Broken Link Checker by ManageWP.
You can easily do this by logging into the dashboard of your WordPress website. Scroll down to “Plugins” and click on “Add New”. You can then type in the words “broken link checker” in the search bar and it will appear. From this point, you will just to Install & Activate so it can start running scans immediately on your site. This is the best FREE way to start monitoring and fixing these errors so they don’t your Google rankings.
One way that your rankings could start to plummet is if visitors land on your website and start reading your post, but suddenly bounce off quickly. They may click on an internal or external link on the article and if WordPress links are not working, then this is a huge problem. Why?
Because when it comes to visitor’s retention, Google monitors every second that a person spends on a site. They also monitor what you DO on the website and how many pages you actually surf navigate. Basically the entire visitor experience is measured from the time you land on the site until you leave.
So let’s suppose for example that I had a broken link on this page. If this was the case when clicking on it, then you would likely bounce off my blog and go to the next listing, right? Why? Because they are not find the information that they want to see. But you are still here which is awesome and I really appreciate you reading this review.
But going back to how broken links affect SEO, it could leave a bad taste in your visitor’s mouth and actually hurt your brand. You see the reality is that the less time people spend on your website, lower Google will rank you in the search results. However, the longer period of time and interaction that you spend on this site for any reason, it sends a signal to Google that learnanet.com has got it going on and that it should rank higher and STAY on its 1st page. This is something that I work very hard on to learn how to fix broken link in SEO quickly so I can maintain great rankings and user experience on this blog.
How to Fix Broken Links in WordPress Without Plugin?
So I showed earlier how to fix broken links links by simply installing the Broken Link Checker WordPress plugin. However, there are website owners who may want to fix broken links without the use of plugin. How can you do it?
Perhaps your deal is that you don’t want to install another plugin that uses resources. Or maybe you are worried that having another plugin will slow down your website speed performance. Although these are very legitimate concerns considering how page speed impacts search ranking, all plugins don’t have the same affect.
Here are some ways to check and help you fix broken links without using a WordPress plugin:
- RankIQ Best SEO Tool
- Google Search Console
- Ahrefs
- Semrush
- Dead Link Checker
- Screaming Frog
- SEOQuake Chrome Extension
- SEO Minion Chrome Extension
How To Fix Broken Links In WordPress Conclusion
To date I have created several WordPress blogs and websites. Some have been created using web hosts like Hostinger, A2 Hosting, Siteground, Namecheap and others.
Every time I addon a domain to create a new site with the web hosting service, I always run a checklist of the best WordPress plugins for business sites recommended to install.
When it comes to finding easy non techie solutions on how to fix broken links in WordPress and SEO, I always remember to install the Broken Link Checker WordPress by ManageWP because it does all the hard work for me. They send you the email notifications and you simply need to update links when prompted. That’s it!
So today I just wanted to share with you the best ways how to fix broken links in WordPress websites. It’s a very simple process that can be done with a few clicks. What do you think about the Broken Link Checker WordPress plugin? What do you think about the other suggestions mentioned above? Do you think that these will help you to save time with your business? Have you this plugin or a different method not mentioned above? If so, how did it work for you with monitoring broken links in WordPress & to improve your SEO? I want to hear your thoughts below..