Have you been breaking your neck trying to adhere to all of the latest SEO guidelines? Going out of your way to optimize content? Build links? Only to discover that you’re ranking hasn’t improved at all?
I’ve been there and still doing that – wondering what on earth I still could be doing wrong?
At times, I’ve felt like the search engines are as hungry as Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors – no matter how much blood I give, it still wants more. It still screams, “Feed me, Seymour!”
I keep feeding it more and more optimized content and yet nothing changes. I keep building backlinks – nothing. I avoid duplicate content – after over a year, I can’t get past a page rank of 4 – what gives? What exactly does Google want from me?
Out of all of the things I’ve done, I’ve never thought to conduct a check for broken links, both internal and external. I guess I hadn’t really thought about it – I didn’t realize how much it mattered, but according to an old post I found over at DailySEOTip.com entitled, “Crawl Your Site for Broken Links, Errors, and Duplicate Content,” broken links and other various errors could signal to search engines that your site is still under construction and is therefore not as valuable.
I don’t know about you, but the thought of that made my eye twitch. Out of all of the steps I’ve taken to build this blog, you mean to tell me Google still considers it a work in progress and not worth increasing the rank?
I decided that it was time to take action, so I stopped by Dr. Link Check to get a status on my links. This site is free and scans up to 1000 links. It checks for broken internal and external links and even checks for blacklisted links. If you need to scan more than 1000 links, there are additional options to choose from.
After scanning WeBlogBetter.com, I cringed! I had over 117 broken links and 2 blacklisted links. Obviously, I’ve got some work to do! I’m going to spend some time fixing up the problem and I’ll keep you posted on the results.
Have you had a similar experience with stagnant rankings? Have you checked your links yet?
About Kiesha Easley
Thanks for the information. Was searching the web for info on broken links and how it affects a website. Followed the Dr. link check and found 24 broken links.
Thanks
DBG :-)
Dale recently posted..Google Sniper 2.0 Performance Update
Twitter: IbangSR
says:
Hi Kiesha Easley,
I have duplicate title tags on my blog, but I have fix it. But why after I saw on webmaster tools every day, the report still exist? Thanks before
Riki recently posted..Best Cribs
I dont understand this, how do you no if you have a broken link?
Twitter: Taruhan Bola
says:
Dear Kiesha
I never thought about this before. In fact I have never seen a broken link in my blog. After reading your article I might try to understand it in stages.
Very much thanks to your write.
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Twitter: ThinkJungle
says:
Thanks for pointing out this tool. It’s appreciated and I’ve just corrected all of mine :)
Ash recently posted..Monkeys, Delfins, and Manaus
Twitter: designforcepk
says:
Before reading this article i never think about broken links and fixes for SEO. After reading this article i am going to take care for broken links too. Thank you very much for this nice post.
Hafeez Ansari recently posted..Social Media Wizard
Twitter: theopenbookblog
says:
Kiesha,
Just completed my scan and found 18 broken and 0 blacklisted links. Something rather interesting is that most of the broken links were URLs I allow in the comments section! My other blog is still new with absolutely no broken or blacklisted links. Will keep monitoring them on a weekly basis.
Btw are blacklisted links and when is Google updating pageranks next?
Dennis recently posted..6 Golden Ideas To Make Passive Income Using WordPress Communities
Twitter: NoypiGeeks
says:
I don’t know that broken links hurts rankings but not until now. Is it really that way? I have about 35 listed in webmaster tools and I just ignore them. My bad. Thanks for the heads up!
Adam recently posted..The New iPad 3 Philippines Price, Features and Specifications
I think Broken Links always hurts the Rankings, you always need to regularly check your links and make them correct.
Cristin recently posted..Total Hair Regrowth Reviews: Know What’s Best For You
Twitter: Janis167
says:
Backlinks do not hurt you! NEVER! And if Googles is punishing you for that – it will fall soon.
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Thanks for reminds me about broken link, did not aware of it before. Will start to work on them soon… …
Twitter: theapptimes
says:
I do have a lot of broken links on my site, but I didnt think it mattered much. That cold possibly be a reason why my site is not doing so well in rankings. I’m going to go ahead and check it out. Thanks for the valuable info Kiesha.
Adeline recently posted..Amazon Rolls Out the Amazon Cloud Drive Desktop App
I know that keeping our links clean and updated is important but never realized how crucial it is to rankings!
The search engines want to provide users with the best possible result and experience. If they click over to your site and find lots of broken links, it’s not a good experience. It’s important to do a link audit, find broken links, and fix the problem on a regular basis.
Broken links definitely hurt ranking and covey bad visitor experience. They should always be redirected to relevant page. Anyway, Thanks Kiesha for the useful tool Dr. Link Check. Thought I have used other tools but this seems cool…..
Twitter: TechTricksWorld
says:
Broken links always hurts the rankings. So its better to install broken link checker and if found any then remove them and also remove the not found urls from search engine index. You can do it by webmaster’s url removal tool.
Atish recently posted..Boost Your Online Business With The Strength of Facebook
Twitter: salman1507
says:
Thanks for the share … Got my site checked with Dr.Link Check and found just 2 external broken links ! I have Broken Link Checker installed which works great, so that is why I think the count of broken links is less
Salman recently posted..50 Best iPhone Apps 2012
Just gave Dr Link Check a go and found some interesting things. Thanks for the great resources and tips.
Twitter: trungpc81
says:
I didn’t update my blog for a while and it got many broken links, I wish it’s not reason for my downing PR :(
Trung Nguyen recently posted..How to Start a Blog: 7 Steps to Start a Blog Yourself
Twitter: howtospecialist
says:
I also have some broken links due to some WordPress bugs, but from what I know they don’t affect Google rankings. Nevertheless, it is advisable to solve them as soon as possible, as they can ruin user experience on our blogs.
Jack Sander recently posted..Storage shed plans
Twitter: issuesEthical
says:
Thanks for the tip Kiesha, I did do as bad as I thought, I had only 33 broken and 0 blacklisted. I am running it again after I fixed them.
Michael Belk recently posted..Who makes a better coworker? male or female
Twitter: issuesEthical
says:
Great post Kiesha, I need to check mine as well. I am almost scared but I know I need to do it.
Michael Belk recently posted..Drive-thru order mistakes: The top 10 customer complaints
Wow, i was looking for some tool to find broken links and you really helped me to find some broken links, It was great idea to do it :)
Girls Quotes recently posted..Quotes and Sayings For Girls
Twitter: techinitio
says:
Broken links not only affect your ranking but is annoying for the people that are visiting your blog as well. It makes sense that broken links drops your rank as a bad link is worse than not having it at all. So always double check what you are linking!
Rashmi Sinha recently posted..Google Pagerank Matters:- TechInitio is PR2!
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Rashmi,
You’re right – they are annoying – but unless someone reports the broken link, it’s very difficult to know when your links break long after the fact. I’m finally taking advantage of the tools out there. Now my problem is finding the time to fix the issue.
Twitter: makemoneyinlife
says:
This is interesting tool, I will check it out, broken links need to be removed, but webmaster tools still serve the purpose and maybe even better then any other tool. Since Google is the boos we need to follow him and to use this tools more :)
thanks for sharing
JamesW recently posted..4 Important Blogging and Weight Loss Gems
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi James,
You’re right – I agree that Google Webmaster tools would probably give better results, I just always had a difficult time understand how to navigate it. But it could just be me. :) Thanks for dropping by!
This is good thanks. I’m going to have to go back and check on all of those myself. I need to include this in my regular maintenance and the tool is really good.
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Jim,
Yeah, I’m with you – I’m going to have to make this a regular part of maintenance – there’s just so much to do but so little time. :) Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Twitter: rsatechnologies.in
says:
Great article my dear friend, Broken links really hurt our seo campaign a lot. so these must be removed from our blog or site. Thanks for sharing with us.
~rakesh kumar
rakesh kumar recently posted..Top 4 WordPress Plugins to boost your website traffic
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Rakesh,
Yeah, I didn’t realize how much they hurt until now – blogging, no matter how long you’ve been doing it is still a learning process. Thanks for visiting.
Twitter: MicahChipchase
says:
This is something I hadn’t thought to do until recently either. The comments are what gets you.
I’ve got a bit of clean up to do myself.
Thanks for sharing this :)
Micah recently posted..“Internet Entrepreneur Claims Cure For “Google SEO Shinanagans”. Is Blog Engage Really the Answer?”
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Micah,
Yeah, comments can be a doozy – I’ve recently experienced a new kind of spam where the spammers posted someone else’s links dozens of times. What’s the benefit in that? I have no idea, but I ended up having to remove them for the real site owner who reported being penalized for the obnoxious amount of links. Weird!
Good call! Thanks for sharing K :D
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Thanks, Chris! I love it when I learn something new – this is one of those times :)
Twitter: 3MwindowfilmTO
says:
Great tool to check for broken links. In examining my site I found no broken links so i guess i’m good. But still it will be good to check it from time to time to see if everything is still in working order.
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
That’s great news – but keep blogging, eventually you’ll experience broken links :)
Twitter: ZakShow
says:
I’ve just checked my website and I found no broken links, and internal links are doubling external links, which I believe is a good seo factor. I bookmarked this useful online tool to check my clients websites.
Thank you Kiesha for this great post!
Zak Show recently posted..Improve Business Performance Using Apple Products
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Zak,
I hope you’ll find it to be a useful site – thanks for stopping by!
just wanted to come back and say thanks, this is a great tool, i managed to fix 6 broken links in minutes, its womderful that its free too!!
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Alex,
Glad to hear that you were able to benefit so quickly! Awesome!
Great post Kiesha!
I totally agree with you and I believe that Google counts every detail in order to evaluate properly a blog! Moreover broken link make a blog look neglected and that really affects the readers opinion too. So, I’ll check my links today!
Thank you for sharing, and reminding us!
Sara recently posted..Growing Pots
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Sara,
Yeah, I can admit that neglect has probably paid a huge part in the large number of broken links that I have, but I’ve been so busy – there just aren’t enough hours in a day! Hope you have better results than me! Thanks for visiting and taking the time to share your thoughts!
Hi dear, greatttt post-I read your post its useful to us your sharing knowledgeable post,Its really helping me..
thanx for sharing it..
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Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Glad to hear it! Thanks!
I try to use broken link checkers every week, its surprising how often broken links appear after editing or adding pages.
Jason recently posted..Improving their Saving Habits | Bad Credit Loans No Brokers
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Jason,
Yeah it is surprising – a lot of my broken links came from a plug in that I’d disabled. You just never know how intricately things are connected until something goes wrong. Glad you’re so proactive with your link checking – I’m sure it will pay off.
Twitter: lisapatb
says:
YES I just went through this on one of my retail websites and thankfully it made a difference in a day, Pageviews went up and sales improved within 24 hours. Loving Google caffeine. Years ago it took weeks or months to see improvement. It’s not my favorite “chore” to be done but if it’s a retail site it’s very important as it generates revenue. I like to use Webmaster tools.
Lisa recently posted..How Blogging Has Saved Me Money
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for sharing this – it really gives me hope that this simple fix really does work. This is great news! :)
Twitter: johnjmcdonald
says:
Wow, this is a rather useful tool! Just found & fixed 14 broken links in no time, and I feel like my morning is productive already. Now to check the other sites…
John recently posted..Dreamhost Coupon and Promo Codes
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi John,
I’m so happy that I was able to contribute to your morning productivity! Thanks for sharing! :)
Twitter: ModestMoney
says:
I’m got in the habit of checking this via xenu and via google webmaster tools. I had xenu temporarily disable my hosting by putting too much load on the cpu though. So next time I’ll have to limit the settings a bit or maybe try the dr link checker site instead. It is important that you don’t send these kinds of signals to google. It just shows that you are not staying on top of quality control.
Jeremy recently posted..Partying Philosophy 101: Why You Shouldn’t Be Generous, Even If You’re Filthy Rich
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Jeremy,
Yeah, it’s definitely a quality control issue and one I hope to get under control really soon :)
Twitter: writetojohnmak
says:
Thanks for the advice Kiesha… I have notice some broken links on my site too and I am trying to fix the problem. It is crazy sometimes there are so many things to do, technical, marketing, strategies, etc so you get frustrated. A daily plan always helps! :)
Have a great day!
John
John Mak recently posted..VeriSign on Your Website Boosts Customer Confidence
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi John,
I share your sentiments! There are entirely too many things to do – if only I could outsource my sleep, I’d probably get more things accomplished! :)