Broken links are the ones that make “404 error” appear on your website. It is obvious that no user would like to land on a site with broken links. These links create a negative impact on the SEO ranking of the site. Not only in the ranking, but in site’s traffic as well.
Dead links are usually found on the site where internal links are not changed. It is also found while renaming or moving a webpage. These links must be found out and corrected to keep the site updated and error-free.
Broken links are annoying and create bad experience for the user. So, to remove this error from your WordPress website we have mentioned two methods with their easy steps. The first method is to use a WordPress plugin and the second one to use desktop software.
Broken links identify the following Errors:
- Images missing in HTML
- 404 Not Found Pages
- Background Images in CSS are found missing and many others.
Method 1: Find Broken Links in WordPress Using a WordPress Plugin
Here, we will suggest you the easiest way to find the broken links in WordPress. Choose this method, as it is the easiest one. It doesn’t require any kind of coding knowledge. It’s simple, let’s get started.
Here, I am using the Broken Link Checker plugin. You can choose other plugins (free or premium) that do the same task.
Step I
- First of all, Login to the Dashboard of the website. Then, Click on the button Plugins >> Add New. Search for the plugin that you want to install to your WordPress site.
Step II
- After getting the plugin, click on the button Install Now and Activate it. If you have any confusion while installing the plugin then go through install a new WordPress plugin.
Step III
- Now, after activating the plugin, click on the button Tools. Then, Click on the button Broken Links to see all the internal and external broken links on the site.
Step IV
- For fixing out the link, Click on the button Edit URL. Now add the correct link. Finally, Click on the button Update to save all the changes made to your site.
Step V
- Personally, I would suggest you to disable the plugin after using it, because it will not be in use all the time. Next time when you would want to check the broken links again, you can activate it.
Method II: Use Screaming Frog Desktop Software
You can use Screaming Frog SEO Spider which is available for free.
Step I:
- Use the Response Codes Setting. It will filter out all the 404 Pages. It uses Inlinks to discover the pages linked to the 404 pages.
Wrapping Up:
The above-mentioned methods are much simpler than the coding one. Use these two simple methods to find out the broken links. Is there any other simple method that we have missed? If so please leave your recommendations in the comment section below.
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