Redirect Broken External Links

When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), there are a lot of moving parts. From on-page factors like title tags and meta descriptions to off-page factors like link building and social media engagement, businesses need to focus on a variety of elements to improve their chances of ranking in the search engines.

One important but often overlooked part of SEO is redirecting broken external links. Broken external links occur when another website links to your website but the URL they link to is no longer valid. For example, let’s say you have a blog post about “5 Tips for Training Your Dog.” A few months after you publish the post, you decide to change the URL because you want to optimize it for SEO. However, you forget to update the links on other websites that point to your post. As a result, anyone who clicks on those links will see a “404 not found” error message.

What are Broken External Links?

Broken external links (also known as “backlinks”) are links from other websites to pages on your website that no longer exist. When someone clicks on a broken link, they will be taken to a “404 not found” error page. This is detrimental to the user experience and can cause people to leave your website altogether. In addition, broken external links can negatively impact your SEO because search engines like Google use backlinks as a ranking factor.

Not only is this bad for user experience, but it can also hurt your SEO. That’s because when Google sees broken links pointing to your website, it sends out what are called “crawlers” to check those links. If too many of your inbound links are broken, it can hurt your chances of ranking in the search engines.

How Phvntom Can Help

That’s where redirecting broken external links comes in. By setting up 301 redirects—which is a permanent redirect from one URL to another—you can ensure that traffic from external websites is directed to the correct page on your website, even if the URL has changed. Not only does this improve user experience, but it also helps improve your SEO by ensuring that Google crawlers find valid pages when they check your inbound links.

At Phvntom, we understand the importance of redirecting broken external links for SEO purposes. That’s why we offer a comprehensive SEO service plan that includes auditing your inbound links and creating redirects for any that are broken. We’ll work with you to ensure that your website has the best possible chance of ranking high in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Redirecting broken external links is an important but often overlooked part of SEO. By setting up 301 redirects, you can ensure that traffic from other websites is directed to the correct page on your website, even if the URL has changed. This not only improves user experience, but it also helps improve your SEO by ensuring that Google crawlers find valid pages when they check your inbound links. If you’re not already redirecting broken external links on your website, now is the time to start. Contact Phvntom today to learn more about our SEO services and how we can help your business improve its online visibility.