Broken link is a dead-link that is not good for the search engines and it is also not good for the readers. Today I am going to share with you some free 404 checker tools that can help you to find 404 and dead link on your blogs.
I personally use Xenu Link Sleuth for my website BigBloggerTips.
But I am sure that many of you are wondering why you need to use those dead link checkers websites. Well, let me explain it to you after a pause.
Why we should check and repair 404 links on a regular basis:
Broken links provide 404 status codes. When a webmaster changes the permalink of a link and also deletes the page, he gives a 404. These are known as broken links. They are not helpful for search engines, and they are also not useful for readers. A lot of broken links are treated as a bad sign for a quality site. Therefore, we should fix these links and direct them to the correct link.
Free Online Link Checker tools will look for broken links on your sites. This means that it could be an internal broken link, or it could be an external broken link.
If you have a large blog, you may have a lot of dead links. Adding working and updated URLs will make your old posts worth reading.
Broken links are hated by search engines bots and can lead to low ranking in search engines as well as less traffic to the blog. From the search engine’s point of view, a broken link is considered as a dead link.
We have a plugin for WordPress bloggers called “Broken Link Checker WordPress” which is very helpful and effective. However, for static site and BlogSpot we do not have such a plugin, so let’s explore some online solutions:
If your visitors keep landing on your broken links, there’s a good chance that they’ll never return to your site again. Nobody has the time to waste on broken links!
You can find out the existence of broken links with many free site checkers available online.
Once you’ve detected the presence of broken links on your blog, the next step is to manage the broken links using a redirection plugin.
What are the Different ways to Remove Broken link
If you’re running a small WordPress site with just a few pages and few external links, you’ll need to manually check them. That means clicking on all your links to see if they’re working. (Read more about how to remove broken links here.)
Manually checking links is time-consuming, especially since you’ll want to make sure you’re keeping an eye on your broken links each time you update your site. That way, you can rest assured that everything is working as it should.
If you’ve got a few hours to spare, you can try a few plugins or web-based options that will do the heavy lifting for you.
Here are our top picks for the best broken link checker for WordPress:
1. WordPress Broken Link Checker
WordPress Broken Link Checker is a plugin that analyzes and verifies all internal and external links in your site. It goes through every page, every post, every comment, every blog, and every custom field so that nothing is unchecked.
If it detects any broken links in your site, it will send you a notification. After that, you can edit the broken link directly from the plugin. This way, you don't have to manually update each page.
This plugin is simple to use and highly customizable.
2. Ahrefs Audit Tool
If you prefer to use an online tool instead of a plugin, Ahrefs is one of the best options. It automatically crawls your WordPress site for errors.
Site Audit tool is very simple to use. All you need to do is create an account and enter your website URL. Then, Ahrefs will scan through your site thoroughly. It usually takes about 20 minutes to complete the process. Depending on your site, you’ll get a 404 error report that you can use to make the necessary changes.
3. Google search Console
The purpose of Google Search Console is to improve the performance of your website on Google search. It does this by finding and fixing broken links. There are many features in Google Search Console, but broken link checker is one of them.
When you visit your WordPress site, Google Search Console crawls your site and provides you with a 404 error page report. You can then fix those broken links and get your website ranking higher on Google search again.
4. Screaming Frog
If you are looking for desktop software, you should check out Screaming Frog. It is a broken link SEO tool. You can install it on your computer by adding the URL of your WordPress site. Filter the 404 pages and see which are broken links. It works on Windows, macOS and Ubuntu. And the best part is that it is free.
5. W3C Link Checker
W3C Checker is a free and easy-to-use tool for finding broken links. It is a cloud-based solution. All you need to do is type in your URL and it will scan your website and notify you if there are any broken links. In just a few minutes you will get a list of all the broken links and other errors along with information on where you can find them. You will then have to manually go to WordPress and fix the broken links.
Conclusion
It’s important to remember that broken links aren’t good for anyone. Not only are they annoying and frustrating for your human site visitors, but they are also not popular with your Google visitors. Ensure that your business website does not suffer from broken links when it comes to search engine ranking.
Whenever you make a website update, use the broken link checker to scan your site. Even if you didn’t change the links or add new ones, some of them might have been edited by mistake. This could result in a broken link that you weren’t even aware of. Take a few minutes after each site update and let your broken link checker do the work for you.
After all, just a couple of clicks to check and repair your broken links will make your website visitors happy and Google happy – which in turn will boost your bottom line.
