Broken Links Matter More to Your Visitors Than You Might Think, but They’re Easy to Fix
Yes, broken links are worth paying attention to, but they’re not a reason to panic. They frustrate visitors and can affect both your SEO (how you show up in search results) and your AEO (answer engine optimization, or how AI tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews find and recommend your business). When search engines and AI tools run into a broken link, they hit a dead end, which makes it harder for them to understand your site and use it as a source. The good news is that broken links are simple to find and fix, and checking for them a few times a year is an easy part of website maintenance. Here are some of the most commonly asked questions we get about broken links when we work with clients to make sure their websites are working the way they should for visitors, search engines, and AI tools.
When a visitor clicks a broken link, they land on an error page instead of the information they wanted. Most people won’t go looking for the right page. They’ll hit the back button, and many will leave your site entirely and try a competitor instead.
Broken links can affect both, especially as they add up over time. Search engines and AI tools follow links to understand how your pages connect and what your business offers. A handful of broken links usually won’t hurt your SEO results on their own, but every dead end makes your site a little harder to crawl and a little less useful as a source.
AI tools can only pull answers from pages they’re able to reach and read. If a link to an important page is broken, the information on that page is less likely to show up when someone asks an AI tool about your business or services. And if you delete a page that other websites link to, you can lose the search value that page built up, which is why redirects matter.
Broken links deserve quicker attention when they’re on your most important pages. A broken link on your homepage, contact page, or a page that drives sales or leads is costing you more than one buried in a five-year-old blog post. Pay extra attention after a website redesign or a move to a new domain, since that’s when links are most likely to break in large numbers.
There are a few tools that can find broken links for you, but most of them take some time to learn. If you’ve never used them before, that’s completely normal. The most common free option is Google Search Console, which shows pages on your site that return a “Not found (404)” error. Vivid Image clients can have your Account Director run a check and take care of the fixes for you.
Once you’ve found a broken link, work through these steps:
* Test the link yourself. Sometimes a website is slow or briefly down when the check runs, and the link is actually fine.
* Check the main website. Trim the URL back to just the homepage (for example, yourwebsite.com) and see if it loads. If it does, the site may have reorganized its pages, so search the site for the page and update your link with the new URL.
* Ask the source. If you can’t find the page and it was a valuable resource, contact the company or organization and ask if they have a replacement.
* Link to a better resource. Find a newer, more helpful page on the same topic, then update your link and the content around it to match.
* Remove the link. If nothing good replaces it, take the link out and reword the sentence so it still reads naturally.
When a page on your site is deleted or moved, it needs a 301 redirect that sends visitors to the closest matching page. A 301 redirect tells search engines the page has moved for good, so you keep the search value that page built over time. This applies to old blog posts, service pages, and PDFs, too. Internal links should also be updated so they point straight to the new page. Redirects are a helpful safety net, but direct links load faster and are easier for search engines to follow. When a PDF is replaced, every link that pointed to the old file needs to be updated as well. Vivid Image can take care of your of redirects and link updates. Just let your Account Director know what you need to remove ahead of time, if possible, and the team will make sure your links don’t break.
Ready to Fix Your Broken Links?
If you’d like us to help you fix any broken links, please talk with your Account Director today.
