What is Link Rot?
Link rot, also known as link death or link breaking, occurs where a link stops pointing towards the original intended resource due to the resource being moved, deleted, or becoming unavailable. The result of this is that users trying to access a certain destination using the broken link cannot reach the intended destination. This has a directly negative impact on a website’s rankings and SEO results.
The Causes of Link Rot
Content Migration
During website updates or redesigns, website pages may be moved to new URLs. If proper redirection, such as 301 redirects, is not set up, this can lead to link rot as users will no longer be able to find the intended content at its original location.
Domain Expiration
Website domain registrations usually expire annually meaning the domain will become inactive if this is not renewed. This can result in link rot as all links pointing to that domain will become broken or inaccessible.
Server Issues
When the server hosting a website experiences technical issues such as downtime or misconfigurations, the content may become temporarily or permanently unreachable. These issues can cause links to break, contributing to link rot.
Content Removal
If a website owner deletes content without putting proper redirects or notifications in place, this can result in link rot as any links pointing towards that content will become invalid, either due to website updates, content relevance changes, or legal issues.
How Common is Link Rot?
Link rot is a common and natural consequence of the internet’s ever-changing nature and is an ongoing challenge for website administrators and content creators. In fact, studies have shown that 1 in 2 links will break within a 10 year period.
Websites that frequently update their content or websites that go through a domain change are the most likely to experience link rot. This is because the process of updating web content or changing a domain will likely lead to URLs being deleted or incorrectly redirected.
Issues Caused by Link Rot
Poor User Experience
Link rot can be highly frustrating for the user who encounters the broken link. This creates a poor user experience and creates a negative association with the website, causing a harmful reduction in the user’s satisfaction and engagement with the brand.
Negative Impact on SEO
Links are a key factor considered by Google when ranking website pages. Broken or non-functional links signal to search engines that a website is poorly maintained, leading to lower rankings. A website’s crawlability and indexing can also be impacted by link rot, further injuring its SEO performance.
Loss of Traffic
Websites with a number of broken links will experience a significant decrease in organic traffic as users who are unable to find relevant content on a website due to link rot will be less likely to return.
Reduced Credibility
Link rot can damage a brand’s reputation as it usually causes a perception that the website is outdated or poorly managed. Users expect reliable, functioning links, and when they don't find them, they may question the trustworthiness of the content.
Is Link Rot the Same as Content Drift and Content Decay?
Link rot, content drift, and content decay are often confused for each other. While they are all related concepts that impact user experience, SEO, and website traffic, they occur through different mechanisms and should be approached differently.
Link rot refers specifically to broken or disappearing links. On the other hand, content drift is where the focus or intent of content shifts and evolves over time, either due to intentional page updates or a lack of necessary updates. The result of this is that it misaligns the link with its expected content.
Finally, content decay refers to the natural process of the relevance, accuracy, or quality of content diminishing over time due to it becoming outdated, trends changing, or new information becoming available. This can harm SEO and user experience if the content is not regularly updated.
How To Detect Link Rot
It is possible to detect link rot by manually clicking each link on a website to confirm it leads to a valid page, but this is considerably time-consuming and impractical, especially for large websites.
To detect link rot more efficiently, automated tools like Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, and Ahrefs can be used to automatically scan a website for broken links. Regular site audits should be conducted to keep on top of link rot.
Preventing Link Rot
Set Up Redirects
Whenever a page or its content are changed or relocated, a 301 redirect should always be set up to inform search engines of these changes, ensuring visitors and search engines are automatically directed to the updated location. Otherwise, users will be met with a 404 error which can be frustrating and cause the website to lose credibility.
Regularly Update Content
A periodic review of the pages on a website should be carried out to ensure the content remains fresh and relevant. This is especially important for websites that reference articles or other third party resources that could become outdated. If a referenced page is no longer relevant or available, either replace it with an alternative or remove the reference altogether, updating the content to reflect this change.
Check External Links
External links are often the primary source of link rot as external sites may go offline or change their URLs without notice. These links should be checked regularly to ensure they lead to valid, live websites; if any broken external links are found, they should be replaced or removed as soon as possible.
Need Help With Your Links?
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