Broken links are the bane of user experience.<\/p>\n
There’s nothing worse than finding a 404 error page. And people who tart\u00a0404s up with quaint\u00a0local dialect or jokes\u00a0to apologise\u00a0should just stop.<\/p>\n
If you remove a page or\u00a0change a url\u00a0and leave the old link lingering elsewhere, you’re breaking trust.<\/p>\n
You’re damaging the confidence people have\u00a0that\u00a0your website is up-to-date. You’re frustrating them with the promise of information you’ve snatched away.<\/p>\n
Search engines won’t like you either. You are breaking their trust in sending people to your website.<\/p>\n
You might say it’s unavoidable to have broken links. It’s not, it just requires care. If you’re killing a page, document\u00a0or changing a url remember where you’ve placed\u00a0links\u00a0and change or remove them. This could be on your website, social media or even in print.<\/p>\n
If you can’t remember where website links were, use these services to find them:<\/p>\n
What happens if search engines have indexed the page\/document you removed?<\/p>\n
They make it difficult enough to get up the search rankings without\u00a0causing this kind of headache.<\/p>\n
If you\u00a0can’t\u00a0redirect people\u00a0elsewhere, it’s time to make\u00a0Google and co work for you.<\/p>\n
Do a search for the\u00a0page\/document you’ve just deleted and if you\u00a0find it in their listings – report it.<\/p>\n
Google (if you have an account) will remove dead links from search listings<\/a> on request. Make them work for you.<\/p>\n A Link is a Promise<\/a>, Kara Pernice, NNg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Broken links are the bane of user experience. There’s nothing worse than finding a 404 error page. And people who tart\u00a0404s up with quaint\u00a0local dialect or jokes\u00a0to apologise\u00a0should just stop. If you remove a page or\u00a0change a url\u00a0and leave the … Continue reading Further reading<\/h2>\n