A broken link also known as a dead link, is a hyperlink that no longer points to a valid web page. This can happen for a number of reasons, such as when the page is deleted, the website is moved, or the URL is changed.
Broken links can be a problem for users and for search engines. When a user clicks on a broken link, they will be taken to a page that does not exist. This can be frustrating for users and can damage the reputation of the website.
In addition, broken links can also impact a website’s SEO. When Googlebot crawls a website, it will follow all of the links on the page. If Googlebot encounters a broken link, it will not be able to index the page. This can prevent the page from ranking in search results.
There are a number of things that you can do to avoid broken links on your website:
It is important to regularly check your links to make sure that they are still valid. You can use a tool like Google Search Console to help you find broken links.
If you are moving a page to a new URL, you should use a 301 redirect. This will tell Googlebot that the old page has been moved and that it should now point to the new page.
If a page is deleted, you should create a 404 page. This will tell users that the page does not exist and that they should try another page.