Many of you are managing your own blogs and websites. How often are you checking your links? Your website probably features internal links (where you’ve linked to pages on your own site), external links (where you’ve linked out to other websites) and backlinks (where third parties have linked back to you).
When a page is deleted or changes location, any links that point to that page will produce a 404 error. You may not always know when someone else has moved/deleted a page, so it’s important to regularly audit your links. While 404 errors are common, if your site accrues too many it could start to negatively affect your SEO.
The practice of link checking is also important to ensure that you’re linking to the correct site.
While there are online tools to automate link checking for 404 errors, these tools will not recognize links to the incorrect fully functional site. Please schedule time each quarter to review your site navigation, footers and pages to ensure that your links are both working and accurate.