Links or hyperlinks[[1] - are references to data available by clicking or tapping. Links are the key element of Internet structure[2] and one of the most important elements of website optimization. Because of links, a search engine is able to visit and index pages .
Text link:
<a href="/map/" title="">Map</a>
Image link:
<a class="navbar-brand" href="https://www.bizdb.co.uk/" title="">
<img src="/images/logo.jpg" alt="UK Business Database">
</a>
GOOD LINKING HABITS
If the page a link points to does not respond, it means the link is broken. The reasons may vary: the domain may have expired, the page may have been moved or redirected or the structure of the destination website may have changed. If the 404 error code is displayed, it means that the page has not been found. Server sends the https status code 404 and browser displays the error on page.
Broken page message example "404 error"
Fixing broken links improves the website’s usability and makes the content available for users and search engines alike. Too many broken links suggest negligence and lower page ranking in search engine results.
Sometimes, in the case of older websites especially, there are links that redirect to another page. Based on the information from Google employees from 2016 such redirects do not reduce the power of links but using them in excess is not recommended.
"30x redirects don't lose PageRank anymore" - Gary Illyes, 26 July 2016Internal linking management is usually simple. Removing internal redirects will help rank better in Bing, DuckDuckGo and probably Google.
There are many types of redirects, which will successfully redirect the user to another page. However, most of them are not a very good solution for search engines. We recommend using 301 permanent redirect. Others types may results in the loss of link power.
Do you know that for search engines:
http://example.com - no www. version
http://www.example.com - www. version
https://example.com - no www. version with encryption
those are three different websites? Let’s start with choosing one version and asking the question: with or without www. Typing info:domainname into the search engine is the best solution.
If the result is a www (notice: https://www.bizdb.co.uk), we strongly recommend using that version. Using a generator like e.g https://www.htaccessredirect.net/[6] may facilitate creating redirects. Here is an example of a redirect to www.:
Options +FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com [nc] RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [r=301,nc]
Redirecting to a proper version (with www. or without www.) will make it easier to navigate the website and will reduce the probability of duplicate content related issues.
Pulno checks for www. redirects.
Sources:
Jacek Wieczorek is the co-founder of Pulno. Since 2006, he has been optimizing and managing websites that generate traffic counted in hundreds of thousands of daily visits. |
28-12-2018
Fix broken links and redirects with Pulno!