How to Fix Broken Links and Redirect Loops in Your Technical SEO Audit

As an SEO professional, conducting a technical SEO audit is crucial to identify and fix issues that can negatively impact your website’s search engine ranking and user experience. Two common problems that often arise during these audits are broken links and redirect loops. In this article, we’ll dive into what these issues are, why they’re problematic, and most importantly, how to fix them.

What are Broken Links?

Broken links occur when a link on your website points to a non-existent or unreachable page. This can happen due to various reasons such as:

A page being deleted or moved
A typo in the URL
A server error
A link being added incorrectly

Broken links can significantly impact your website’s usability and search engine ranking. When a search engine crawler encounters a broken link, it may not be able to crawl the linked page, which can lead to:

Loss of link equity
Decreased authority
Poor user experience

How to Fix Broken Links

To identify and fix broken links, follow these steps:

Use a crawling tool: Utilize tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider or Ahrefs Site Audit to crawl your website and detect broken links.
Review the report: Analyze the report generated by the crawling tool to identify broken links.
Check for typos: Review the URLs of broken links for any typos or incorrect characters. Fix them accordingly.
Update links: Update any outdated or moved links to point to the correct location.
301 redirect: If a page has been deleted, consider setting up a 301 permanent redirect to point to a similar or related page.
Remove broken links: Remove any broken links that cannot be fixed.

What are Redirect Loops?

Redirect loops occur when a URL is redirected to another URL, which in turn redirects back to the original URL, creating an infinite loop. This can happen due to:

Incorrect redirect settings
Duplicate URLs
Unintended consequences of website updates

Redirect loops can cause search engines to get stuck in an infinite loop, unable to crawl and index your website’s pages properly.

How to Fix Redirect Loops

To identify and fix redirect loops, follow these steps:

Use a crawling tool: Utilize tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider or Ahrefs Site Audit to crawl your website and detect redirect loops.
Review the report: Analyze the report generated by the crawling tool to identify redirect loops.
Check for incorrect redirects: Review any redirects on your website to ensure they are set up correctly. Fix any issues you find.
Identify the root cause: Determine the root cause of the redirect loop and address it accordingly.
Set up a canonical URL: If a redirect loop is caused by duplicate URLs, set up a canonical URL to point to the correct page.
Remove unnecessary redirects: Remove any unnecessary or redundant redirects.

Best Practices for Fixing Broken Links and Redirect Loops

To avoid common mistakes when fixing broken links and redirect loops:

Always test your fixes before making them live
Verify that your website is not affected by any changes you make
Consider setting up a staging environment to test changes before implementing them on the live site
Keep a record of the issues you’ve fixed and the steps taken to resolve them

Conclusion

Broken links and redirect loops are common technical SEO audit findings. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can identify and fix these issues to improve your website’s usability, search engine ranking, and overall performance. Remember to always test your fixes and keep a record of the work you’ve done to ensure that your website is secure and optimized for search engines.