Broken External Links

[lillaxmomo]

I found hundreds of broken external links on my blog. But all of them are external links, linking to small businesses, companies, bloggers' sites, etc.

1. Is it ok to delete them if the external websites don't exist, i.e., out of business, deleted, or doesn't exist? If I deleted them do I need to update my Google Webmaster Tools by resubmitting sitemap.xml?

2. Is it ok to fix the links if the URLs are incorrectly written such as not using http, or misspelling?

3. What if the external websites have a new URL due to name changes, new domain, or new page or product page link? Should I replace them with correct URL or do a 301 redirect using a Redirection plug-in? Or is it required to use .htaccess - will this drain my hosting server? I don't know which method should I be using since my blog relies heavily on plug-ins.

Thanks for your help!

[gaertner.mike]

I'd say delete the broken links. They might mess up your rankings and replacing them would take far too much time.

[dexterousweb]

Remove/ delete the links. This may build your ranking by removing the spam from your domain.

[saanvikadam]

A broken link happens when the link points to a web page that has been deleted or moved. Why is it important to fix a broken link? Links that are broken will effectively stop search engines from completely indexing your websit

[davilama2682]

I wound fix the broken links if they have been changed/moved. If they no longer exist period than I would delete them. I would also see page content around that link to see if it referenced the now deleted link. Do this for everyone page. No link on any of your webpages should point to a broken page link. Do this tedious task and you will reap the rewards. And delete and submit entire new sitemap.

[Yuga]

Broken backlinks are basically website pages that do not exist anymore (usually, we expect them to return a 404 not found status code) which also have backlinks from external websites.

[kareem]

Open the workbook that contains the broken link.

On the Data tab, click Edit Links.

The Edit Links command is unavailable if your workbook doesn't contain links.

In the Source file box, select the broken link that you want to fix.

Note: To fix multiple links, hold down COMMAND , and then click each link.

Click Change Source.

Browse to the location of the file containing the linked data.

Select the new source file, and then click Change Source.

Click Close.

[John - Smith]

Yes, you can modify, redirect broken links.

[saravanan28]

Step 1: Find broken links. There are a number of tools you can use to identify broken links, many of them free. ...
Step 2: Create a report and track your changes. ...
Step 3: Analyze data and decide which pages should be redirected. ...
Step 4: Redirect in CMS.

[kareem]

Step 1: We will use the free web validator called Online Broken Link Checker to walk through the step-by-step process of getting rid of any broken pages. Step 2: Open your browser and type brokenlinkcheck.com. Step 3: Enter your website name in the space provided, and click on "Find broken links.