Dead Links

[OMGVape]

I have some external links from other sites (forums etc) but they are linked to pages which I have removed.
Is there a negative effect of this? ie could Google ranking be effected ?

And if so, what can I do about it?

 

[Dan (CE)]

If you remove a page, you'll need to add a 301 redirect to a relevant page that does exist, if there is one. That way, Google can pass the 'link juice' through to the next page.

Make sure you have 404 error pages set up. There's nothing more annoying than visiting a deleted page to be greeted with a standard browser error message. It's important to tell them that the page may have been deleted or moved, and you'll also need to show other pages that may be of interest, along with recent blog posts and a link to the contact page if they have any questions.

 

[OMGVape]

Cheers Dan, until 30mins ago I didn't know what a 301 redirect was but I've looked into it and I think i've done it.

 

[OMGVape]

Appreciate that Dan. Very kind of you.

 

[Dan (CE)]

You're welcome. SEO is a beast, so I'm happy to help out anyone at the start of their long, long journey with it.

 

[Dan (CE)]

Now that I can finally post links, take a look on YouTube. You can then verify whether you have done the right thing.

There are videos here for using a WordPress Plugin - which is always nice and easy - or through the '.htaccess' file.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=301+redirect

 

[OMGVape]

I’ll have a look Dan, but I wouldn’t know my '.htaccess' file if it jumped up and fttp’d me.

 

[claymonet112]

I agree with Dan.
In my opinion, the problem you encounter won't bring any negative effect. it's just that you can't reveice "link juice" from those external links

 

[Calvin Crane]

I would urge the use of the redirect plugin unless you know perfectly how to use and write redirects. Also depends if you use nginx (typically with apache) or apache only. I have seen a case where the redirects where happening but we couldn't find why and there was a .htaccess file as well as the nginx server blocks!

THE DANGER WITH REWRITES IS GETTING IT WRONG CAN WRECK YOUR SEO

Try to focus on the quality of your product and website far too often people just work on off site link building. You may find the time better spent onsite. I do do link building myself but I get more bang for my buck for doing onsite work

 

[StevePoster]

This is why we cannot just removed site pages and it is highly recommended to use 301 redirect to land the visitors to the new page. This will preserve the traffic and passing of link juice in which really affects the performance of the website.

 

[Jeff Nev]

If you are linking out to other websites from your own, you can also get a browser extension which checks for broken links at the click of a button. I have my own blog to publish my prose and regularly check to make sure that the users has external links for points of reference, if desired.

- Jeff