Hi there Hannah,

Thanks for visiting this site, and thanks for the kind words, appreciate it!

Unfortunately, the best approach to monitor broken and lost links is to invest in an SEO tool or link analysis tool like Ahrefs or SEMRush. There are free tools like Neil Pate’s backlink tool and there are also various affordable solutions, but in a link analysis tool, generally what you pay is what you get.

You can, monitor the incoming and outgoing links manually using various free tools, but it’s very difficult and time-consuming. So, my advice is to invest in an SEO too suite like Ahrefs, or work with an SEO agency to monitor your site. You can schedule a free consultation with me here.

Thanks and best regards.

Mike

Really comprehensive guide and you’ve really opened my mind about (one of?) the technical aspects of SEO.

If I may ask since you didn’t cover too much about how we can find lost and broken links, what are your recommendations/tips in monitoring lost and broken links?

Thanks and best regards, keep it up, Mike,

Hannah Ballard.

Hi there Lionel,

Thanks for your visit and thanks for your kind words. Really glad I can help you with this subject.

To be frank, it’s a very common misconception to think that the impact of broken links on your webpage is not so bad: when a link is lost/broken, it’s simply not accounted by Google as an external link, and since an external link is indeed, not as crucial as backlinks, we often don’t take them too seriously.

However, the truth is not that simple. Broken and lost links can hurt at least three different areas of your page/site:

If you have too many broken and lost links in a page, Google might perceive your site as non-optimal and might penalize your site
Broken links can significantly hurt your site’s user experience and user experience metrics like dwell time and bounce rate are now direct SEO ranking factors
Bad user experience factors can also hurt your site’s overall reputation and revenue. Credibility and trust are very expensive and very difficult to build, but at the same time very easy to lose.

Hopefully, this answers your question,

Thanks and best regards,

Mike

A really complete post, in my opinion, and you presented it in a clear, comprehensive way. I really learned a lot from this post on how we can identify and reclaim lost links.

A (probably beginner’s) question, however, what’s actually the direct impact of broken links in our SEO performance, if any?

Thanks in advance, and keep it up,

Leo S.