There are lots of different starting points for a website manager discovering broken links. It could start with your deciding to learn a bit more about the role your site links play in SEO. Maybe you’re clicking around the website and discover things aren’t working as they should, or you have an email notification from Google Search Console about links that you’ve never seen before. Whatever the starting point, you’ve started down the path of uncovering the mystery of broken links on your website.
Here’s a common scenario:
You install an audit plugin. Or run your site through one of those free SEO checker tools.
The report comes back: 487 broken links.
Your stomach drops. Your first reaction is “That’s… that’s a lot. This needs to be fixed immediately!”
You spend the next three hours clicking through the list. Some links are dead. Some go to 404 pages. Some just time out. You fix what you can, remove what’s clearly obsolete, and update the rest.
The report now shows: 12 broken links remaining. Victory!
Two weeks later, you check again. 63 broken links.
What?! You didn’t add any new content. You didn’t change anything. How did 51 new broken links just… appear?
You’ve Discovered ‘Link Decay’
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Those “new” broken links were always there. Only they weren’t broken when you checked them last time. But in the last two weeks:
- A company you linked to went out of business
- Someone redesigned their site and changed their URLs
- A domain expired and was bought by someone else
- A blog post you referenced got deleted
- A hosting provider went down (maybe permanently)
Your links didn’t break. The websites you linked to did.
This is happening constantly, across the entire internet. It’s called link decay, and it’s completely normal.
Reality Check
Broken links resurface continuously because you’re linking to websites you don’t control. Link decay isn’t a one-time cleanup. It’s ongoing maintenance, like mowing a lawn or checking your tire pressure. The more external links you have, the faster you’ll see decay. It’s just math and volume that make it feel like something is going wrong, not negligence.
What is Link Decay?
Link decay is the natural, continuous process of external links breaking over time. Not because you did anything wrong, but because you don’t control whether other websites stay online.
Think about how many things have to stay working for an external link to function:
- The domain has to stay registered
- The hosting has to stay active
- The company has to stay in business
- That specific page has to remain published
- The URL structure has to stay the same
- The server has to be reachable
And you have zero control over any of it. If any one of those fails, your link breaks.
External links are any link that takes a website visitor from your website directly to another website. They are scattered across your website in:
- Blog posts
- Resource pages
- About page
- Case studies
- Old press releases
- Comments (if you allow them)
- Staff bio pages
Every single one of those links depends on someone else keeping their site online for it to remain ‘unbroken’.
While you can’t control the reliability of other websites, you can manage your own. Next, we’ll explore how to do that.
Step 1: Identify Sources of ‘Link Decay’ (Broken Links)
Before you can decide on the best way to do that, you need to narrow down the source. The answer (or answers) for managing broken links sustainably depends on where they’re coming from. There are three primary sources:
1. Editorial Links (Content You Published)
These are links your team intentionally added:
- References in blog posts
- Resource lists
- “Learn more here” citations
- Partner or vendor links
- Press Releases
Impact: When these break, it affects user experience and your site’s credibility. Readers expect these to work.
2. User-Generated Content Links
These are links OTHER people added:
- Comments (if you allow them)
- Forum posts
- Guest submissions
- User profiles
Impact: You didn’t add these, and you likely didn’t vet them. When these links break, the urgency is lower, but they still surface in link checkers.
3. Embedded Content
These aren’t traditional “links” but they function similarly:
- Embedded tweets or social posts
- YouTube videos
- Third-party widgets
- Embedded maps or forms
Impact: When the source content gets deleted or goes private, these “break” too. Sometimes they fail silently, just showing blank spaces.
Step 2: Understand the Urgency of Broken Links
Next, you need to prioritize what needs ‘fixing’. What are these broken links actually doing to your website? Before you go and set an alarm on your phone to check hourly for broken links, knowing the perceived vs real impacts can help to keep you from spiraling into panic.
How broken links actually impact your website
SEO
Google doesn’t penalize you for having broken OUTBOUND links (links TO other sites). They penalize broken INBOUND links (404 errors on YOUR site’s pages).
External link decay is a signal Google uses for content freshness, but it’s not a ranking penalty. A handful of broken external links won’t tank your rankings.
User Experience
Yes, clicking a dead link is frustrating. But most users won’t notice unless:
- The broken link is central to understanding your content
- Multiple links on the same page are broken
- The broken link is in a highly-trafficked location
Credibility
This is where it matters most. A blog post filled with dead links DOES signal “this content is outdated and unmaintained.” But remember: we also need to consider volume and visibility, not a single broken link from 2019.
Step 3: Methods For Managing Broken Links
WordPress has a built-in method for indicating to site crawlers the purpose of an external link and how it fits into the overall structure of your content. When bots crawl your website, they’re looking at it from a code level. They see it in HTML, not plain text. By using the linking options in WordPress, you can ‘hide’ instructions to crawlers that give them more information about the external link and how you’d like them to ‘read’ it when they’re creating a digital picture of your content.
The most common way external links get added:
- Highlight Text
- Click the ‘link’ button
- Paste in the URL
- Hit Enter
How You Should Be Adding External Links
Next time you insert a link, look for a small toggle or edit symbol next to the URL field. The actual toggle image or option will vary based on the editor or theme you’re using, but you will have a similar functionality for all of your links. Here’s what it looks like in the WordPress block editor:
Clicking this will show you the Link Settings Panel.
You’ll see:
- A checkbox for “Open in new tab”
- One or more relationship options
Most people only check “Open in new tab”. Almost nobody touches the link rel settings. But this is where you control how search engines and browsers treat that link.
You may see different options than what the screenshot below shows, and that’s Okay. Some WordPress addons and tools extend this functionality. I’ll cover the most common options you may see in these settings, even though my screenshot may not display the same things as yours.
Link Relationship Attributes: What They Mean and When to Use Them
nofollow
What it means:
“Don’t pass SEO credit to this site. I’m linking to it, but I’m not vouching for it.”
When to use it:
- Links you don’t editorially trust
- User-submitted content
- Paid or affiliate links (usually combined with “sponsored”)
- Links to sites you’re mentioning but not endorsing
When NOT to use it:
- Editorial citations where you’re genuinely referencing a quality source
- Academic or research references
- Partner sites you’re legitimately endorsing
Ask Yourself: “Am I endorsing this link, or just mentioning it?” If you’re endorsing, leave as is. If your only mentioning but not vouching for the source, use nofollow.
sponsored
What it means:
“This link represents a paid relationship, sponsorship, or affiliate partnership.”
When to use it:
- Affiliate links
- Sponsored content links
- Paid partnerships
- Any link where you received compensation
Why it matters:
- FTC compliance (you’re required to disclose paid relationships)
- Google understands the commercial relationship
- Usually used WITH nofollow
Important: If you’re compensated in any way for a link (money, free products, services), you MUST use the sponsored attribute.
noreferrer
What it means:
“Don’t send referrer information to the destination site.”
When to use it:
- When you don’t want the destination site to know traffic came from you
- Security-conscious situations
This one is uncommon: Most people don’t need this. It’s an advanced use case for specific privacy or security scenarios.
UGC Link Attributes
User Generated Content Links
UGC is a link attribute that says, “a user added this, not our editorial team.” It’s meant for comment links, forum posts, and user submissions.
This is handled at the site level:
WordPress automatically adds rel="nofollow" to comment links in most configurations. This is built into the comment system.
If you allow comments with links, you have options:
- Keep the WordPress nofollow default
- No configuration
- Disable links in comments entirely
- Use a plugin, or check your existing spam comment plugin for this feature if you have one installed already
- Moderate all comments with links
- Unrealistic for high-volume sites
- Time-sensitive, but gives you control
- Turn off comments completely by default
- You can still enable them selectively on specific posts/pages
- Will still require moderation
This one is uncommon: Most people don’t need this. It’s an advanced use case for specific privacy or security scenarios.
Step 4: Define Your Broken Link Strategy
Now that you’ve got some more information on where broken links come from, how they impact you, and options for handling them, you can create the best strategy for prioritizing fixes based on your own priorities and structure. It should look something like this, and reflect your site’s setup and priorities for comments and editorial practices:
High Priority (Fix Immediately)
Editorial Links with NO attributes (your default setup ‘follow’ links) and Comment Handling
- These are your endorsements and citations
- They pass SEO equity
- When they break, it affects your credibility AND link value
- Example: “According to research from [trusted source]…”
- Decide on the use and management of comments
- Make sure your site settings for comments are configured
- Set up comment moderation schedule if necessary
Medium Priority (Monthly)
Sponsored/affiliate links (existing ‘sponsored’ + ‘nofollow’ attributes)
- These aren’t passing SEO credit anyway (nofollow)
- But they might represent partnership obligations
- Broken affiliate links cost you potential revenue
- Example: Product recommendations, tool partnerships
Lower Priority (Quarterly)
User Generated Content Links, if you allow them (UGC, comments and forum links left by visitors)
- You didn’t add them
- They’re not passing equity
- Impact is minimal unless they’re in heavily-trafficked comments
- Consider removing rather than fixing
Step 5: Start Using Link Attributes (If You’re Not Already)
If your website has an active publishing cadence, you should have an editorial guideline for publishing links in new content. This won’t fix your existing broken links, but it will help with the rate of link decay starting now. Future-proof the problem before tackling the existing links.
Have content creators consider:
- Why am I linking to this?
- Editorial reference/citation → Leave as default (follow)
- Mentioning but not endorsing → Add nofollow
- Paid/sponsored/affiliate → Add sponsored + nofollow
- Do I want this link to pass SEO equity to that site?
- Yes → Leave as follow
- No → Add nofollow
- Is there any compensation involved?
- Yes → Add sponsored (this is non-negotiable for compliance)
- No → Leave as follow
Step 6: Clean Up Existing Links
Your cleanup process is going to be determined by the volume of links you have and the necessity of the changes you have to make. For example, if you have broken links that are NOT marked sponsored when they should be, you aim to correct those to make sure you’re complying with disclosure rules and your partnership agreements. Even if the number of those links seems daunting to tackle, you should aim to do this first.
On the other hand, if you have thousands of broken links scattered throughout your site that don’t need any special treatment, it’s not realistic to plan for manually editing them all. This is exactly why Step 5 includes incorporating the use of these link settings before tackling any cleanup. For some website managers, cleanup will be more ‘mitigating’ than ‘correcting’.
Audit the reported broken links and fix the ones that are mission and compliance-critical. There are many broken link and editorial assistance plugins that will give you bulk options for ‘unlinking’ or redirecting broken links in bulk. They’ll also scan at regular intervals and report findings to you so you don’t fall behind on managing new broken links. This is a very reasonable option for anyone with an unmanageable backlog if the website is not receiving constant SEO attention.
A Realistic Link Decay Management Strategy
Here’s a starter framework based on your site’s size and link volume:
For Small Sites (Under 500 External Links):
Quarterly check:
- Run broken link checker
- Fix editorial (follow) links
- Remove or replace UGC/sponsored broken links
- Update any broken links on homepage or top pages
For Medium Sites (500-2,000 External Links):
Monthly monitoring:
- Track broken links in high-traffic content
- Fix editorial links in recent content (last 12 months)
- Quarterly deep clean of older content
Consider: A broken link monitoring tool that alerts you to new breaks
For High-Volume Sites (2,000+ External Links):
You need a system:
- Automated broken link monitoring
- Clear priority tiers (editorial vs. UGC vs. sponsored)
- Consider whether old comments should be closed or purged
- Decide if you want to keep linking outbound heavily or reduce external link volume
Consider: Hiring someone to manage this, or using automated tools with smart filters
Broken Link Management Is Part Of Website Maintenance
Link decay feels dramatic, but it won’t crash your site or destroy your rankings overnight.
It’s one of those background maintenance tasks that builds up slowly until it becomes a visible problem.
The goal isn’t always zero broken links. That’s unrealistic if you’re actively linking to external sources (which you should be, it’s part of content best-pratices).
More important than having NO broken links is:
- Understanding which broken links matter
- Having a realistic management & maintenance cadence
- Using link attributes strategically so you know how to prioritize
- Not panicking when the number isn’t zero
You can’t stop broken links from coming back. That’s the nature of the web. But by understanding where they come from and how to manage them intelligently, you’ll be prepared when they inevitably pop up again.
