Internal links to dead pages

Internal links that lead to pages answering 404 or another error. A dead link in the menu or footer counts once, for the site. Visitors hit a dead end and crawlers waste their visit. Usually a product that was removed while menus and articles still link to it.

CriticalLINK-004 · Links · checked once for the whole site

Where it usually comes from

Products or articles that were deleted or renamed while the menu, the footer or other articles still link to them.

How to fix it

These pages link to addresses that answer with an error. Change each link to the page it meant, or remove it.
Where the target moved, a 301 from the old address to the new one also fixes the links from outside the site.

Shown for an example shop at www.example.com. In a Trakis report the same fix comes with your own addresses and the list of your pages it applies to.

How to check it yourself

Click through the links on the affected pages, or run a broken-link checker over the site.

What it looks like in a report

Critical 5 links on this page lead to pages that answer with an error. · evidence: /product/old-boots (404)

Removed products are still linked from the menu or from articles. (An example shop; the numbers are illustrative.)

How the audit counts it

LINK-004 is a critical in the links category, and weighs heavily in that category’s score. It is a fact about the site as a whole, so it is reported once, not once per page.

If the finding is deliberate on your site, it can be accepted as intentional in the report. It then leaves the list and the score, and comes back on its own if what it shows changes.

Find it on your site

A Trakis audit runs this check and the other 65 on your site, and tells you on how many pages each one sits. Or go back to all the rules.