DQM Checkpoints and Standards

[#1]

Why is this important?

Broken external links are very important as it can put users off from visiting your site as well as making them leave whilst being on your site. By spending less time on your site, search engine algorithms will assume it’s because your site isn’t providing visitors with quality content or information, resulting in a lower ranking.

• Broken links, like bad links, can cause you to lose clients and customers
• Broken links cause frustration and irritation — if clients and customers are trying to access information they bookmarked, a digital product they purchased, or an article that someone linked to on Twitter, and the links don’t work, their trust in you and your brand will diminish
• Broken links will hurt your conversion rates — after all, if a purchase link doesn’t work, the purchase won’t be made
• If links to a sales page for a new product, program, or service you’re using in your marketing don’t work, not many people will be able to sign up

How can I resolve this issue?

Determine if the external site has moved the page being linked to. Update the link to the correct page or consider removing the link entirely if the external page no longer exists.

What topics do this checkpoint affect?

• Usability
• SEO

Can you explain how this checkpoint works?

This checkpoint looks at link <a> tags and checks if the domain is external. DQM then attempts to access the link and waits for the response code returned by the link. DQM then identifies broken links based on the retruned link's HTTP response code.