Checking and Updating Links - how often do you?
So it was around 3.00 am when I couldn't get back to sleep that it struck me (as it has in the past) that I had not checked my links lately.
If you have one of those sites that promotes a bunch of different products - such as Amazon products, its important to check the links are stil valid.
What Can Invalidate a Link?
The most obvious change could be a product being removed and discontinued. Depending on the site you were linked to the result can be disastrous and your ranking could tank.
It's not so bad if the link redirects to something similar but as we are always looking for relevance this is still not good.
I had a case recently where I was promoting a ClickBank product and for some reason I noticed my site was no longer ranked highly - it had been #1 on Google FOREVER. Clearly sales had dropped to zero too.
I couldn't understand it.
Eventually I checked the links on my site - there was only one product I was promoting, and to my horror discovered that the vendor had left ClickBank with no forwarding address!
I now have a site that links to nowhere!
"Best of" Type Sites - with lots of links ...
I know quite a few people here have "best of" type sites and do well with them. But what happens when stock runs out or is discontinued?
It can be a pain checking 100s of links but I think it is a pain we should go through regularly.
There are link checker tools that one can use which would make the job a lot easier.
Anyways I thought I would share my insomniac thoughts with you all on this lovely but cold day in New Zealand.
Have a good one.
Recent Comments
8
Great post - it's these little things that we can easily forget to do.
Personally I have my month end website maintenance and part of that is link checking
Thank you, that's worth knowing.