Fixing 23 dead links cut a reader's bounce rate

Fixing 23 dead links cut a reader's bounce rate

A reader's older blog had links pointing to pages that no longer existed. Click one, and visitors hit a 'page not found' error, then left.

A broken link is just a link that leads nowhere, like a phone number that's been disconnected.

Here's how she found and fixed them:
— Installed a free broken-link checker plugin.
— It scanned the whole site overnight and listed 23 dead links.
— She updated or removed each one in about an hour.

Within a month, her bounce rate (the share of people who leave after one page) dropped from 71% to 58%. Fewer dead ends meant people stayed and read more.

In plain words: a quick link-check tool finds the dead ends you can't see, and fixing them keeps readers around.