Reading Broken Links Results

The Broken Links tab within PerfBee's Dashboard is your central hub for identifying and fixing broken links on your website. This guide will walk you through understanding the results and prioritizing your fixes.

Understanding the Results

After running a crawl, the results table provides crucial information about each broken link detected. The following details are displayed:

Broken URL: The URL that is no longer accessible.
HTTP Status Code: Indicates the nature of the error.
Source Page URL: The page on your site where the broken link was found.
Link Type: The type of resource the broken link refers to (e.g., page, image, CSS, JS).
Response Time: The time it took for the server to respond to the request (in milliseconds).

HTTP Status Code Classification

Understanding HTTP status codes is key to diagnosing the issue:

4xx Client Errors: These indicate issues on the client-side, such as a missing page (404 Not Found) or access restrictions (403 Forbidden).
5xx Server Errors: These point to problems on the server-side, such as server errors (500 Internal Server Error).

Redirect Chains

PerfBee also tracks redirect chains. If a URL redirects through multiple hops (e.g., 301 or 302 redirects), the results will show the full chain, helping you identify potential performance bottlenecks and improve user experience.

Link Types

The Link Type column helps you understand the nature of the broken resource. The possible types are:

Page: Broken link to another page.
Image: Broken image link.
CSS: Broken CSS file link.
JS: Broken JavaScript file link.
External: Broken link to an external website.

Prioritizing Fixes

Fixing broken links can significantly improve your website's SEO and user experience. Here's a suggested prioritization strategy:

Internal Broken Pages: These have the highest SEO impact, as they directly affect your site's internal linking structure.
Broken Images: Broken images can negatively impact user experience.
Broken External Links: While less critical than internal links, these can still affect user experience and potentially damage your site's reputation.

Filtering and Sorting Results

Use the filtering and sorting options within the Broken Links tab to:

Filter by Status Code: Quickly isolate 4xx or 5xx errors.
Filter by Link Type: Focus on specific types of broken links (e.g., images).
Sort by Response Time: Identify the slowest broken links, which may indicate server-side issues.

By understanding and utilizing these features, you can efficiently identify and resolve broken links, improving your website's performance and SEO.