The small broken things that quietly cost you work

A visitor cannot inspect your workmanship before hiring you. So they judge it by the one piece of your work they can see, which is the website itself, and broken things there are read as carelessness everywhere else.

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Broken links, missing pages and failed images cost more than the traffic they interrupt, because they signal neglect at the moment somebody is deciding whether to trust you. Find them with a free crawler or Search Console, redirect anything that had a real replacement, and make your error page useful rather than decorative.

The disproportionate cost of a small fault

A broken link interrupts one journey, which sounds minor. The real cost is what it says. The visitor cannot evaluate your plumbing or your legal advice or your building work, so they look for proxies, and a site that is visibly untended is a powerful proxy.

This is why broken things matter more for services than for shops. Somebody buying a product judges the product. Somebody buying a promise judges everything else they can see.

Where breakage comes from

Sites rarely launch broken. They break gradually, through ordinary activity that nobody thinks of as risky.

  • Pages renamed or deleted without a redirect.
  • A redesign that changed the address structure.
  • Links to other companies' pages that moved or closed.
  • Images deleted from the media library while still used somewhere.
  • Documents and price lists removed after an update.
  • Old campaign pages taken down while links to them remain.

Finding them without paid tools

Search Console reports pages Google tried and failed to reach, which is the most valuable list because it reflects what search engines actually encountered. Free crawlers will walk your site and list broken internal links and missing images.

Then check the handful of things a crawler cannot: that your forms submit, that documents download, that any booking or payment step completes, and that links inside emails you send still work.

Fix by intent, not by reflex

The correct fix depends on what the address used to be. If there is a genuine replacement, redirect to it permanently. If the page is gone and nothing replaces it, letting it return a proper not-found response is honest and correct.

The common mistake is redirecting everything to the homepage. Search engines treat that as a soft failure rather than a real redirect, and visitors find it disorientating, because they asked for something specific and were dropped somewhere general.

  • Real replacement exists: redirect permanently to it.
  • No replacement: return a proper not-found page.
  • Never mass-redirect everything to the homepage.
  • Fix the internal links that pointed at the broken address, rather than relying on the redirect.

Make the error page do something

Most error pages are a joke, an image, and a link home. The visitor arrived looking for something specific, and sending them to the front door leaves them to start again.

A useful error page says plainly that the page is not there, offers the main services, includes a search box if you have one, and gives your phone number. Somebody who reached a missing page while trying to hire you should still be able to hire you.

Keep it from happening again

Two habits prevent most recurrence. Before deleting or renaming any page, check whether anything links to it and whether it receives visitors. And after any change to the site, run a quick crawl to see what moved.

Also keep an eye on links pointing at other people's sites, since those break without you touching anything. A yearly check is usually enough for those.

How Licheo prevents it

The quality agent checks links and images as part of the build rather than as an occasional cleanup, and redirects are mapped whenever an address changes rather than promised afterwards.

The error page is built as a working page with services and contact details on it, because a visitor who lands there was usually trying to give you money.

Part of a larger guide

This page is one part of Where the money escapes. The other parts:

Questions people ask

Do broken links really affect my business?
More through trust than through traffic. A visitor cannot inspect your actual work before hiring you, so they judge the one thing they can see. A site with visibly broken parts reads as a business that lets things slide.
How do I find broken links for free?
Search Console lists pages Google could not reach, which is the most useful set. A free crawler will also walk your site and list broken internal links and missing images. Then manually check forms, downloads and booking steps.
Should I redirect a deleted page to my homepage?
No. Search engines treat that as a soft failure rather than a genuine redirect, and visitors find it disorientating. Redirect to a real replacement where one exists, and otherwise return a proper not-found page.
What should a 404 page contain?
A plain statement that the page is not there, links to your main services, a search box if you have one, and your phone number. Somebody who lands there was often trying to hire you and should still be able to.
How often should I check for broken links?
After any significant change to the site, and once or twice a year otherwise. Links to other people's pages break without you doing anything, so those deserve their own occasional pass.

Keep the site in good order

Links, images and redirects checked as part of the build, and an error page that still helps somebody who was trying to hire you.

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