Websites
Broken Link (404 Error)
The short answer
A broken link is a link that leads to a page that no longer exists, usually showing a "404 Not Found" error instead of real content.
Full explanation
Broken links waste crawl budget, frustrate visitors, and — if enough of them build up — can quietly erode a site's perceived quality in Google's eyes. Redirecting removed pages to a relevant live page instead of leaving a 404 preserves both the visitor experience and any inbound links pointing at the old URL.
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