A broken link, often referred to as a "dead link," is a hyperlink that directs users to a non-existent or inaccessible webpage.
This can occur due to various reasons, such as the destination page being moved, deleted, or renamed without updating the corresponding URL.
When users click on a broken link, they typically encounter an error message, like a “404 Not Found”, indicating that the content is unavailable.
What Does It Mean When a Link Is Broken?
These links can be internal (pointing to another page on your website) or external (leading to a different website).
Common causes for broken links include:
Deleted or Moved Pages: If a linked page is removed or its URL changes without updating the corresponding links, users will encounter errors.
Incorrect URL Formatting: Typos or formatting errors in URLs can lead to invalid links.
Changes in Website Structure: Modifying your site's architecture without adjusting existing links can create broken pathways.
External Website Changes: Linked external pages may be moved or deleted without notice, rendering your outbound links broken.
For example, we ran into an issue like this when a team member was incorporating some significant product updates into our help center.
In one case, instead of editing an existing article, they created a new one and returned the original to draft status. Unfortunately, any links pointing to that original article became invalid.
Why Is It Problematic to Have Broken Links in Help Center Articles?
In the context of help center articles, broken links can significantly undermine the user experience and the overall effectiveness of the support system.
Here's why:
User Frustration: Users seeking assistance rely on help center articles to provide accurate and timely information. Encountering broken links disrupts their journey, leading to frustration and decreased trust in the support resources.
Increased Support Tickets: When users cannot find the information they need due to broken links, they are more likely to contact support directly, increasing the volume of support tickets and the workload for support teams.
Negative Impact on SEO: Search engines assess the quality and reliability of websites based on various factors, including the presence of broken links. A help center riddled with dead links can suffer in search rankings, reducing visibility and accessibility for users seeking solutions.
How to Find and Fix Broken Links in Zendesk Help Center Articles
Maintaining the integrity of links within your Zendesk Help Center is crucial for providing a seamless user experience, no doubt about that.
Unfortunately, Zendesk Guide doesn't provide tools to identify broken links or export your help center articles.
Here's a structured approach to identifying and removing broken links:
Regular Audits
Periodically review your help center content to ensure all links are functional. This proactive approach helps in catching broken links before they affect users.
Manual Verification
Manually check links, especially after significant updates or changes to the content structure. This ensures that all links point to the correct destinations.
Fixing them requires manually opening each article and checking every link.
When reviewing links, it's best to view your help center as an external visitor by staying signed out. Once you find an issue then log into edit mode to make the necessary changes.
You need to be organized because it's easy to lose track of which articles you've already reviewed or get lost following down a path of links.
Utilize Automated Tools
How to find broken links in Zendesk the easiest way? Employ tools designed specifically for that.
This free tool allows you to export your Zendesk articles, facilitating a structured review process.
It's a slow manual process, but it's necessary to maintain the integrity of your help center if no alternative tools are available.
Our tool can scan your help center, identify broken links, and provide a consolidated report, significantly reducing the time and effort required for maintenance.
This advanced tool streamlines the detection and correction of broken links:
Step 1 - Full Sync: Initiate a "Full Sync" to update all articles, including unpublished, archived, or deleted ones.
Step 2 - Automated Task Lists: Access the pre-generated "Broken Links" task list, which updates with each sync to reflect current issues with Zendesk broken links.
As long as you don't rename or delete this task list, it will always refer to the most recent broken links in your help center. Under Source, you'll see the bad links. Clicking it opens the link pane, which shows the article containing the broken link.
Step 3 - Batch Editing: The "Change Link" feature enables simultaneous correction of multiple instances of the same broken link.
Step 4 - Validation Options: For links requiring authentication (e.g., internal documents), use the "Mark as Valid" function to bypass false positives.
Implement Redirects
If certain pages are moved or URLs are changed, set up 301 redirects to guide users from the old URL to the new one seamlessly. This practice preserves link equity and maintains user experience.
Educate Content Creators
Ensure that team members responsible for creating and updating help center articles are aware of the importance of maintaining valid links. And are trained on how to find, update or remove Zendesk broken links as necessary.
Monitor User Feedback
Users may report broken links they encounter. Implement feedback mechanisms, such as a "Report a problem" option, to allow users to easily notify you of issues.
Leverage Analytics
Utilize tools like Google Analytics to monitor user behavior. High exit rates on specific articles may indicate the presence of broken links or other issues affecting user experience.
By proactively managing and fixing the links within your Zendesk help center, you can enhance user satisfaction, reduce the burden on support teams, and improve the overall effectiveness of your self-service resources.
Consider amplifying your Zendesk capabilities with Swifteq and start your 14-day free trial today.
Written by Sorin Alupoaie
Sorin Alupoaie is the founder of Swifteq, an experienced software technologist and entrepreneur; he loves shipping products that solve painful customer problems. Sorin strongly believes that any Customer Service interaction represents a huge opportunity for a business to listen and improve how they deliver value to customers.