Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      Let your business shine with Listings AI
      Moz Local

      Let your business shine with Listings AI

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Technical SEO
    4. How to fix broken links?

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    How to fix broken links?

    Technical SEO
    3
    13
    1880
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • Indiatravelz
      Indiatravelz last edited by

      Hi,

      I use WordPress CMS with Yoast SEO plugin.  I have just found out that my 403 errors increased dramatically. It seems that all my tags below of each post are being broken for some reason. When i click on the tags i get the following massage: **403 Forbidden Request forbidden by administrative rules. **

      I assume it has something to do with the configuration within Yoast SEO plugin.

      Dose anyone know how should i fix that?

      Thanks,

      Raviv

      evsGujA

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • evolvingSEO
        evolvingSEO @Indiatravelz last edited by

        Awesome! Definitely happy you let us know 😉

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Indiatravelz
          Indiatravelz @Indiatravelz last edited by

          Hi Dan,

          Just wanted to let you know that the problem is fixed at last:)

          WP support suggested to check this out with the hosting and bingo! Apparently is happened because of a massive on many WP sites ( Brute Force Attack ) which blocked some of my files and that was the reason for the 403's.

          I thought that you might want to know.

          Again, thanks so much for your help!!!

          Raviv

          evolvingSEO 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • Indiatravelz
            Indiatravelz @evolvingSEO last edited by

            For sure!

            Indiatravelz 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • evolvingSEO
              evolvingSEO @Indiatravelz last edited by

              Hi Raviv - great, that will be your quickest source to the answer I think at this stage. Do update us if you can!

              -Dan

              Indiatravelz 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Indiatravelz
                Indiatravelz @evolvingSEO last edited by

                Hey Dan,

                Thanks so much for your help! really!

                I still didn't fix it but as you said the tags themselves are broken. when i viewed them in the tags archive i get the same thing guess what? 403!

                anyways, I will contact the help forum as you suggested hopefully they'll be able to tell me how to get it done.

                Thanks again!

                Raviv

                evolvingSEO 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • evolvingSEO
                  evolvingSEO @Indiatravelz last edited by

                  Ah good! We've ruled out Yoast. Either one of two things are going on;

                  1. Tags are simply broken.

                  2. Maybe the link to the tags are just broken.

                  Can you adjust the URL at all to get to tags? Maybe the links are adding something extra in the URL making it incorrect? Or you can't get to tags at all. From within the Admin section, try going to Posts->Tag and hovering over a tag click "view" to try and view that tag archive. If it's still broken then it's tags themselves.

                  Either way this is leaning more towards a development issue, and maybe you want to contact the help department for your theme, or try the WordPress help forum.

                  -Dan

                  Indiatravelz 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Indiatravelz
                    Indiatravelz @evolvingSEO last edited by

                    Hey Dan,

                    So I've tested it and it seems that I still get those broken links even when the Yoast plug in was disabled. In both tests i got the same results- 403.

                    Any suggestions of how to fix it?

                    Cheers,

                    Raviv

                    evolvingSEO 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • evolvingSEO
                      evolvingSEO @Indiatravelz last edited by

                      Hi Raviv

                      Yes, go to plugins and hit "disable" - you shouldn't lose your information, but I would take screenshots or write down of your settings just in case. Definitely don't delete the plugin - just disable it temporarily.

                      Let me know!

                      -Dan

                      Indiatravelz 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Indiatravelz
                        Indiatravelz @evolvingSEO last edited by

                        Hi Dan!

                        Thanks for helping here!

                        2nd test result - even when I'm not being logged in to WP then I still get the 403 error

                        with regard to the 1st test ( shunting off the plugin) : 1 )  shall i do it by the  'deactivate' function in the plugins section? or is it something in I need to do withing the setting of Yoast plug in itself.

                        1. either way is shutting off the plug in means that I will have to reconfigure the plugin from the beginning after switching it back on?

                        Sorry ... I'm still very new to this

                        Thanks Again

                        Raviv

                        evolvingSEO 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • evolvingSEO
                          evolvingSEO last edited by

                          Raviv

                          Just to make sure we're not assuming incorrectly, temporarily shut off the Yoast SEO plugin. This should be fine to do for just a few minutes. Do you still get the 403 errors? If so, then it is not the Yoast plugin but some other issue.

                          Also, do you get this error while logged out of WordPress? Trying doing it on your site in incognito mode in Chrome without logging in.

                          Let us know what happens with both of those tests!

                          -Dan

                          Indiatravelz 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • Indiatravelz
                            Indiatravelz @EdsonGroupMedia last edited by

                            Hi Ed,

                            Thanks for that! But I need now to find out how to fix those broken links

                            Cheers,

                            Raviv

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • EdsonGroupMedia
                              EdsonGroupMedia last edited by

                              Hi Raviv,

                              I used this Worpress plugin to fix my broken links, hope it helps http://w-shadow.com/blog/2007/08/05/broken-link-checker-for-wordpress/

                              Regards

                              Ed

                              Indiatravelz 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • 1 / 1
                              • First post
                                Last post

                              Got a burning SEO question?

                              Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                              Start my free trial


                              Browse Questions

                              Explore more categories

                              • Moz Tools

                                Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                              • SEO Tactics

                                Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                              • Community

                                Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                              • Digital Marketing

                                Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                              • Research & Trends

                                Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                              • Support

                                Connect on product support and feature requests.

                              • See all categories

                              Related Questions

                              • GhillC

                                Broken canonical link errors

                                Hello, Several tools I'm using are returning errors due to "broken canonical links". However, I'm not too sure why is that. Eg.
                                Page URL: domain.com/page.html?xxxx
                                Canonical link URL: domain.com/page.html
                                Returns an error. Any idea why? Am I doing it wrong? Thanks,
                                G

                                Technical SEO | | GhillC
                                1
                              • MiguelSalcido

                                Why are these internal pages not showing any internal links?

                                If you look at Author profile pages like this one, http://experts.allbusiness.com/author/denise-oberry (THE top contributor on the site with over 82 posts under her belt), or any Author profile page, they show zero internal links or Page Authority. The same goes for most posts for each author on the site. Author pages should show internal links from every post the author has on the site. And specific posts should also have internal links from categories, etc. Yet they show zero. The only posts that show internal links and PA are ones that were either syndicated to the root domain's homepage, or syndicated to Fox Small Business. ZERO internal links. Does anyone know why this is? The root domain does not act this way with Author pages and posts. And I see nothing blocking links or indexing via the robots.txt file or page level nofollow tags. A real head scratcher for this SEO nerd, that I'm sure someone here will have a really simple answer to.

                                Technical SEO | | MiguelSalcido
                                0
                              • mtthompsons

                                Find all links in the site and anchor text

                                Hi, Find all links in the site and anchor text and i need this done on my own website so i know if we dont have links that are anchored to numbers and punctuations that are not seen at all. Thanks

                                Technical SEO | | mtthompsons
                                0
                              • inlinear

                                Correct linking to the /index of a site and subfolders: what's the best practice? link to: domain.com/ or domain.com/index.html ?

                                Dear all, starting with my .htaccess file: RewriteEngine On
                                RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.inlinear.com$ [NC]
                                RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://inlinear.com/$1 [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^./index.html 
                                RewriteRule ^(.)index.html$ http://inlinear.com/ [R=301,L] 1. I redirect all URL-requests with www. to the non www-version...
                                2. all requests with "index.html" will be redirected to "domain.com/" My questions are: A) When linking from a page to my frontpage (home) the best practice is?: "http://domain.com/" the best and NOT: "http://domain.com/index.php" B) When linking to the index of a subfolder "http://domain.com/products/index.php" I should link also to: "http://domain.com/products/" and not put also the index.php..., right? C) When I define the canonical ULR, should I also define it just: "http://domain.com/products/" or in this case I should link to the definite file: "http://domain.com/products**/index.php**" Is A) B) the best practice? and C) ? Thanks for all replies! 🙂
                                Holger

                                Technical SEO | | inlinear
                                0
                              • janc

                                Footer Links with same anchor text on all pages

                                We have different websites targeted at the different services our company provides. (e.g. For our document storage services, we have www.ukdocumentstorage.com. For document management, we have www.document-management-solutions.co.uk). If we take the storage site for example, every single page has a link in the footer to our document management site, with the anchor text 'Cleardata Document Management' SEOMoz is telling me that these are seen as external links (as they are on a different URL's), and I'm just clarifying that would this be a major possible factor in the website not ranking highly? How should I rectify this issue?

                                Technical SEO | | janc
                                0
                              • greenfoxone

                                Dofollow and Nofollow links

                                What is the difference between dofollow and nofollow links? I know that some sites/blogs only let you post nofollow links. In such a case how do I know if a comment I posted on a certain site will be a nofollow or dofollow? How about big traffic sites such as Huff Post. Do they only allow nofollow links?

                                Technical SEO | | greenfoxone
                                0
                              • KLLC

                                What is link Schemes?

                                Hello Friends, Today I am reading about link schemes on http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66356 there are a several ways how to avoid Google penalties and also talk about the low quality links. But I can't understand about  "Low-quality directory or bookmark site links" Is there he talked about low page rank, Alexa or something else?

                                Technical SEO | | KLLC
                                0
                              • jmccommas

                                Advice on Linking to an Adult Related Website

                                I have a question regarding whether or not Google would penalize my main website for linking to a website that has adult content. The site I am linking to is not a porn site, rather it is a site that sells web site templates for adult related stores selling sexy toys, videos, etc. For example my site that is linking to the adult related website is here: http://www.websitetemplatedesign.com/ and the link to the site is in the footer at the bottom left which is an icon. And it links to http://www.adultsextemplates.com/ Im just looking for advice as to whether or not this could be a penalty or not. I did suffer major SERP loss in the last month and Im trying to find what I am doing that may have caused this. Any advice would be appreciated.

                                Technical SEO | | jmccommas
                                0

                              Get started with Moz Pro!

                              Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                              Start my free trial
                              Products
                              • Moz Pro
                              • Moz Local
                              • Moz API
                              • Moz Data
                              • STAT
                              • Product Updates
                              Moz Solutions
                              • SMB Solutions
                              • Agency Solutions
                              • Enterprise Solutions
                              Free SEO Tools
                              • Domain Authority Checker
                              • Link Explorer
                              • Keyword Explorer
                              • Competitive Research
                              • Brand Authority Checker
                              • Local Citation Checker
                              • MozBar Extension
                              • MozCast
                              Resources
                              • Blog
                              • SEO Learning Center
                              • Help Hub
                              • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                              • How-to Guides
                              • Moz Academy
                              • API Docs
                              About Moz
                              • About
                              • Team
                              • Careers
                              • Contact
                              Why Moz
                              • Case Studies
                              • Testimonials
                              Get Involved
                              • Become an Affiliate
                              • MozCon
                              • Webinars
                              • Practical Marketer Series
                              • MozPod
                              Connect with us

                              Contact the Help team

                              Join our newsletter
                              Moz logo
                              © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                              • Accessibility
                              • Terms of Use
                              • Privacy

                              Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.