How can you use link building metrics to fix crawl errors?

1 What are link building metrics?

Link building metrics are data points that measure the quality, quantity, and relevance of your links. They help you evaluate your link profile and identify opportunities and issues. Some of the most important link building metrics include Domain Rating (DR) or Domain Authority (DA), which indicate the overall strength and popularity of a website based on its backlink profile. URL Rating (UR) or Page Authority (PA) scores indicate the strength and popularity of a specific page based on its backlink profile. Referring Domains (RD) or Linking Root Domains (LRD) show the number of unique domains that link to your website or page. Backlinks are the actual links that point to your website or page from other websites, while anchor text is the clickable text that forms a link, providing context and relevance to your links and keywords. However, you should avoid over-optimizing or spamming your anchor text, as this can trigger penalties from search engines.

2 How to use link building metrics to find crawl errors?

Using link building metrics to find crawl errors is best done with the help of tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or Screaming Frog. These tools can crawl your website and provide you with a comprehensive report of your link profile and site structure. You can use them to check your backlinks and internal links for broken or inaccessible pages, as well as filter them by status code. Additionally, you can also use these tools to look into issues with your navigation, hierarchy, sitemap, site speed, HTML tags, canonicals, and meta tags.

3 How to prioritize crawl errors?

Not all crawl errors are the same when it comes to their impact on SEO, so you need to prioritize them accordingly. When doing so, there are several factors to consider, such as the severity of the error (e.g. 404, 301, 500), the frequency (e.g. number of links pointing to a page), and the relevance (e.g. value and purpose of a page). For instance, a crawl error that affects a page with high UR or PA, or a page that targets a key keyword or audience, is more important than one that affects a page with low UR or PA and is not relevant to your goals. Additionally, a crawl error affecting a page with hundreds of backlinks and internal links is more critical than one that affects a page with only a few links.

4 How to fix crawl errors?

Once you have identified and prioritized your crawl errors, you need to address them quickly. The solution for your crawl errors depends on the type and cause of the error. For instance, 404 errors happen when a page does not exist or has been deleted, and can be fixed by restoring the page, redirecting the page to a relevant one, or removing the links that point to the page. 301 errors occur when a page has been permanently redirected to another one and can be fixed by updating the links that point to the original page, or by ensuring that the redirect is appropriate and relevant. 500 errors are caused by server issues, so you can fix them by contacting your hosting provider, checking your code, or optimizing your site speed.

5 How to monitor crawl errors?

Fixing your crawl errors is not enough; you must also monitor them to ensure they do not recur and affect your SEO performance. Tools, such as Google Search Console, Google Analytics, or Bing Webmaster Tools, are useful for this purpose. They allow you to track your crawl errors over time and filter them by device, date, or URL. Additionally, you can analyze the impact of these errors on your metrics, such as impressions, clicks, rankings, conversions, or bounce rate. Finally, you can resolve your crawl errors and verify that they are fixed. This will help to improve your SEO performance.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?