Explore detailed FAQs on Backlinks, Broken Links, and Missing Alt Tags. Use the search below to filter topics easily.
Answer: A backlink is an incoming hyperlink from one website to another. In other words, it's a link on some other site that points back to a page on your site. Backlinks are also known as “inbound links.” Search engines view backlinks as votes of confidence for your content – when another site links to you, it signals that the content on your page is valuable or credible. The more quality backlinks you have, generally the more authority your site gains in the eyes of search engines.
Answer: Backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors in SEO. They serve as endorsements for your site. Google and other search engines use backlinks as a signal of trust and relevance. In fact, Google has confirmed that backlinks (especially quality ones) are among the top signals in their ranking algorithm. Simply put, quality backlinks can significantly boost your search rankings. They also drive referral traffic from other sites. However, it's not just about quantity – the quality of backlinks matters more. A few backlinks from authoritative, relevant websites will help your SEO more than hundreds from low-quality or unrelated sites.
Answer: Building backlinks (often called link building) involves earning links from other sites through various strategies. Here are some effective, legitimate ways to get more backlinks:
Whatever methods you use, focus on earning links in a natural, ethical way. Avoid black-hat tactics such as buying backlinks or joining “link exchange” schemes – those violate Google’s guidelines and can lead to penalties (Google’s algorithms like Penguin target spammy, manipulative link building strategies).
Answer: These terms refer to whether a backlink passes on ranking credit (often called "link juice") to your site:
rel="nofollow", which tells search engine crawlers not to count this link as an endorsement. Nofollow links were created to combat spam (for example, links in blog comments are often nofollow). A nofollow backlink does not pass significant ranking authority to your site. In terms of SEO, that means it likely won’t boost your page’s ranking. However, nofollow links can still send traffic to your site and increase awareness. (Google also now treats nofollow as a “hint” – so they might choose to count it a bit, but generally its SEO impact is limited.)In practice, you want a natural mix of dofollow and nofollow links in your backlink profile. Most editorial links (within content) will be dofollow. Nofollow is commonly used for paid links, user-generated content, or any links where the site doesn’t want to vouch for the target. Both types can be useful (for SEO and traffic), but only dofollow links directly contribute to search rankings.
Answer: Not all backlinks are equal – some help your SEO a lot, others might have little effect or even be harmful. Key factors that determine a backlink’s quality include:
In summary, a quality backlink comes from a relevant, authoritative website and is given naturally (earned because your content is worth referencing). Low-quality backlinks often come from unrelated or low-authority sites, or appear to be manipulated. When evaluating a backlink, ask: Would I trust this website? Is the link here genuinely added to enrich the content? If yes, it’s likely a quality link.
Answer: Yes, having a lot of bad backlinks can hurt your site’s SEO – but minor amounts of them are usually ignored by Google. "Toxic" backlinks typically refer to links from spammy, low-quality, or clearly manipulative sources (like link farms, spam directories, or hacked sites). Google’s algorithms (e.g., Penguin) actively filter out or penalize sites with manipulative link profiles. In extreme cases, a manual penalty can be applied to your site for “unnatural links,” which can drastically drop your rankings.
If you suspect bad backlinks are pointing to your site, here’s what to do:
In short, bad backlinks can be harmful, but search engines often neutralize them automatically. Focus on building good links and consider disavow for the worst offenders if you see a clear issue. As one SEO best practice puts it: you cannot always remove bad backlinks pointing to your site, but you can disavow those you don’t trust. Keeping an eye on your backlink profile and cleaning it up when necessary is part of long-term site maintenance.
Answer: The easiest way to check your backlinks is to use our free tool right here at ReviewMySiteNow! Simply enter your domain into our backlink checker, and you'll instantly get a detailed list of who is linking to your site — no sign-up required.
Our tool shows you:
You can also use Google Search Console (if your site is verified there) to see a sample of your backlinks under the Links report. However, for a faster and easier experience without setup, ReviewMySiteNow provides a live report based on our 250B+ backlink database — updated daily.
Checking your backlinks regularly helps you spot valuable opportunities, monitor your SEO health, and improve your site's authority over time.
Answer: Broken link building is a link-building strategy where you earn backlinks by fixing others’ broken links. In practice, it works like this: you find a broken link on another site (a link that goes to a 404/not found page), and then you reach out to the site owner suggesting that they replace that broken link with a link to your content (which covers a similar topic). You are providing a helpful service (pointing out a dead link and offering a replacement), and in return you get a backlink.
This technique is effective because websites generally don’t want to send their visitors to dead pages. By helping them clean up a broken link, you create a win-win scenario. Here’s how to approach broken link building:
keyword + "404" or keyword + "resource page") to find candidates.Broken link building can be time-intensive (not every outreach will result in a link), but it’s a white-hat strategy that can yield high-quality backlinks. Essentially, you’re leveraging the web’s “link rot” (pages disappearing over time) to create opportunities: by replacing dead links with live, relevant content – yours!.
Answer: A broken link (or “dead link”) is a hyperlink that no longer leads to its intended destination. Instead of the content that was supposed to be at the other end, you get an error – typically a "404 – Page Not Found" error. In simple terms, the page or resource the link was pointing to is gone or unavailable.
Broken links can be:
No matter the type, when a user clicks a broken link, they end up at an error page instead of the content they wanted, which is frustrating.
Answer: Broken links can negatively affect your site in a few ways, although their impact is mostly indirect. Here’s what you need to know:
In general, a couple of broken links on a large site won’t drastically hurt you (and are common), but it’s good practice to fix them. If an important page on your site has many broken outgoing links or your site as a whole has a lot of dead ends, it can slightly affect your SEO and certainly your usability. Think of broken links as unfinished business – cleaning them up makes for a better-performing site overall.
Answer: The easiest way to detect broken links on your website is by using our free Broken Link Checker tool right here at ReviewMySiteNow! Simply enter your domain and we will instantly scan your site for any pages returning 404 errors or broken outbound links — no downloads or setup needed.
Our tool provides:
You can also optionally use Google Search Console (if your site is connected) to check for 404 errors under the Coverage report. However, for a faster, easier experience, ReviewMySiteNow gives you instant broken link detection with no technical setup needed.
Start your free scan today and keep your site healthy!
Answer: Once you've identified broken links, fixing them comes down to updating or removing those problematic references. The fix depends on what kind of broken link it is:
In all cases, after fixing, it’s good to test the link to ensure it now goes to the intended page. Also, make it a habit: whenever you remove or rename a page on your site, quickly scan for other pages that linked to it and update those (or keep a redirect). This way you prevent internal broken links from occurring. Using a content management system (CMS) plugin or an internal link management tool can help catch those references.
Lastly, maintaining a custom 404 page on your site is wise. Even with diligence, some users might hit a broken link (perhaps from an old external bookmark). A friendly 404 page that suggests other content or has a search box can reduce the frustration for users who land there.
Answer: A broken backlink is when another website links to a page on your site that no longer exists (or has moved). From the other site’s perspective, they have a broken outbound link; from your perspective, it means you had a backlink that isn’t effectively benefiting you anymore because it leads to a dead page. For example, if someone linked to yoursite.com/best-guide.htm and you removed or renamed that page, that backlink is now "broken" – users clicking it get a 404, and you lose any SEO value from that link.
Here's how to handle broken backlinks pointing to your site:
As an example, let's say Site A wrote an article and linked to one of your blog posts, but you since changed that post’s URL. To fix it, set a redirect from the old URL to the new one (so any clicks get through), and contact Site A saying, “We’ve updated that article URL – for a better user experience, you might want to update your link to point to the current page.” Doing both ensures you don’t lose the value of that backlink.
Answer: An alt tag, more properly known as alt text or an "alternative text" attribute, is a short textual description of an image in HTML. It is added to the <img> tag via the alt attribute. The primary purpose of alt text is to describe the image to people (or bots) who can't see it. This could be because the user is visually impaired and using a screen reader, or because the image failed to load. For example:
<img src="puppy.jpg" alt="Golden retriever puppy playing with a red ball on grass">In the above code, the alt text is "Golden retriever puppy playing with a red ball on grass." Alt text provides context in situations where the image itself is not visible. It’s important for accessibility (visually impaired users rely on it) and it also gives search engines information about what the image contains.
Answer: Alt tags are important for two main reasons: accessibility and SEO.
There’s also a practical benefit: if an image fails to load (due to a slow connection or an error), the browser will display the alt text in place of the image, so users still get an idea of what was there.
Because of these reasons, every image on your site should have an alt attribute (even if it’s empty for decorative images). It makes your site more accessible and can enhance SEO. In fact, studies have found that missing alt text is one of the most common accessibility errors on websites.
Answer: Missing alt text is primarily an accessibility issue, but it also has SEO implications (albeit relatively minor compared to major factors like content and backlinks). When an image has no alt text, search engines lose an opportunity to understand that image and potentially the context of the page. From an SEO perspective:
John Mueller of Google has stated that image alt text is important especially for image search, and it can have slight indirect benefits for normal search. It’s not a make-or-break ranking factor for general SEO, but it is definitely a best practice. Plus, remember the primary reason: accessibility. Ensuring alt text is present is part of maintaining a quality, inclusive website.
Bottom line: It’s worth fixing missing alt tags. It improves accessibility and you gain SEO value (especially for image visibility). There’s essentially no downside to having good alt text, aside from the effort to add it.
Answer: To add alt text, you include the alt="" attribute within your image HTML tag. For example:
<img src="example.jpg" alt="Description of the image">Replace "Description of the image" with the actual description of that image. Do this for every <img> tag in your HTML.
If you’re using a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, there’s usually a user-friendly way to add alt text. For instance, in WordPress when you upload an image, there’s an “Alt Text” field you can fill in. Other CMS platforms have similar fields in their media library or image settings. Enter the descriptive text there, and the system will add the alt attribute to the HTML for you.
Tips while adding alt text:
alt="") so it’s skipped by screen readers.After adding, you can double-check by viewing your page’s source (or using a browser inspector) to ensure the alt attributes are present and correctly filled.
Answer: Writing good alt text means making it useful for users and informative for search engines, without being spammy. Here are some best practices:
alt="". This tells assistive devices to skip it entirely. Only use non-empty alt text for meaningful images.In summary, pretend you’re describing the image to someone over the phone – you’d want to convey the essential information clearly and succinctly. Do that, and you’ve likely written good alt text.
Answer: You can easily identify images missing alt attributes using our free Missing Alt Text Checker tool right here at ReviewMySiteNow! Simply enter your website URL, and we'll automatically scan your site to detect images without proper alt text — no downloads or complicated setup needed.
Our tool provides:
Additionally, you can optionally inspect pages manually using your browser's Developer Tools or accessibility browser extensions. However, for fast, easy, and complete results, ReviewMySiteNow is the easiest way to find and fix missing alt text instantly!
Keep your website accessible and SEO-friendly — start your free scan today!