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What is broken link on Wikipedia? How it is helpful to get backlink for my site with the help of these broken links? What is the right way to use broken links from Wikipedia?

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asked what a broken link on Wikipedia is and whether it can be used to get backlinks. In practice a "broken link" is an external URL or citation on an article that no longer resolves to the source material (404/410, timeout, content removed, or moved). As and note, 404s are common, but the important point for Wikipedia is that a dead reference undermines verifiability and gets flagged or archived by editors and bots.

Using broken links purely to obtain SEO backlinks is not a legitimate tactic on Wikipedia. Replacing a dead URL with a link to a commercial or self-promotional page will likely be reverted and can trigger conflict-of-interest concerns. If the dead link originally cited material that genuinely belongs on the site being offered (for example, restoring an original source the site authored), the correct approach is to restore or point to an archived copy, and to document the change in the edit summary or on the article Talk page. See Wikipedia:External links and Wikipedia:Conflict_of_interest.

A safe, practical workflow:

  1. Confirm the link is dead on the live site.
  2. Look for an archived copy (Wayback Machine: web.archive.org).
  3. If an archive exists, edit the citation to include the archive URL and date using citation templates, for example:
<ref>{{cite web |url=https://original.example |title=Title |website=Site |access-date=YYYY-MM-DD |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/... |archive-date=YYYY-MM-DD }}</ref>
  1. If no archive exists and the replacement would be the poster's own content, propose the change on the Talk page, disclose any affiliation, and supply independent reliable sources.

Final caution: Wikipedia edits must support verifiability, not SEO. Preserve sources where possible (see Wikipedia:Link rot) and follow guidance on citing reliable material (Wikipedia:Citing_sources, Wikipedia:Reliable_sources).

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for Rakesh456

Broken link means non-working link.
Broken link won't display any content.

Member Avatar for 97pstore

Broken links is on 404 server not found errors .

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