jamieb80•1mo agoTop Commenter

My neighbor asked me how to fix a broken link and I realized I had no idea what to tell him

He came over last Tuesday, laptop in hand, and showed me a 404 error on his local bakery's website. I just stared at it and mumbled something about checking the URL. It happened right there in my driveway in Springfield. I felt like a total fraud because this is supposed to be my thing. What's the simplest way you explain a basic SEO problem like that to someone who knows nothing about it?

3 comments

3 Comments

taraross1mo agoMost Upvoted

Yeah, @hayden_craig95 has the right idea with the store shelf thing. I'd take it one step further and say it's like the bakery moved their famous rye bread to a new shelf but didn't change the sign on the old one. The customer goes to the old spot and finds nothing. The fix is for the bakery to either put the bread back on the old shelf or, better yet, put up a sign that points you right to the new spot. That's all a redirect is, just a digital signpost.

the_anthony1mo ago

Just tell the bakery their website has a dead end.

hayden_craig951mo ago

That driveway moment... I get it. I'd skip the tech talk and just say websites are like store shelves. Sometimes they move stuff and forget to leave a forwarding address. Tell him to let the bakery know their bread page got lost in the back room.