Fix LoL Guide Site Broken Links: Clear Structure

This article explains how to find and fix broken links on a League of Legends guide website, and how to organize the site so links stay working. You’ll learn the causes of broken links, a step-by-step repair process, and a content structure that prevents them from recurring.

Why LoL Guide Sites Break Links

Broken links on a League of Legends guide site usually happen for a few specific reasons. The most common is a champion or item page that was renamed, moved, or deleted during a patch. For example, if you wrote a guide for “Summoner’s Rift” and Riot changes the map name, your old link stops working. Another frequent cause is a typo in the URL, like using a capital letter where the server expects lowercase, or adding an extra slash at the end. Finally, external links to Riot’s official pages, forums, or third-party stat sites can break when those sites update their own structures.

The impact goes beyond a minor annoyance. Search engines penalize sites with many broken links, lowering your guide’s ranking. Players who click a dead link and land on a 404 page are likely to leave and find a different guide. Over time, this reduces traffic and trust.

How to Find Broken Links

You can find broken links manually or with automated tools. For a small site (under 100 pages), manual checking is feasible: right-click each link, select “Copy link address,” and paste it into a browser tab. If you get a 404 or a connection error, the link is broken. For larger sites, use a free online broken link checker. These tools crawl your site and report every link that returns an error code. They usually show the page where the broken link appears and the destination URL, which saves time.

Another method is to check your site’s server logs. Look for 404 status codes in the access log. The log will show which URLs were requested and not found. This helps you find both internal broken links and external links that point to your site incorrectly.

How to Fix Broken Links

Once you have a list of broken links, fix them systematically. Follow these steps:

1. Check if the destination moved. If the link points to a Riot page or a champion page, search the site’s new URL. Often, the page exists under a slightly different slug.
2. Update the URL. If you find the correct address, replace the old link in your HTML or CMS editor.
3. Remove the link if the page no longer exists. For example, if a champion was reworked and the old ability page is gone, delete the link or replace it with a relevant one.
4. Add a redirect. If you changed a page’s URL on your own site, set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. This preserves search rankings and helps users who have the old link bookmarked.
5. Re-check the link. After making changes, verify that the link now works.

For external links that you cannot fix (because the target site is down), consider removing them or replacing them with a link to a similar resource. For example, if a stat site is permanently offline, link to an alternative stat site instead.

Preventing Future Broken Links

Prevention is better than repair. Use a consistent URL structure from the start. For a LoL guide site, a good structure is:

• /guides/champions/aatrox for champion guides
• /guides/roles/jungle for role guides
• /guides/items/zhonyas-hourglass for item guides
• /guides/mechanics/wave-management for general mechanics

Never use dates or patch numbers in URLs (e.g., /guides/champions/aatrox-14.3), because they become outdated quickly. Instead, keep the slug stable and update the content inside. When you do need to change a URL, always set up a redirect. Also, schedule a monthly broken link check. Many free tools can send you a report automatically.

Common Mistakes When Fixing Links

One common mistake is only fixing the link on the page where you found it, but not checking other pages that may link to the same broken URL. Use a tool that shows all pages with the same broken link. Another mistake is using relative URLs incorrectly. If you move a page to a different folder, relative links like ../items/zhonyas may break. Use absolute URLs (starting with https://) for internal links to avoid this. Also, be careful with URL encoding: spaces and special characters must be encoded (e.g., %20 for space). If you copy a link from a browser, it usually encodes correctly, but if you type it manually, you might forget.

Another frequent error is ignoring anchor links. If you link to a specific section on a page (e.g., #runes) and the section heading changes, the anchor breaks even though the page loads. Check anchors when you update content.

How to Structure a LoL Guide Site

A clear structure not only helps with links but also with user navigation and SEO. Organize your site into logical categories. For a LoL guide site, the main sections could be:

• Champion Guides – each champion gets its own page, with sub-sections for abilities, runes, items, and matchups.
• Role Guides – top, jungle, mid, ADC, support.
• Item Guides – explain when to buy certain items.
• Mechanics Guides – wave management, vision control, etc.
• Patch Notes – summaries of changes that affect guides.

Within each page, use a consistent heading hierarchy (H1 for title, H2 for main sections, H3 for sub-sections). This makes it easy to create anchor links and helps search engines understand the content. Also, create a sitemap.xml file and submit it to search engines. This helps them crawl your site efficiently and reduces the chance of indexing broken URLs.

Tools and Costs

There are many free tools for checking broken links. Online checkers like Dead Link Checker or W3C Link Checker allow you to enter your URL and get a report. For a more thorough check, you can use a desktop tool like Xenu’s Link Sleuth (free for Windows). These tools are sufficient for most small to medium guide sites. If you have a very large site, you might use a paid service that offers regular monitoring and detailed reports, but that is usually not necessary for a personal guide site. The cost is mainly your time: checking links manually can take hours, while automated tools take minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should I check for broken links?

Once a month is a good frequency for a small guide site. If you update content frequently, check after each major update. Also, check after a Riot patch that changes champion names or items, as that often breaks links.

What is a 301 redirect and why do I need it?

A 301 redirect tells browsers and search engines that a page has permanently moved to a new URL. It passes most of the ranking power from the old URL to the new one. If you change a URL, set up a 301 redirect so that old links still work and you don’t lose search traffic.

Can broken links affect my site’s search ranking?

Yes. Search engines like Google see broken links as a sign of poor quality. A high number of broken links can lower your site’s ranking. Fixing them improves user experience and can help your rankings recover.

Should I use absolute or relative URLs for internal links?

For a small site, absolute URLs are safer because they work regardless of where the page is located. Relative URLs can break if you move a page to a different folder. Use absolute URLs for internal links to avoid this issue.

What if the broken link is to an external site that is down?

If the external site is permanently down, remove the link or replace it with an alternative source. If it is temporarily down, you can wait and check later. There is no way to fix a link to a site you don’t control, so the best option is to remove or replace it.

How do I find broken links on a site with hundreds of pages?

Use an automated crawler. Free tools like Xenu’s Link Sleuth can crawl your entire site and list all broken links. This is much faster than manual checking. You can also use online services that allow you to enter your domain and get a report.

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in t | Total links checked | links | 100 | 0
in b | Broken links found | links | 5 | 0
out rate | Broken link rate | % | (b / t) * 100 | 1
out fix | Links to fix | links | b | 0