a new one to study from the Pew Research Center reveals the ephemeral nature of online information: 38% of web pages in 2013 are no longer accessible a decade later.
The analysis, conducted in October, looked at broken links to government and news websites and the “References” section of Wikipedia pages.
The findings reveal that:
23% of news web pages and 21% of government web pages contain at least one broken link Local government web pages, especially those belonging to municipal governments, are particularly prone to broken links
54% of Wikipedia pages have at least one link in their “References” section that points to a non-existent page
Social networks are not immune to the disappearance of content
To investigate the impact of digital decay on social media, Pew Research collected a real-time sample of tweets on X and monitored them for three months.
The study found that “nearly one in five tweets are no longer publicly visible on the site just months after being posted.”
In 60% in these cases, the original publishing account was made private, suspended, or deleted.
In the rest 40%the account holder deleted the tweet, but the account still existed.
Some types of tweets are more likely to disappear than others, with more than 40% of tweets written in Turkish or Arabic are no longer visible three months after publication.
Additionally, tweets from accounts with default profile settings are particularly susceptible to disappearing from public view.
Definition of “inaccessible” web pages and links.
For the purpose of this report, Pew Research Center focused on pages that no longer exist when defining inaccessibility.
Other definitions, such as changed content or accessibility issues for visually impaired users, were beyond the scope of the research.
The study used a conservative approach, counting pages as inaccessible if they returned one of nine error codes, indicating that the page and/or its host server no longer exists or has become non-functional.
Why SEJ cares
Digital decay raises important questions about the preservation and accessibility of online content for future generations.
The Pew Research Center study illuminates the extent of this problem in various online spaces, from government and news websites to social media platforms.
The high rate of link rot and web pages disappearing has implications for anyone who relies on the Internet as a reliable source of information.
It poses challenges for citing online sources, as the original content may no longer be accessible in the future.
What does this mean for SEO professionals?
This study underscores the need to regularly audit and update old content, as well as constantly monitor broken links and resolve them quickly.
SEO professionals should also consider the impact of digital decay on backlink profiles.
As external links to a website become inaccessible, it can affect the fairness and authority of the site’s links in the eyes of search engines.
Monitoring and diversifying your backlink sources can help mitigate the risk of losing valuable links to digital decay.
Finally, the study’s findings on social media content demonstrate that SEO efforts should focus on driving users to more stable, proprietary channels such as websites and email lists.
Featured image: apghedia/Shutterstock
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