Office Riders · Diagnostic Report

Broken Links Recovery Guide

Redirection plan & implementation roadmap · April 2026

Broken links identified

300+

External domains pointing to pages that no longer exist on officeriders.com

Sessions hitting 404 pages (90 days)

479

Sessions landing on "Article non trouvé" pages with 74% bounce rate confirmed in GA4

Authority being wasted

Daily

Every day without redirects = link equity from external sources lost. No content effort needed to fix this.

The complete process

Follow these steps in order. Estimated total time: 4–6 hours across dev and content team. Use the "Steps 1–4" tab above to follow each step in detail.

Export the broken backlinks list from Ahrefs

30 min

Categorize each broken URL and decide where it redirects

1–2 hours

Build the redirect map CSV and give it to the developer

1 hour

Verify implementation and confirm in Ahrefs

30 min

Expected outcome: Within 4–6 weeks of implementation, the domain's URL Rating on previously broken pages will begin to recover as search engine crawlers discover the redirects and pass authority to the destination pages.

Export the broken backlinks list from Ahrefs

Where to find it and what to export

30 min

Log into Ahrefs. Go to Site Explorer. Enter officeriders.com in the search bar.

In the left sidebar, click Backlinks → Broken Backlinks. This shows all external domains linking to pages that return a 404 or error code.

Click Export → CSV. The file will include: the broken URL on officeriders.com, the referring domain, the anchor text used, and the DR of the referring domain.

Sort the export by Referring domain DR (highest first). The highest-DR domains linking to broken pages should be fixed first. Those carry the most lost authority.

Also export from Site Audit → Internal Pages → 4XX errors to catch broken internal links within the site itself.

Categorize each broken URL and decide where it redirects

Not every broken URL should redirect to the same place

1–2 hours

For each broken URL in the export, ask these three questions:

Does a page on a similar topic still exist?

Redirect to that page. Example: a deleted blog post about "coworking Paris" redirects to the new /fr/coworking/paris page once it is built.

Is it a venue or space page that moved or was deleted?

Redirect to the city category page. Example: a deleted venue page in Lyon redirects to /fr/coworking/lyon or to the search results page for Lyon.

Is there no relevant equivalent?

Redirect to the homepage /fr as a last resort, only if nothing else fits. Avoid mass redirecting everything to the homepage as it weakens the signal.

Do not redirect everything to the homepage. Search engines detect mass redirects to a single destination and discount them. Each redirect should point to the most topically relevant existing page. Specific beats generic every time.

Build the redirect map CSV and give it to the developer

The exact format the developer needs

1 hour

The developer needs a simple CSV with exactly two columns. No extra formatting. Here is the exact format:

# redirect-map.csv · format for developer
# Column A: broken URL (from)
# Column B: destination URL (to)
# All redirects are 301 (permanent)

from_url,to_url
/fr/worklib/coworking-paris,/fr/coworking/paris
/fr/blog/espace-de-travail-hybride,/fr/solutions
/fr/salles/ancien-nom-espace,/fr/france/paris
/worklib/guides/salle-reunion,/fr/guides/location-salle-reunion
# ... continue for all 300+ broken URLs

Dev ticket template

What to do

Implement 301 redirects for all URLs in the attached redirect-map.csv file. All redirects are permanent (301). The "from" column is the broken URL. The "to" column is the destination.

Implementation method

Preferred: via .htaccess or Nginx config for server-level redirects. Alternative: via the CMS redirect manager if available. Do not use JavaScript redirects. These are not followed by search engine crawlers.

Acceptance criteria

Each "from" URL returns HTTP 301 status.
Browser and crawler are forwarded to the correct destination.
No redirect chains (A → B → C). Each redirect goes directly to the final destination.

How to verify

Use a tool like httpstatus.io or run a curl command: curl -I [url]. Should return HTTP/1.1 301 and the correct Location: header.

Verify implementation and confirm in Ahrefs

After dev deploys

30 min

Once redirects are deployed, re-run Ahrefs Site Audit. The 300+ broken backlinks count should drop significantly.

Check GA4 in 2–3 weeks. The "Article non trouvé" page sessions should drop toward zero as the redirects route users to the correct destinations.

For any high-DR referring domain (DR 40+), manually verify the redirect works by visiting the broken URL in a browser. Confirm it lands on the correct destination page.

Add the fixed redirect list to a shared document so future developers know these redirects exist and do not accidentally remove them.

Redirect destination logic — reference table

Use this to decide where each broken URL should redirect. Start filling this in as you go through the Ahrefs export.

Broken URL pattern	Type	Where to redirect	Reason
`/worklib/... or /fr/worklib/...`	Rebrand	`/fr` or equivalent new page	Old Worklib URLs. Redirect to the OfficeRiders equivalent or the homepage.
`/fr/salles/[deleted-venue]`	Venue	`/fr/france/[city]` or `/fr/coworking/[city]`	Deleted venue pages redirect to the city category page for that venue's city.
`/blog/[deleted-post]`	Content	`/fr/blog` or closest topical page	If there's a related guide, redirect there. Otherwise redirect to the blog index.
`/fr/france/[city]/[deleted-category]`	Category	`/fr/france/[city]` or `/fr/coworking/[city]`	Old category pages within a city redirect to the city root page.
`/en/... (English pages)`	Language	`/fr/...` equivalent or `/fr`	English pages that no longer exist redirect to the French equivalent or homepage.
`app.officeriders.com/workspace/[old-id]`	Venue	`app.officeriders.com/workspace/[new-slug]`	When venue slugs are updated, old numeric URLs must 301 redirect to the new named slugs.

Tools needed

All free or already available in the existing Ahrefs subscription.

Export broken links

Ahrefs Site Explorer

Backlinks → Broken Backlinks → Export CSV. Also use Site Audit for internal broken links.

Verify traffic to 404s

Google Analytics 4

Reports → Engagement → Pages → Filter by "Article non trouvé" or 404 page title.

Verify redirect status

httpstatus.io

Free tool. Paste a list of URLs and it returns the HTTP status code for each. Confirms 301s are working.