Your Website Is Online—But Are the Links and Forms Working?

A homepage can load perfectly while a customer cannot send an enquiry, open WhatsApp, book an appointment or complete checkout. Ordinary uptime checks do not prove that the website can still do its job.

Broken customer journeys often stay hidden because the business does not submit its own forms every day. A practical maintenance plan identifies the actions that create value and tests them at an appropriate frequency without creating false leads or unwanted transactions.

Broken links are more than a cosmetic problem

Internal links can break after a page is renamed, deleted or moved. External resources can disappear without notice. A customer may reach an error page at the exact moment they want pricing, a location, a download or evidence that the business is credible.

Search engines also discover pages through crawlable links. Google recommends descriptive anchor text because it helps people and search engines understand the destination. Repairing broken internal links improves navigation and keeps important content connected, but it does not create a ranking guarantee.

Forms can fail silently

A contact form has several steps: the page renders, fields accept data, validation runs, the server or form provider receives the request, an email or database record is created, and the user sees a useful confirmation. Testing only the button misses most of that chain.

Common form failure points

• Expired or changed form-provider credentials
• Spam filters rejecting genuine submissions
• Notification email going to an old employee or unmonitored mailbox
• JavaScript errors blocking validation or submission
• A confirmation message appearing even though delivery failed
• Privacy or consent wording becoming outdated
• Analytics recording a conversion before the submission actually succeeds

Monitor the journeys that make money

Depending on the business, the critical set may include:

• Contact and quotation forms
• Click-to-call, email and WhatsApp links
• Hotel, clinic or consultation booking flows
• Checkout and payment hand-off
• Account sign-in or password reset
• Map, catalogue or menu downloads
• Important API endpoints used by the website

A sensible testing routine

1. List the top journeys and their expected outcome.
2. Assign an owner for the destination inbox, CRM or operational system.
3. Run lightweight automated checks where they are reliable.
4. Use scheduled end-to-end tests for higher-value journeys.
5. Record the result, failure point and action taken.
6. Retest after website, plugin, email or integration changes.

Report business impact, not only errors

“Form test failed” is incomplete. A useful alert names the page, expected action, observed failure, time detected and likely customer impact. It should distinguish between a confirmed failure and a monitor that needs investigation.

Source: Google SEO Starter Guide on crawlable, descriptive links.