Broken link
A broken link is a web address that no longer leads where it should, such as an image link that returns an error instead of a picture.
- Dead link
What it means
A supplier’s image column is a list of web addresses, and each one worked when the sheet was made. Since then a file may have been moved or renamed, a site rebuilt, or a server set to turn automated requests away. In the spreadsheet, the address looks exactly the same.
Importers fetch every link and need a picture back. Shopify’s importer needs “a publicly accessible direct link to the image”. A missing file fails with “An error occurred while trying to download the image”.1 WooCommerce copies each image into the store’s Media Library during the import, so it must be directly accessible then.2
A link that returns an error, a refusal or a web page is a missing image, whatever the spreadsheet says. The only test is to fetch every link, and to fetch again just before the import, since links break in between.
Think of it like this
An old address in a contacts book behaves the same way. It was right when it was written down and nothing about it looks wrong, but the person moved out last year.
For example
A supplier’s sheet links a bath to https://example.com/img/RB-1770.jpg. Fetched before the import, the address returns a “page not found” error: the supplier rebuilt its site, and the picture now lives at https://example.com/media/RB-1770-SE.jpg. Updating the link gives the bath its picture back.
Why it matters
A dead image link fails at the worst moment: the import reports an error, or the product goes live without its picture. A main image link that Google cannot fetch breaks one of its minimum requirements, and the product is disapproved.3
Not to be confused with
A broken link differs from a blocked one. A blocked link opens in your browser, but its server turns automated requests away, so an importer fetching it gets nothing. For the import, the result is the same missing image.
Sources
- Shopify Help Center. Solutions to common product CSV import problems.
- WooCommerce documentation. Product CSV Importer and Exporter.
- Google Merchant Center Help. Image link [image_link].