Having a blog or website isn't just about putting it out there and forgetting about it. I can't count the times I have visited a website and clicked on a link that went nowhere. It is frustrating when you are working on something and in the zone, and your concentration gets broken just like the link you are trying to access. It turns me off their site right away. I always try to contact the webmaster to advise of this, and hope readers will do the same for my blog.
Links become broken for several reasons... some website authors like to revamp and reorganize their site, change urls, or perhaps even remove the information altogether. I had one link in my blog where the author only changed one letter from lowercase to uppercase in the url and so it didn't work.
To prevent readers getting turned off your site use a broken link checker regularly. There are several ones on the internet, free or paid versions. Usually the paid versions have more features like regular auto-checks. Some sites have a tool you can download, free or paid. Many sites have an online tool you can use by pasting in your url then go get a coffee or tea or do your workout because if your site has a lot of links it may take time to do a thorough check.
I use this Free Broken Link Checker or this one from W3C
Do a web search for "link checker" and read the features and reviews to decide which is right for you - but please do it at least twice a year if your site has many links, as mine does. If you have a huge website you may want to do it in sections.
Thanks Dianne, a good reminder to all of us.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I've never checked my links.
ReplyDeleteGreat reminder. We also need to watch we are not creating them. For my work blog I have pages that become out of date. Instead of deleting them I add a note saying the material is out of date, remove links to out dated information and add a link to a generic page where they can access links to more up to date material. This way they don't get the annoyance of error messages and help to find what they might be looking for straight away.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip. I'm checking my links now.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I've just fixed a heap of links I didn't realise were broken. Very helpful!
ReplyDeleteI had 74 when I checked mine! Most were on old posts, but I was surprised to see 2 on posts made within the last couple of months!!
DeleteThat's how quickly things can change,
Great information Dianne, I had no idea it was possible to check for broken links like this. There were 41 broken links throughout my blog. Guess I have some work to do!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post, Dianne. I was completely unaware that such a program existed, but I am right onto it now. Until now I have tried to keep my links up to date the hard way, but this will be much more efficient.
ReplyDeleteYou're all welcome. Glad I could help!
ReplyDelete