Today's task may not be the 'sexiest' one in our 31 Day challenge but it is something that can significantly impact both the experience of your readers but also your rankings in Google.
The task is to find and 'fix' dead links on your blog.
Let us know below whether this is a task you normally do and if so what tools you use (if any) to find and fix dead links on your blog.
ProBlogger, DPS & TwiTip
Wow-that was much easier then I thought it was going to be!! I used the validator site and it took one minute!! Thanks!
Loving 31dbbb! Onna @ Toddlercraft -resource for crafts & parenting advice
OMG, there are dozens of broken links. That's probably because this is the third incarnation of this blog and also because people have edited what's available on their own blogs. The broken link checker plugin for Wordpress is very effective - and you can edit links from the dashboard.
I downloaded Xenu's Link Sleuth, and it worked very well. Because I recently moved my blog from Blogspot to Wordpress, it found a lot of broken links. Thanks, Darren!
Debt-free Scholar - A growing college finances blog
I did this not too long ago with Google Webmaster Tools and was not happy with the results. I have redirects on the old pages so they forward to the new index (changed from a website over to a blog) and when checking the 115 it said were broken I found many were redirects. It was also labor intensive and confusing.
My old archive links are the problem...anyway I just added Broken Link Checker which I found in the comments from the post and it picked out 15 broken links--quite a bit of difference!
Anyway, appreciate the reminder to recheck.
I gave my blog the once over but didn't find any dead links (yet)
I imagine they will become more numerous when I transfer my blog to it's own domain. I'll be bookmarking this one so I can look things up when the move is over.
Strated reading the problogger book today (thank you mailman), very interesting read so far, making a lot of notes in the sidelines. If I will keep using the book like this I will soon need a second copy because this one fell apart =)
Mind the beginner A blog on beginning, it sounds so simple but it’s quite complex
I compared Xenu, Dead Links, and the Wordpress Broken Links Plug In. Dead-Links didn't pick up much, and didn't give me any detail on what it did pick up. Xenu created a huge, long list, but it was difficult to do anything with it. The Broken Links Plug In proved to be the most useful as it created a list, with detail as to the nature of the broken links. This allowed me to determine whether it was a problem that needed to be dealt with right away, or not.
Darren, thanks for pointing out this potential problem, and for providing the tools to fix it.
@sandrafoyt - Learn, Grow, Explore, Change the World - On Living By Learning</p
I had the same problem as NateDesmond. I have moved my blog from Blogger to Wordpress and as a result, all of my internal links were dead. Ouch!
Also, there was a huge number of dead links going out of the blog. I really wish I could outsource this task to someone. I have hundreds of dead links and this seems overwhelming. I just finished fixing all the internal links and when I read my old blog posts I feel like crying. Some of the oldest ones are so, so bad...
Thanks Darren
I thought I was on top of this, but I definitely wasn't. The plugin mentioned earlier was a godsend and now everything is as it should be.
Beyond Beeton: Household Management for the Modern Age | Cooking | Budgeting | Weight Loss | Work/Lfe Balance
On this point - it is also worthwhile to check what your blog does if you hit a snag. If a reader is sent to an incorrect link within your blog, what do they see? It is always worth customising your 404 error page to give the reader options, so they don't click away.
You can check what yours says by typing a made up bit on the end of a url within your site. If you use wordpress you may find you can edit the 404.php template in your theme.
If you go to http://beyondbeeton.com/weight/loss for example, this page doesn't exist - but it will give you a search and then a list of posts that may fit what you're looking for.
I'm happy to receive feedback if my 404 isn't clear etc
I make it a practice to check the links in the webs that I maintain, and in my blogs, on a regular basis. It just makes sense to make it easy for readers of the webs/blogs to have a good experience. Broken links indicate that the writer either doesn't care, or isn't writing much anymore. Either way, it's a good way to lose a reader. It doesn't take much time and if one is at all interested in maintaining a credible presence, it's necessary. I continue to enjoy the daily tasks, even if I'm a bit late on some of them. Thanks.
There is an addon for Firefox called Link Checker that I have used. If it times out trying to access a link, the link changes to one color. If the link is dead it changes to another color. You can tell at a glance if any links on a page are bad. It only does one page at a time, though.
Oh wow! That's a cool plugin that I'm going to add...I know that I have a few youtube videos that aren't working anymore..Gotta get on those as well...
[edited out promotional, non-related and duplicated (all over the forums) content - if it doesn't fit in your signature, please don't add it in all your posts anyway... thanks!]
I put in the plug-in and was shocked to see that I had 60 over deadlinks. Most of them were linked to pictures which were not around after I switched hosting and reloaded the blog. It took awhile but I managed to clear all the deadlinks to my blog :)
I've had the broken link checker plugin since day one, so I stay on top of this one.
@Rachel, good tip! I've run into my own 404 page a couple of times and it is nice to see a customized one instead of the default page. I followed Darren's advice from this post: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/09/11/create-a-custom-404-error-page-for-your-blog/
Pursuing daily adventure, and helping others do the same at http://Adventure-Some.
Thanks Darren! This is very helpful!
Keep smiling! @ Coolwired
My hosting company sends me an e-mail each week with any broken links. No e-mail -- No broken links! Thanks for the reminder though -- I'm planning on going through each of the 31 tasks on a rotating basis and will use this day to fix any problems.
Firmfamilytree.com
Growth -- Connection -- Leadership
My blog is less than two months old so I don't think I have any. I'm happy to hear about the Wordpress plugin Sharonhh, so I can see if that agrees with me.
I'm putting a note on my claendar to check next year.
Thanks.
I installed broken link checker. None so far.
My blog is still fairly new.
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