While these link checking tools are far from new, you may not have heard of them, or may have some tools to add to the mix or suggestions of how to use these particular tools more effectively.
What’s your favorite link checker? Tell us at WebProWorld.
By far the most popular and well known is the Xenu link sleuth. It checks links, images, frames, plug-ins, backgrounds, image maps, style sheets, and more.
In addition it orders broken links by page, gives lists of redirected URLs, lists of URLs you can submit to search engines, lists of orphan files, and stats for managers.
Xenu runs off of your computer – if you’re looking for something web based you can also try the W3C’s link checker. It doesn’t offer the level of information of Xenu, but if you’d like to run a quick check this is a great tool.
Remember – web crawlers follow links, and if your links don’t work, especially your internal links, search engines won’t be able to index all your pages or understand how your site fits in with the community.
Thanks to JimWorld for resources.
Garrett French is the editor of murdok’s eBusiness channel. You can talk to him directly at WebProWorld, the eBusiness Community Forum.
