Tools to Fight Link Rot

Although there are many applications to test for broken links automatically on your intranet, we have decided to highlight two effective tools.

Link Scan / Quick Check

Link Scan / Quick Check is an intranet webmaster's best friend. With knowledge workers depending upon the intranet for their main source of internal documents, ones that are not connected properly can create chaos. Link Scan / Quick Check can prevent that kind of chaos. It efficiently crawls through the thousands of documents and files to analyze and deliver a report informing individuals of any inconsistencies or links that have gone astray. The tool is handy when webmasters have added, deleted, and / or modified any hyperlinks in documents. The main features that makes Link Scan / Quick Check attractive to webmasters are:

• The ability to test over 40,000 links per hour
• The power to handle more than 250,000 pages at a time
• The flexibility of using the same application for your Website
• The ability to process hundreds of thousands of pages in one pass

To download a trial version of Link Scan / Quick Check, please click here.

Link Bot

Considered to be a"quality appraisal system" for links, Link Bot is a reliable and effective tool to maintain links on an intranet. The tool utilizes a spider which crawls through documents and associated files and alerts individuals regarding:

• Linking errors
• Missing images
• Pages without titles

For individuals who have an intranet with more than 1000 links, Link Bot can specify which error is occurring on your site. Here is a sample of the errors that this solution can identify:

• Performance of page loads
• Pages buried too deep
• 502 Bad Gateway
• Timeout - The server, while acting as a gateway or proxy, did not receive a timely response from the upstream server specified by the URI (e.g. HTTP, FTP, LDAP) or some other auxiliary server (e.g. DNS) is needed

The key benefit that may prompt many to invest in obtaining Link Bot is the interactive trouble-shooting guide to assist webmasters in understanding potential problems which may arise.

To learn more about Link Bot please click here

If you wish to try more tools to fight link rot on your Website and intranet, please visit the Electronic Software Publishing Corp. Website.

Conclusion

Regardless of the medium, information providers have the responsibility of delivering content in an efficient manner. Nothing is more annoying to an information seeker than a site on the web or a corporate intranet flooded with broken links to vital pieces of information. There are two ways to remedy this ongoing problem. For webmasters who have time on the hands can surf though pages and click on every hyperlink to see if they are still valid. For webmasters who are constantly busy, there are tools and services to find, validate, and report broken links throughout the site. These tools and services can be found on and off the web however, webmasters must take a cautious approach in selecting the right tool or service to cater to their specifics needs.

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