Have you checked your links lately?

Use your link checker!

[Mohamed_E]

I have one real site plus one toy site, so it is not really a big deal to check my links with Xenu, the free link checker. I used to do it once or twice a month, finding one or two redirects and occasionally a dead site. The redirects take a minute each to correct, as for the dead site I would have to decide whether it was worth tracking down or just dropping it. Let us say five minutes work on average.

I have been lazy about doing it for a few months, and today I finally bit the bullet. Not as bad as I feared, but still took me close to an hour to straighten everything out. Several useful sites had moved without a redirect, and one site that I have many deep links to redid their structure, again without benefit of redirects.

I am curious, how do people with multiple sites deal with keeping their links up to date?

[jeremy goodrich]

This thread I started the other day on a related topic, what do do when your link partners go bad & drop your links [webmasterworld.com]. There are some ideas there, what my new strategy is to stay up to date is going to be will involve a complicated spider set up on a cron to run biweekly. At least, that is the plan.

Complicated spider = perl script, fake user agent ;), rotate the agent for different runs, and also fetch pages through a proxy (rotating as well). This way it seems a bit more like a "real" bit of traffic, instead of an application checking their links...

[mil2k]

This way it seems a bit more like a "real" bit of traffic, instead of an application checking their links...

Hey it might even have a commercial use in the SEO community. You can brand and sell it ;)

[Skylo]

I have a very well structured links directory and just had the dirty job of going throught the links manually to check them. I really don't mind going through manually as we don't have many and most of them are very good links that I sweated blood for. It took me a day of monotonous boredom but it got done.
After executing some partners for having deleted my link I now feel refreshed and relaxed:)

[peewhy]

I don't understand the mentally of those who will take the time and trouble to request link exchanges and them remove them afterwards.

I have considered creating an 'oops' page where the links of those that have not played fair will go to.

Opps!, sorry the link to 'x' insn't working, please try any of the following

[Wired Suzanne]

I get tired of this too. I keep all kind of spreadsheets to file the links, the pages, the contact persons. But it still takes me a few days to work through my links list and check them all.

Now I am going to take the step.... I'm signing up for Linksmanager dot com. If you can afford to pay a few dollars every month.

[peewhy]

Its all based on cost effectiveness, if the time spent checking links is draining and the monthly cost of automating it works out better, enabling you to get on with running things, then its a bargain :)

[claus]

I'll just add that i have a thing with automated link-checkers. They're allright for controlling if the right status code gets returned, but they do not actually read what's on the page and look at it.

I've been running a quite large directory for some years, there are thousands of outbound links and i can't controll all manually in a day, not even a week, but i do so - regularly.

The thing is: When a page shifts topic it often becomes useless to users of my site. Throughout the years i've had quite a few brilliant sites on most topics changing into pr0n sites, linkfarms, weird networks, weight loss product sites, and most other options.

/claus

[peewhy]

I suppose it depends how deep you need to dive.

Claus needs to ensure absolute quality control, not only checking for broken links but also inspecting and confirming relevance to maintain standards.

Others need only check for broken links and link exchanges.

Its that old 'horses for courses' maxim :)

[Skylo]

"I don't understand the mentally of those who will take the time and trouble to request link exchanges and them remove them afterwards." - peewhy

I agree totally but I delete those who don't play fair for absolute pleasure. The company I work for, the website is an "authority" (We rank no.1 and no.2 for half a dozen serps) if you will and we get link requests fairly often everyday and of course I only link to those of quality. But some of these guys try take advantage and delete our link so G will see that we are outbound linking to site X. And so they are getting a nice link from a very decent site.
So I usually delete the link and write them a polite email almost condesending (might as well be a dick to them...subtley) and 9/10 times I get an email back either apologetic and telling me my link is back up or someone telling me it was always there....ya right. So I am a delete button addict;-)

"Opps!, sorry the link to 'x' insn't working, please try any of the following"
LOL that is a really good idea:)

[peewhy]

I suppose it depends on your mood at any given time. Today I'm in a good mood so I'll send a nice diplomatic email. Yesterday was living hell so I deleted them and sent a rude email, tomorrow? who knows I might do my redirect trick:)