What is link rot, and how can I check for broken links on my site?
Link rot is slang for what can happen to hypertext links on a web site over time. As web site administrators remove or reorganize web pages, and sites themselves move or disappear, links on other sites to those pages become out of date.
To prevent link rot, web site administrators can add redirects that automatically take users to new pages that have replaced old ones, or they can provide the new, correct URL on the old page.
Site administrators often do not take these steps, however, and the responsibility falls on the linking sites' administrators to check their own links. A number of commercial and shareware programs are available that automatically test the validity of all links on a web page. These programs can also provide an automatic update when the URL of a web page changes.
Free link checkers available online include:
Last modified on May 13, 2009.
