Link Checker: Check the entire website for broken links

Under the term link checker you can expect various tools. Some might look for a [backlink tool->backlink-checker] to see how many backlinks a website has, but I want to introduce a piece of software that will check all the links on a domain and then show which ones are broken. In this case, broken means that they point to link targets – i.e. other pages – that no longer exist there. As a result [the server throws a 404 error->error-404] and mostly leaves the visitor out in the cold with no further information. Ok, sometimes you can still find a note like "Please contact the administrator", but that's certainly not helpful at the moment.

Why to fix 404 errors?

Now one may wonder what is so bad about it. In this respect, too, there are several reasons to remove these broken links, because on the one hand it is not a great user experience if you click on a link and then see that there is nothing to see there (except for an error message) and on the other hand there are these errors are not good if you [take care of the search engine optimization of the website-> search engine optimization]. In terms of SEO, it's not good because every broken link is a sign of inferior quality to Google. If you maintain your site, there are usually no such defective hyperlinks.

Pagerank and 404 error pages

Pagerank inheritance is also a point that should not be forgotten, because if you have internal links that do not work, then they inherit their pagerank on an error page that is not indexed by Google. Ergo you lose part of your pagerank and could have used it sensibly through functioning internal references.

Free freeware for checking sitewide links

If you want to check your website completely in one go and not page by page, you need a tool that works recursively through the entire website. In the end, in the best case scenario, you have a list of the links that are broken and the pages on which they appear. This is the only way to go ahead and repair these links. My recommendation for this thing is this Xenu's Links Sleuth. You can download the program for free and run it under Windows (or [Parallels Desktop with Windows on Mac-> parallels-desktop]).

If you don't want to deal with it, you can also book my services and I'll do it for you. In that case, please write to me using the contact form.

Jen Kleinholz( Founder & Sir Apfelot )

Jens has been running the blog since 2012. He acts as Sir Apfelot for his readers and helps them with technical problems. In his spare time he rides electric unicycles, takes photos (preferably with the iPhone, of course), climbs around in the Hessian mountains or hikes with the family. His articles deal with Apple products, news from the world of drones or solutions to current bugs.