Have you ever found something on a website you really want to read. I mean, it is exactly what you have been trying to find for days. Barely able to contain your excitement, you click on the link only to find it leads NO WHERE! It is a dead link.
What is a dead link you ask? Wikipedia says:
A dead link (also called a broken link or dangling link) is a link on the World Wide Web that points to a web page or server that is permanently unavailable. The most common result of a dead link is a 404 error, which indicates that the web server responded, but the specific page could not be found.
You can read more about what Wikipedia has to say about dead links by clicking HERE.
Bloggiesta is the perfect time for your to check your blog to make sure you don’t have any dead links that will make your readers want to pull their hair out.
Problogger offers a downloadable e book called 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, but you don’t have to buy it in order to get some benefit from their advice. Problogger has examples of the activities on their blog and there just so happens to be one about finding and fixing dead links.
For your challenge, click on this link, http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/05/02/hunt-for-dead-links/ and follow the directions in order to make a better blog for your readers.
Maw Books will have some prizes during this wonderful Bloggiesta weekend so be sure to leave a comment on this post in order to be eligible. You can see the prizes somewhere on her blog.
If you haven’t registered for Bloggiesta and still want to, click HERE!
I can’t wait to see what everyone gets accomplished this weekend. Have fun and happy blogging!
[...] Karin from Karin’s Book Nook – There is nothing worse than landing on 404 error pages. It’s time to go on a dead link hunt! [...]
[...] Edit. 3. I’d really like to check my blog archives for dead links. [...]
Fabulous! I am going to start with my links to other bloggers, since I definitely don’t want anyone to be sad when you try to find someone else’s book blog!
I did the dead the links. YAY. I had none, I was proud.
I’m in the process of fixing my dead links as I type. Most are still good, though I’ve already found a few dead ones. Of course, that says nothing to the blogs that are technically still live, but haven’t been updated in months…
Me too: zero dead links! Thanks for the tip, I’ve bookmarked the page for future reference. I came to a ‘page not found’ at first though LOL but that was because of my internet connection.
I’ll post about this challenge in tomorrow’s update!
I did the dead links search too! Thanks!
I did the dead link search. It was a mess to get through. It said I had 79 dead links. Only one was really dead. That one has been fixed and now all my links work.
I checked for dead-links. Thanks
I got really frustrated with the dead link search, so I quit. I think the best solution for curing dead links is for everyone to take the time to leave a comment on someone’s post if you find a dead link in it. I know fix my dead links if I knew about them.
Karen -
I did the dead link search and now it is going to take me days to find and fix the 250 of them that have surfaced…goodness!
I certainly wish I would have realized and done this sooner.
I do have mixed emotions about this in that I am so glad you led me to this insight, but am thinking denial would have been much easier.
Thanks a bunch!
I tried the dead links site, but with all of my Amazon links it was too many for it to go through. I did check the links on my blogroll, and gave the dead link thing a try. It sounds like WordPress has a better method for this than Blogger.
I have never done this in the more than 4 years I have been blogging! I am using one of the tools you mentioned in your link to search. I am a bit scared to see what is going to be identified! Thanks for an interesting mini challenge.
Checked for dead links. Some of the links it said were dead weren’t, so not sure what to do with those results. Did remove the ones that were really dead. Very helpful challenge!
I went through every single link on my site and found some that were very dead. I had never considered doing this before, so I definitely appreciate this challenge!
I checked mine, and while it said some of the pages were 404 that weren’t I still found things that needed to be fixed…some of the issues were due to my mistyping in my blogroll, but I found some comics that shut down, and other sites that are no longer there. Thanks for the info!
So, fortunately for me, my site is pretty new and I don’t have any problems. But this is a great reference and something I’m going to keep up with as my blog gets a little older. Thanks so much!!
[...] out my deadlinks with Karin at Karin’s Book Nook. Great reference material for future use as [...]
I checked, and I only had one that actually was dead, but I fixed that. So I’m dead link free now =) Thanks
[...] Challenges: Footer Mini Challenge Labels/Tags Clean up Dead Link Hunt Hours:
Thanks for this challenge -cleaning house is always good.
No dead links for me, but I suspect that’s because I’m such a new blogger. Haven’t had time to accumulate any. Thanks, Karin, for a great mini-challenge!
[...] Karin from Karin’s Book Nook hosted a mini-challenge about cleaning out dead links. I used the W3C Link Checker and found no dead links! Yay me! [...]
[...] a mini-challenge I did join yesterday was checking for dead links on instigation of Karin’s Book Nook: zero found! The funny thing is that I got a ‘page not found’ on the problogger article [...]
I check for dead links periodically, so this was an easy mini-challenge for me to complete. Thanks!
I did this – thanks! Says I have no dead links. I may try another version too. Thank you for this!
I ran a second one, Amy’s brower link checker… that one took quite a bit longer and said a few were bad but I checked them and they were not.
[...] out my deadlinks with Karin at Karin’s Book Nook. Great reference material for future use as [...]
[...] dead link challenge was particularly handy for me. I ran Link Valet and it worked very well. Sure, it didn’t [...]
This was a really helpful mini-challenge. Thanks!
http://melydia.zoiks.org/2010/01/bloggiesta-et-al/
I had a few, but they weren’t anything I could control, they were links to bloggers who had commented and now have deleted blogs ::shrugs:: Plus two Amazon links that were live, but called dead.
I tried the W3C link validator and the dead spider link checker, and both found some links that weren’t actually broken, but after I combed through everything, I think my links are pretty much intact at this point.
OMG thanks to you for posting this, I used dead-links.com and found some 404 pages!! EEEK
[...] at Karins Book Nook linked me up to a couple places that would check my blog for dead [...]
Wow… the tools ProBlogger offers are very thorough. I hadn’t realized how many links I have!
I’m using Xenu and it’s taking a while, but so far no dead ones *crosses fingers* It’s taking a while since I link any books I review and post about. Thanks for pointing out the informational website!
Thank you for the great information. It looks like I did not have any dead links so I am extremely happy. Thanks!
[...] Bloggiesta Mini-Challenge – Dead
I went through my links – and found one that I fixed!
[...] out my deadlinks with Karin at Karin’s Book Nook. Great reference material for future use as [...]
I didn’t have too many dead links because I do have a plug-in that checks them, but I hadn’t looked at it for months, so thanks for the reminder!
http://www.devourerofbooks.com/2010/01/bloggiesta-wrap-up/
I found one link that needed to be fixed. Very simple fix! Thanks for hosting such a great challenge!
[...] Karin’s Book Nook: checked for dead [...]
WOW!
Great idea. Thank you!
[...] to do this the other day with another blog, so now completed for this and Along with a Hammer. * Karin from Karin’s Book Nook – Dead Link Hunt: My results were, frankly, inconclusive, as the two link checkers I tried threw up all sorts of [...]
[...] Karin from Karin’s Book Nook – There is nothing worse than landing on 404 error pages. It’s time to go on a dead link hunt! [...]
Fixing two dead links today! This is fantastic challenge.
Lydia Presley´s last blog ..Book Blogger Hop – June 11 – 14
[...] I have fixed broken links on my blog – Thanks Karen at Karen’s Book Nook! [...]
I found this post to be very . I have already gone through and read many of your posts. They are fantastic!
Only 1 dead link! I used this site: http://www.web-site-map.com/broken-links.php
Jennifer´s last blog ..Bloggiesta the 4th! To Do List & Starting Line bloggiesta