Discovery: My Link Checking Program
I made a pleasant discovery last Thursday evening. I was checking STATs on various sites, and found the list of 404s (page not there errors) a bit confusing. So I thought I’d have a look at this KLinkStatus program that I have on my computer. Maybe it could do what I used to do with Xenu a link checking program I had on my Windows 98 computer years ago.
Sure enough! It did a great job. So I checked for bad links on three or four mission sites that I look after, and was able to fix those quickly because I could easily see which page those bad links were on. I just had t enter the main URL of a site, click on the Search button, and in five minutes or less, it had a complete list of the links for me, with the bad ones in red. Then I tried it on my huge Ruthes-SecretRoses.com site.
Oh-oh! That has over 700 pages, so it took quite a while, and when it was finished some of my windows that I had open on the computer seized up. That usually means that my RAM (memory for things that can be open and running at the same time) was full.
That was on my computer at home, so yesterday I tried it again here at the office computer and had no problem, except that it took about 25 minutes to check all the links on that great big sprawling site. Then I saw that I could set it to just show the bad links, or 404s, and not mix them in with all the good links. Ah, now it didn’t look nearly so terrible. I got a lot of links fixed yesterday, but will have to continue for a few times yet to finish it.
Now I’m wishing I had discovered this program ages ago. If I stopped to check and fix links once a month like I check the STATs, I could keep all the sites current and in good working order. I must try to make this part of my routine now.
Of course, with more than 21 sites to check STATs on, it seems to scatter throughout my month instead of happening quickly at the beginning. Oh -well, sometimes we just have to keep plugging away, doing the best we can with the time we have, right?
But I sure am grateful for this efficient little link checking program sitting here all this time.