Broken Links

Broken links are references in your HTML code to pages that result in File Not Found errors. Keeping your site free of broken links is one of the most important and significant tasks you have as a web developer. Broken links send strong negative messages: that the site is not up-to-date; that the accuracy of content on the site is questionable; that the site's developers and maintainers don't particularly care about their visitors' browsing experience.

The broken links report, and the similar broken anchor links report, are extremely useful in finding and correcting errors on your site, and so should be monitored carefully each month.

The broken links report is divided into two parts: links that point to sites within www.bu.edu, and links that point to sites off www.bu.edu. Each entry in each report lists the page where the broken links occur, followed by a list of the broken links on that page.

The broken anchor links report follows the same format, but includes only sites within www.bu.edu. Each broken anchor is listed, along with a list of files containing one or more links to that anchor.

Broken links on www.bu.edu

You can correct links that point to pages within your site yourself. Note that frequently several of the links are to the same missing file or incorrect URL--make sure you to correct all of them.

Broken links on other sites

To fix broken links that point to sites off www.bu.edu, first check to see if the file has been renamed or moved (you may need to contact the site's webmaster to find out). However, if the file has been removed you will have to remove your link as well.