[thelist] Checking Link Relevance

[Carol Stein]

Hi, Bill et al --

> Anyone on thelist had to deal with this one before? If so, how do you handle
> old links, both for validity and relevancy?

I strongly recommend a (free) program called Xenu. Not only will this check
your (optionally) internal and (optionally) external links, it also can
build you a useful structure of your links (for your site map), and is VERY
fast and powerful. I think the man who wrote it (a German, if I recall
correctly) was patenting his process, which runs multiple threads.

If a changed external link has a new title (quite likely, in the case you
cited), you'll spot that it no longer fits the story (since you'll also see
the title of your page which called it). You might need a human to run a
critical eye over the output, but at least the link checking part will be
simple. The reports it writes are easy to manipulate, too. (-8

Cheers --
Carol