For all those of us who are administering large websites it can be quite a daunting task to check that all the links on a website are working. In some cases where there are over a hundred pages this task can be extremely time consuming. It is for this reason that link validators may be a useful tool. For certain authoring softwares these may be included but they do not take all links into account. On W3 there is a section for checking websites and their link checker may be of use to you.
Amongst the options for this tool are summary only, hide redirects, check linked documents and how deep and save options in a cookie.
To get this tool to work simply type in the website's URL and you'll watch as the links are checked for each page that is linked. With large files this may take a little more time but once this is finished then you may keep a summary of all the files to change.
By doing this you will make your site appear far more professional. How often have you been to a website where you find that the pages which you intended on visiting are no longer there? In using this little piece of code you will get far fewer errors and those visiting your website will leave with what they came for.
Articles by Richard Azia unless otherwise indicated.