Just a quick blog to remind everyone to CHECK YOUR OWN LINKS from your website. I would also recommend doing it from another computer than your own, as sometimes there can be an issue that only comes up from other computers (your computer recognizes when it's you that's online and will be more accommodating).
Today I was adding a BLOG, and being thorough, I clicked on all the links once it was up, just to be sure. Wouldn't you know it, I found a link that wasn't working, on MY SITE! What's going on? I delved into the mystery only to find that there were indeed a series of dead links from one of my sites. This had happened before, and I had a pretty good idea of what was going on. We have a feature called WEBSEARCH which allows consumers to search the Maui MLS, see New Listings, etc. It's a great feature, but sometimes it can be abused. If another website tries to use the information to put the search option on their own site, it will "shut down" the feature, thereby causing a dead link on MY site. Was I upset? YES. Apparently somebody with a Lake Tahoe website had wanted to link to a Maui condo that his friend was selling, via my links. Thanks for contacting me and asking my permission!
Since this was not the first time, I knew exactly who to contact to remedy the situation. All is well now. But I want to remind you all to be alert and check your own links from time to time, so your website won't experience these difficulties. Dead links can be a death sentence for a website, so pay attention. Dead links will mess up your SEO.
Thanks for listening to my rant! And thanks to Imagechef.com for the graphic.
Aloha - the Hunter - your Maui Realtor
Georgina...thanks for posting this (two reasons). It is important information and it also reminded me that I wanted to subscribe (now that I know how to do it) as I've already discovered how helpful your posts are. I don't always understand everything but at least it sometimes makes me curious enough to ask my websmaster questions.
Thanks and please keep it up.
Kathleen
Your right.. dead links have been known to bankrupt businesses. Hopefully yours didn't suffer!
Schedule your links for a check up often... more often than you go to the doctor yourself!
Brian - never assume anything
Kathleen - thanks for subscribing! I hope to meet your expectations.
Rob - Every 6 months! I hope you'll do it more often than that, if you want to get inquiries from your site.
thanks for the comments!
This is very important, thanks for the reminder. I just used this website to check my links, works good!
http://www.anybrowser.com/linkchecker.html
Georgina,
I just stopped by to say "Thank You" so very much for taking the time to make my friend John Hurbon welcome to the Active Rain community. Now I have to go check my links!
Mike in Tucson
Right on, Georgina. Links should be checked on a regular basis.
Elaine - thanks for the tip!
Jo - you're welcome
Mike J. - always nice to welcome a newbie
Gita - thanks to you to
Sally - you will be busy checking all you past posts!
Lisa - I know how that is... so much to do, so little time
Kay - at least once a month would probably be good
Richard - you are welcome too
Dora - persistance pays off
I actually pay different clients of mine twice a year to go through my website and I pay them an additional $5 for each link they find that isn't working.
Well worth the money to me,
Georgina thank you for bringing this to my attention. I didn't realize links die(lol).
Todd - I like that idea! A good bargain at twice the price.
Dionne - nobody likes stale links!
Merry Christmas - Happy Holidays