The Young Copy Blog

Xenu Link Sleuth Saves Time

Filed under broken links, link checker, technical writing consultants, Technical Writing Services on February 21st, 2008

What’s Xenu Link Sleuth you ask? Xenu is a link checker. It’s free, easy to use, and provides a nice report on broken links found on your website. As a contract technical writer, I use it every time I update content or technical documentation, be it on the Young Copy site or on a client’s site. Actually, all our technical writing services utilize Xenu Link Sleuth. So why should you check for broken links on your site?

1. It looks bad if you have broken links throughout your site. If your goal is to look unprofessional, go ahead, keep the broken links.

2. Search engine spiders (Google, MSN, Yahoo, and others) can’t search your site thoroughly if you have broken links.

3. Your visitors can’t find information they need if you have broken links.

You will be surprised at how many times Xenu finds a broken link even though you “thought” you covered them all. Take the extra 30 seconds to open Xenu, insert your site’s web address, and click the “go” button.

Visit the Xenu Link Sleuth free link checker website at http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html. Don’t let the alien creatures scare you off. They quickly become your friends. Who knew alien technology would benefit humankind?

Don’t forget to watch the video explaining how to use Xenu Link Sleuth in the download section. Xenu makes testing for broken links faster, more efficient, and fun. The link checker is an invaluable tool for professional technical writing consultants. Plus the aliens are cool.