Broken Link Checker research

[Craig Biles]

Good Morning Web Dev Group. At last week's meeting we discussed the Broken Link Checker and how it puts strikethrough text on broken links in your live posts. While this helps you realize it is a broken link it may not be desirable for the end user to see it. I described how you can go to the link report and mark the link as not broken if it truly isn't broken and the strikethrough will be removed. 

It was asked how frequently the plugin checks and I didn't know. Here's some answers.

• If you go to Settings>Link Checker in your dashboard you will see on the General tab how often the plugin checks. I believe 72 hours is the default and it can be changed.
• A little further down you can see an option to "Apply custom formatting to broken links". This is the feature that adds the strikethrough. You can turn it off or edit the CSS.
• Another interesting feature is under the Advanced tab. You change the amount of time the plugin waits to determine if a link is broken. 

I hope this helps you get more familiar with the plugin. Fixing broken links is crucial to good SEO and a better user experience. Let's keep all UNCG sites current and functioning well.

M. Craig Biles

University Digital Design and

Mobile Communications Developer

Information Technology Services and

University Communications Depts.

uc.uncg.edu

its.uncg.edu

mcb...@uncg.edu