It takes a while to learn how to use Xenu's Link Sleuth, and it can be daunting to understand the reports, but if you stick with it, you'll come to appreciate the excellent job it does. Xenu's Link Sleuth was reviewed by Gizmos Freeware on 2017-04-03 based on version 1.3.8.
With the proliferation of World Wide Web’s records and URLs, the ongoing checking and validation of URLs of the websites is an essential and potentially time-consuming task. However, assistance is at hand.
There are a number of models that can be used to regularly check the validity of URLs of websites. One method would be to work from a list of websites and check each one individually. This may be suitable if you are managing a single website but what if you had 200, 500, 1000 or more websites as is the case with many large enterprise and Fortune 500 businesses? The enormity of the task begins to sink in, particularly as it should be done on a regular basis like other ‘housekeeping’ tasks such as authority control.
Over the years, software developers and programmers have developed URL checking software to automate this task as much as possible. This enables time saved to be spent investigating and repairing broken links. One such package covered in more detail below is Xenu’s Link Sleuth™ and is available free of charge from their website.
What does Xenu do?
Xenu Link For Mac Catalina
Xenu’s Link Sleuth™ is a spidering software that checks websites for broken links including standard URLs, images, frames, plug-ins, local image maps, scripts and Java applets. The list of URLs is continually updated and a number of different criteria can be set if required. The software supports SSL websites (i.e. those commencing with https://) and reports on redirected URLs.
Xenu System requirements
- My only issue seems to be with performance. After 50k links, the program starts to get really laggy. I'm using a quad-core i7 mac with 8 gigs of RAM and the app isn't able to completely scan most of the sites I need it to. Granted, Xenu generally craps out after 500k links, so it's not an issue unique to this app. It just seems to happen earlier.
- Is Xenu's Link Sleuth™ better than Net Mechanic? Years ago, Net Mechanic was a free WWW based service, and was useful to check very small web sites. It is no longer free. The free trial is too small, and reports about all links, instead just the broken ones. Can I support the author financially?
In order to run Xenu’s Link Sleuth™ you will need Microsoft Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista or 7. Unfortunately, it will not operate in a Windows 3.1 or Macintosh system and is not supported with a mobile app at the moment. However, I have been told that it runs flawlessly under Fedora 13, Red Hat 8, Ubuntu and OS X via wine or WineBottler, and under Crossover on a Mac
Getting into a routine
At Fuze, we check our clients links on a monthly basis as part of our ongoing technical strategy. We include everything from standard URLs to PDFs and images as it is imperative that these are all rendering correctly. By leveraging Xenu’s Link Sleuth™ we are able to identify and correct any broken links. We consistently find the software extremely functional to use.
Further information
You can download the current version of the software 1.1f from the home page of Xenu’s Link Sleuth™ at http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html.
They may seem like hindsight, or a little problem you can brush aside, yet don’t be fooled by the potency of broken links. A single dead link can mislead and frustrate customers, show that you’ve been out-of-touch and sloppy with your website maintenance, and it can even potentially push you down in search engine ranks. This isn’t just a small issue – according to Entrepreneur.com, “link rot” has been described as an actual web epidemic.
Remember – no matter how hard it is to get a website running perfectly, that sort of smooth experience is what web users expect as normal. Anything hindering that sort of experience – even a sensible issue like a broken link – can carry dire consequence for you and your company.
Utilizing the Best Tools
Combat your broken links today in the most sensible way – by utilizing a fast and reliable tool, rather than manually combing through your website and the Internet in search of years-old dead and broken links. We’re here to offer you a few alternatives you can use to get started in picking up the pieces:
- Xenu’s Link Sleuth – A Windows-only tool, Xenu’s Link Sleuth provides a wide array of uses from finding duplicate content to checking page depth, but our main interest in it is its comprehensive ability to scan for and find all broken links.
- Google Webmaster Tools–A straight-from-the-source kind of tool, Google Webmasters Tools gives you an overview of what Google thinks of your website, and where you should improve it – specifically in crawl errors, which are broken links that force crawlers to move onto another domain.
- Screaming Frog–For Windows and Mac, Screaming Frog crawls websites and finds out more than Xenu’s Link Sleuth, at a premium price.
- Link Checker–A little less user-friendly than the other options, but more powerful under-the-hood – perfect for users who want a more comprehensive look at their links while running a command line interface.
- W3C Link Checker–A simple link-checking tool, W3C’s Link Checker can be downloaded or run from a browser.
Broken Links are a Result of Negligence
As per Computer Hope, a broken link is a link that points to a page that no longer exists. In most cases, websites present viewers of a broken link with a 404 error code, presented within a custom page of some kind.
Xenu Link For Mac Shortcut
Usually, the most common reason is moving a webpage without modifying all the links leading to it, thus having older links within your web content that prompts users to find your error 404 message instead of your updated page.
Why Broken Links are Important
Aside from user frustration or complaints, a broken link can actually damage your SEO. Although search engines like Google have explicitly stated that a few broken links won’t hurt you, according to SiteImprove.com, what they can do is force search engine algorithms to stop short and move onto the next site.
That’s right. Search engine optimization is all about creating a website that makes it easy for search engine crawlers to index and rank it. If a crawler encounters a broken link, it ignores the rest of the page – which is detrimental to you and your ranking. You’ll need the help of an affordable website SEO company like SeoTuners to take control of the situation if your site’s broken links are particularly troublesome.