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Xenu's Link Sleuth is a software tool which checks your website for two kinds of problems:

1) Links that don't work (also known as 'broken links').

2) Images that do not work (also known as 'broken images'.

The trouble with making webpages is that it's damned complicated business. If you think about all the links that even an average sized site has, all the images, AND then times that by the number of pages it has, that's a lot of room for human error. And sure enough 99% of the time I run this tool on my pages, I find some annoying little problem I've overlooked.


Some typical Xenu uses:


- Checking your own links & images when you make a TGP gallery or site.
- Checking large site map type pages before submitting to the search engines.
- Checking your own link list / TGP to see if any sites are redirecting.

Xenu checks both internal links (eg. from index.html to main.html) and external links (eg. from index.html to your sponsor's paysite tour).


A fast and dirty check


As with most software tools Xenu does a few extra things which we probably won't ever need. With a bit of practice, I found a really fast way to use this tool to check my images and broken links. We're going to look at a shortcut through the tool to check links and images in the most direct way.

First of all install the software and start it up.

You'll now be faced with a large gray screen that looks a bit like this:



There's not much happening yet but that's all about to change.

Now look for the little button in the top left of the screen. This one:



Click on this button.

This is the only button or item you'll need to click on this screen. The rest is really extra things that are not necessary to check your pages.

You'll not get this window popping up:



There are three areas on this window which will be useful. I've numbered them on the screenshot.

Ignore the area that I've colored in blue - we won't need to do anything here. Now let's run through the main three areas here:

1: This is a URL window which is very similar to Internet explorer's URL box. You can type in any URL here. But I don't recommend you do that. It's much better if you copy and paste a URL into this window. The reason for this is that every URL you put in here will be saved into this drop down box for future use. Always type the URL you want to check in your browser so you know it's the right one.

MORE... But you don't have to check your page online at all. You can also check the page on your hard disk. I really recommend that you check the page online however. That way the page can be checked in it's final uploaded version. The process is different to say an HTML validation which will work perfectly well offline. With Xenu, always check your pages after they've been uploaded.

2: If this box is not checked, make sure it is checked now. You'll only need to do this once and it's important if the software is going to run correctly.

3: The Browse button will open the page from your hard disk. This is if you want to check the page offline. As I mentioned, it's much better to check it online.

We're nearly ready to do some checking, but first there's one setting we need to check in Xenu's options. Click on the more options button from the window that's on screen. Then look for the bit that says "treat redirections as errors" and check the box next to it like this:



OK that screen and return to the previous window. We're all set up and you will only have to do this once.

I've made a page for the purpose of this tutorial which has some links on it. Some of them are broken. Copy and paste this link into the URL box in Xenu:

http://www.topniche.com/newbie-booster/resources/tutorials/xenu/example.html

And press the OK button at the very bottom.

The software now goes into a new mode and begins checking the links. Xenu does the same job that someone would do if they were to check every link on your page for you, except it does the job faster and with 100% accuracy. Give it a moment and wait until the box pops up that looks like this:



You might think that it's best to click YES at this point - but don't. Click the 'No' button and the window will disappear. Now you'll see a list of URLs and lots of information about what happened during the check.

The report that we chose NOT to view is actually not as good as this simple color-coded 'mini report'. It has a lot of info in there that's just not needed for a simple check. Use the simple report we have on screen now to root out any problems with your links and images.

The important thing to remember here is that RED means that there was a problem with an image or link and GREEN means that everything was OK.


What to do when you find a broken link.


When you find something that's in red, it's time to investigate. The first step should be to go to the page you just ran a check on and click the link yourself. If it's a broken image, check and find out why it's not working. Xenu doesn't take away the need to check your links carefully and make sure you know why something is not working. It's essential you follow up on every RED problem and fix it. When you have done that RUN the checker again.

Now try this exercise on one of your own pages.

Remember that the URL will be stored in the drop down menu this time. OR you might want to just paste it back in there.


Mac Alternatives


If you've got a Mac, don't despair. You might want to try this tool:

All Link Checker 2.0

... which does a similar job.

Hope you enjoy using Xenu's Link Sleuth

TOM ^"^

ICQ 12616560
Email tom@tomsnewbiebooster.com

Enter TOM'S NEWBIE BOOSTER

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