Sep 06, 2011 Prevent Link Rot By Being Savvy
Some of you may be unaware of what 'link rot' is or how much of a problem it can turn out to be in the long run for everyone on the web. Below, is the definition by Wikipedia.
Link rot (or linkrot), also known as link death or link breaking is an informal term for the process by which, either on individual websites or the Internet in general, increasing numbers of links point to web pages, servers or other resources that have become permanently unavailable. The phrase also describes the effects of failing to update out-of-date web pages that clutter search engine results. source: Wikipedia
So as you see it has a lot to do with web developers not putting proper 301 redirects to new or moved pages. This commonly becomes a problem when a site gets a new design. A lot of times a new design also accompanies a new structure of the link architecture.
I've put some examples of how to do a SEO friendly 301 redirect via 2 methods.
.htaccess (preferred)
Redirect 301 /old-page.php http://your-domain.com/new-page.php
Or putting a redirect in a php file
header('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
header('Location: http://your-domain.com/new-page');
Now even if you do this and you're fully aware what you need to do to prevent 404's there's another problem with link rot, URL shortners. Well what happens when that url shortner you're using to display all those links on your Twitter or Facebook accounts decides it can't keep it's doors open anymore and has to shut down. That leaves hundreds of thousands or even millions of links dead on the internet. That's what has happened to a few of these services. One in particular, Tr.im, had to close the doors after it had a hard time generating enough revenue to cover ongoing hosting and maintenance costs.
If you're concerned about longevity I would suggest using Google's url shortner service, goo.gl. It has some nice features including an API, graphs, clicks, date it was created, QR codes for every link, and more. Having it linked with your Google account is very helpful too.
Here's an additional resource that can give you more options on 301 redirects: http://www.webweaver.nu/html-tips/web-redirection.shtml
Also, in spreading awareness of link rot (and because I was feeling inspired to do so) I have made a wallpaper for download. The wallpaper size is 1280px x 800px.
Share your thoughts on this article, and what you thought of the wallpaper.
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