Understanding and Using Your Broken Link Report
Author: Student Affairs IT
Original Publication Date: September 27, 2012
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About this Document
This document explains how to understand and use your monthly Broken Link
Report. It also describes how to easily research and consistently report on broken
links so they can be fixed quickly. Student Affairs’ goal is to eliminate all broken
links and progressively make our web sites more usable and accessible for all
visitors. Following these instructions will help you achieve this goal while
familiarizing you with your web site content.
What You Need to Get Started
1. This instruction document*
2. Broken Link Worksheet*
3. Broken Link Report**
* The instruction document and Broken Link Worksheet are available for download
on the SAIT web site at www.csun.edu/sait/web
** A Broken Link Report is sent to each Web Content Coordinator once a month
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Step One
Open your Broken Link Report that was e-mailed to you and scroll down to the
section labeled “Broken links, ordered by page.” See Figure 1 below. Here you will
see a list of your web site’s broken links that looks something like this:
Figure 1
The “Root web page” is the web page on your site where a broken link was found.
The “Branches” show the specific broken links on that page, along with their
associated error codes. A web page may link to other web pages, images, PDF
documents, and a variety of other assets; your Broken Link Report will probably
contain branches with a mix of different assets. Some assets you may not recognize,
and that’s ok!
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Step Two
Let’s start recording our work into the Broken Link Worksheet; see Figure 2 below.
1. Download the Broken Link Worksheet file onto your desktop
2. Open this file with Excel
3. Note the page number the “Root web page” is listed on in the Broken Link
Report. Add this to the “Broken Link Report Page” column
4. Copy the “Root web page” link from the Broken Link Report and paste it into
the “Root Page” column
5. Copy the “Branch link” and paste it into the “Broken Link / Asset” column
Figure 2
Each Root web page may have one or more broken links on it. Be sure to add a new
row for each broken link!
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Step Three
In your Broken Link Report, click a Root web page link and your browser will open
up to that web page. If you know your web page well, you may know exactly where
the broken link is. If you don’t, you may need to do a little sleuthing. Most web
browsers display links when you hover your mouse over them, so hover your mouse
over the links to find where your broken link is. See Figure 3 below:
Figure 3
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Now that you know where the broken link is, you should be able to figure out where
it needs to go based on the link text. In this case, the link text is “Terms and
Conditions for Use,” which points at an outdated policy PDF on the Administration
and Finance web site. Note the link structure of the broken link:
http://www-admn.csun.edu/vp/policies/500_itr/500_05.htm
Each slash after csun.edu represents a location - usually a directory. If you remove
characters from the end of the link, you can often find what you’re looking for. The
URL in bold above takes you to the “University Policies & Procedures Index” page.
Since the broken link on our web site said “Terms and Conditions for Use,” we
should probably look for something like that here. See Figure 4 below:
Figure 4
It looks like the policy has been updated. Click the link to see if does indeed go
where you think it’s supposed to go. In this case, it does - see Figure 5 below:
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Figure 5
Simply copy the correct link from the browser address bar (see Figure 5, above).
Another way to grab the correct link is to right click the link itself, which will open a
menu* allowing you to copy it…see Figure 6 below.
* Your web browser’s menu options may look different from this. Some browsers have
options that read “Copy Link Address” or “Copy Shortcut” or something similar.
Figure 6
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Step Four
Now that you have the correct link, let’s record it into the Broken Link Worksheet:
1. Switch back to the Broken Link Worksheet
2. Paste the link from Step Three above into the column labeled “Link Should
Point To…” in the Broken Link Worksheet
a. Is the link no longer needed? Type “Remove” in this column instead.
3. Save your progress
Rinse and repeat until you have noted corrections for all broken links.
Step Five
Submit an EBSuite ticket at techsupport.csun.edu. After logging in, be sure to
include the following details:
1. Product/Category = Other
2. In the Case Details section, enter “send to Student Affairs IT Web Dispatcher”
3. Attach your Broken Link Worksheet to the ticket by clicking the “Choose File”
button
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