Re: Experience with site check products?

>I am interested in your experience with web site checking products.
>Specific interests:
>
>1. Periodic automatic link checks to check both internal links and
>links outside the site, reporting any broken links.
>
>I see a couple of programs that run locally -- LinkLint (Perl script)
>and InfoLink (Windows app). I would guess there are also services
>that do this for you and send reports for a monthly fee.
>
>2. Periodic site quality checking -- load times and such. Examples:
>NetMechanic and Websitegarage.
>
>Any experience with any of these?
>
>
I've used Linkbot for both these purposes.  There's a 30 day eval version on 
line if you want it.

It's got a built-in scheduler, so it can run every day, week, every second 
wednesday, whatever you want.

It is fully configurable, and (great for site hosters like me) can be 
customised so my own logos and colours appear not linkbots.

The reports are:
-general stats,
-pages with broken links,
-broken links and the pages they're on,
-warnings,
-slow pages,
-old pages,
-new pages,
-very small pages,
-what's deep (meaning <configurable number defaults to 7> clicks or more 
from the home page),
-what's small (perhaps an incomplete page), orphaned files,
-an image catalogue,
-pages missing titles,
-pages with tags having missing attibutes,
-pages with meta data (or without),
-references to local files,
-a rudimentary site map

These are all configurable, so you can include or not include any of them, 
and they can be set to include or not include any urls.

I have mine set to check the sites I'm responsible for every Friday during a 
maintenance phase, and 3 times a week when there's a lot going on in a site.

The report can be presented as a file in the Linkbot program itself, or 
published as a frames based HTML file where all the links to broken pages 
and to links are live.  This makes it a cinch for maintenance people to find 
the link that needs fixing and do lots of them at a time.

I can't remember how much it cost, but for my business it's paid for itself 
in efficient site maintenance many times over.

Disclaimer:  I'm not connected with Linkbot in any way, except that I'm a 
happy user.

For the list guide:  This is not an advertisement, so don't come at me 
again.  It's a report from an experienced user to a list member asking a 
good question about site management tools.  I've tried the others and this 
one is the best I've found for the 20 or so sites I have to look after.

Cheers,
Mike Kear
AFP Web Development
Windsor, NSW, Australia
http://www.afp.zip.com.au


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