Link Alarm Review

Just as important as getting those links pointing to your website is making sure that your reciprocal links point somewhere. So much emphasis is put on getting the links, that you can easily forget about maintaining your outbound links. We have to admit, that we do not check our links as much as we should.

This months review is an encouragement (to regularly check your links) as much as it is a summary of two of the current paid link checking services. If you search the Web, you will find tons of free on-line link checking services, link checkers you can install on your website, and of course numerous paid services. In the space allotted here, we could not go into them all. The main advantage of the paid services over the free on-line ones, is that you can set a schedule on when the links are checked and then forget about it. The two we have chosen, LinkAlarm and LinkGuard, represent two of the better services that we have found.

LinkAlarm:

LinkAlarm will check the links on every page of your site, from your visitor's perspective. This is important since it is your visitors that largely determine your success. You have the flexibility to schedule you link checking either daily, weekly, or monthly. Once a scheduled check is done, you will receive an email message that the report is ready, which you can access on-line or download.

Now LinkAlarm does not fix the broken links, it is a validation service, so it informs you that a certain link is no longer good. It is up to you to follow-up and check into any link LinkAlarm reports as bad. LinkAlarm service has been great and their website is very easy to follow and to find the information you need. Plus they have a nice resource section to help you with almost any website issue.

Comprehensive is what we would call LinkAlarm. Their scheduled service will check: framed site, pages with tables, dynamically driven pages, SSI, ASP pages, forms, files, pdf, images, you name it!

Finally, LinkAlarm's price is just 1 cent (US) per page! To use their service, you must be a member. Joining is easy and after you join, you can order the service or you can use their trial membership and order later.

Why not try it, we have and have decided to use LinkAlarm to check this website monthly for broken links. We know you will not be disappointed.

LinkAlarm has partnered with Linking101 to offer Link Script customers a special introductory offer on LinkAlarm. Checking your website links has just become easier!
See our Link Script page for more details.

Link Guard:

LinkGuard is another company, which provides a link checking service. They offer two plans: the FREE "Classic" plan and the "Classic Pro" plan which is about $50/year. The free service will check the links on your site, but it is the Pro plan which will also check Javascript, SSL, and allow you to schedule checks. The pro plan does not appear to carry as much as the LinkAlarm plan but the technology behind LinkGuard is intriguing.

LinkGuard possibly is offering the first true map of the World Wide Web. Their patented LinkMap provides a "method of building and dynamically maintaining an extensive, accurate, up-to-date road map of the whole Web." They will scan the entire Web once every ten days to update the map of links. For the most appropriate explanation the service and technology, we recommend that you go to LinkGuard directly and check it out.

Their technology, known as "Intelligent Link Management" will monitor, protect and repair your internal and outbound links. Your website will be monitored and whenever you restructure your site, these changes will be sent to LinkGuard and analyzed. Any potential impact it might have on "upstream sites" will be noted and the webmasters will be notified. By mapping and continually analyzing broken links will never have a chance to happen.

LinkGuard is very interesting but this "Intelligent Link Management" really seems to be something for the really big websites, but if you want free occasional link-checking, on static websites, LinkGuard is a nice option.

In conclusion, if you chose one of these services or one of the free on-line ones, check your links regularly!

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