Do you know how to find broken links?

Often times, web pages are dynamic. Most link scanners are not capable of submitting form information. The trick is to allow a "door" for link scanner go through to scan a dynamic section of a site. A common technique is to hard code hidden link with a query string at the bottom of the page that allows the link scanner to follow into the simulated user input. See the following code for example:

<a href="KB.aspx?KBID=Q1097707">Q1097707 - How do I turn Option Strict on by default in VB.NET?</a>

Figure: Example source code - finding broken links

It will return all the knowledge base articles in a paged format. The link scanner will click the Next Page link and eventually scan through the entire knowledge base.

Google webmaster tools and Bing webmaster centre are useful tools to monitor links.

We have a program called SSW Link Auditor to check for this rule.