Bad Links

You know, this is a subject that really has been simmering on the back burner of my mind for quite some time. However, within the past couple of days, it has boiled over.

Now, I know, as a webmaster, that it can sometimes be a challenge to review web sites and check for bad links, especially if you have a resources type of site with a million links in it. Nevertheless, the one link that should never be bad is your contact link. Whether it be a mailto: link, or a URL to a contact form, the link should be kept current and functional. Otherwise, what is the point in having it there at all?

You see... I have recently been attempting to contact site owners, to discuss the promotion of my new book. I have spent quite a bit of time, writing to these site owners, using the contact links on their sites, and have had at least 30% of them bounce due to 'user account unknown'.

Talk about frustrating!

I wonder if these people realize what a negative impact this could be, probably is, having on them? They could have awesome amounts of traffic targeted to their sites, but how many new customers, clients, or associates will actually be generated if they [webmasters] cannot be contacted be these people? This also erases a multitude of opportunities for repeat visitors and referrals.

Being that I was attempting to contact some government sponsored organizations, I noticed that it is not just the business sector that has this problem. In fact, 50% of the .gov mailto: links bounced. Can you believe it!

I don't return to web sites where the contact links don't work. I leave them feeling like I've wasted my time. If they don't have the time to make sure the link works, why would they have the time to respond to me?

It is a little ironic, but it seems to happen to me quite a bit... I have tried to report broken links on a site, just to get to an error page when I click the contact link, or report a broken link link.

Here's a tip for you webmasters/site owners:

NEVER USE AN AOL mailto:link on your site. Do not use AOL for business purposes. If you do, you may be losing a great many contacts. Set up an email box on your domain and use it for contact. That way, you are in control of what gets filtered.

Web site link maintenance is really very important. At least, it should be.

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