Amazon Associates has a new search engine spider that checks from broken affiliate links to their site. They want to make sure you're properly pointing visitors to their site so they make money and you will to. As an added service, it also checks non-Amazon links on your site to see if they're working.
Running the report for the first time this weekend, Amazon found 16 broken links on Technology Evangelist. Fourteen of the 16 deal links identified by Amazon came from one site: Yahoo News. Here are the dead links Amazon discovered from Yahoo:
NON-AMAZON PAGES RETURNING 404 - FILE NOT FOUND
Total 404s found for www.technologyevangelist.com: 16
The following list is limited to 50.
2. 404: news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060424/ap_on_hi_te/internet_surfing_1
Source: www.technologyevangelist.com/2006/04/links_for_20060424.html
3. 404: news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060424/ap_on_hi_te/myspace_ban
Source: www.technologyevangelist.com/2006/04/links_for_20060426.html
4. 404: news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060515/ap_on_hi_te/porn_downloads
Source: www.technologyevangelist.com/2006/05/links_for_20060515.html
5. 404: news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060521/ap_on_el_ge/net_politics;_ylt= AlLA3EZnfM9eLn0NA3pFtZGyFz4D;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--
Source: www.technologyevangelist.com/2006/05/links_for_20060522.html
6. 404: news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060608/ap_on_hi_te/colleges_ipods
Source: www.technologyevangelist.com/2006/06/links_for_20060608.html
7. 404: news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060503/wr_nm/telecoms_ftc_dc_1
Source: www.technologyevangelist.com/2006/05/links_for_20060504.html
8. 404: news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060508/wr_nm/telecoms_qwest_dc_1
Source: www.technologyevangelist.com/2006/05/links_for_20060508.html
9. 404: news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060512/tc_nm/telecoms_apple_softbank_dc
Source: www.technologyevangelist.com/2006/05/links_for_20060515.html
10. 404: news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060515/wr_nm/telecoms_skype_free_dc_9
Source: www.technologyevangelist.com/2006/05/links_for_20060515.html
11. 404: news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060524/wr_nm/leisure_gambling_addiction_dc_2
Source: www.technologyevangelist.com/2006/05/links_for_20060524.html
12. 404: news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060526/wr_nm/earthlink_dc_4
Source: www.technologyevangelist.com/2006/05/links_for_20060526.html
13. 404: news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060609/wr_nm/column_pluggedin_dc
Source: www.technologyevangelist.com/2006/06/links_for_20060612.html
14. 404: news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20060526/tc_pcworld/125772
Source: www.technologyevangelist.com/2006/05/links_for_20060527.html
15. 404: news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20060614/tc_pcworld/126082
Source: www.technologyevangelist.com/2006/06/links_for_20060614.html
Why so many? Well, the first reason is because I read news on Yahoo every day, so often come across content worth linking to. But the real problem is Yahoo's tendency to expire news stories over time, killing the links.
As a blogger, am providing valuable content to readers if I refer them to perishable links? Am I better off finding other news sources to link to so my readers won't end up at Page Not Found errors when they click through from links on this site? Should I think twice about linking to Yahoo News stories in the future?
Find more on this subject
here.
