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A broken link is a link on a web page that points to something that doesn't exist. This can be caused by an error in the link; or by the removal of (or failure to upload) the object it points to.

How much do broken links matter? One broken link on a large site may not seem to matter all that much; but it matters to the person who clicks on it! Left unmanaged, though, broken links will multiply over time and can significantly degrade the quality of the site.

Broken links = lost business

In the long run, broken links result in lost business, because they have several negative effects on the site.

• Lost Page Rank. A link is the means by which one page donates page rank to another. If a link points to the wrong place, the intended destination page won't inherit any page rank from the page the link is on.


• Search engine penalty. A page containing a broken link may have its page rank reduced. A site with a lot of broken links may be downgraded by the search engines as being of poor quality.


• Lost listings. If a link is faulty, search engines will be unable to follow it to the next page. This may result in the search engine not updating its index for that page, or worse, not listing the page at all.


• Lost visitors. Search engines are the number one source of new visitors to web sites. Anything that damages your profile on the search engines will reduce the number of new visitors you attract.


• Lost customers. Visitors to your site who click on a broken link will be redirected to your error page, if you have one. If not, they will just get a 404 'Page not found' error. Most of them won't waste time hunting around your site for the thing they wanted. They will go and look elsewhere.

Dealing with broken links is quite easy. You can either download and run a software link checker like Xenu's Link Sleuth (http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html), which is free and widely used; or you can use an online service that does the same job – such as the one provided by Webmaster Toolkit (www.webmaster-toolkit.com/link-checker.shtml),, which can also check for missing images.

If you've never done it, you may be surprised at how many broken links your site has, and it may take a while to work through and fix them all. Done regularly, though, it is not an onerous task; and will improve both the quality of your site for visitors, and its search engine performance.

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Your online brand is under threat from people who want to use your hard-earned brand equity for their own profit - or just want to cause trouble. But with some simple precautions, you can eliminate 95% of the risk. The other 5% probably isn't worth worrying about.

1. Trademark your brand
Trademarking your brand protects your legal ownership. The biggest name on the internet, In the UK, trademarked terms are protected online under law, and the law has teeth. The biggest company on the internet, Google, was unable to use its 'Gmail' brand in the UK because someone else already owned the name here. So if you haven't already done so, do trademark your brand.

2. Brand your domain
Your www. address should ideally be the same as your brand name. If that domain is taken, choose another that contains your brand name. Purchase relevant 'top level’'domains, such as .com, .co.uk, and .eu, to prevent 'cybersquatting' - their use or abuse by someone else.

When PricewaterhouseCoopers rebranded themselves Monday a few years ago, they only bought the domain introducingmonday.com. For years, introducingmonday.co.uk displayed a photocopy of a hand performing a rude gesture, and proclaimed 'We’ve got your name!' Don't fall into the same trap. On the other hand, don't be conned into purchasing loads of obscure domains that you don't really need.

3. Lock your domain
'Locking' your domain with your domain registrar prevents unauthorised transfer requests. Otherwise, someone else may gain temporary control of your domain by persuading your registrar that you have left the company and they have taken over.

4. Block the hackers
Being hacked can harm your business and damage your reputation. If hackers gain access they may deface or replace your home page, or delete files on your site - which could include your latest batch of orders.

Make sure your web server is always up to date with the latest security patches. Use secure passwords that are not in any dictionary; make them hard to guess, and don't write them down. If any staff leave who know your passwords, change them. And use a secure ecommerce package for ordering, so that credit card details are encrypted. Then if your site is hacked, your customers will still be secure.

5. Stake your slaim
Claim your brand, and demonstrate your intention to protect it. Include your brand name and logo on every web page and in every downloadable document, and use the TM or ® logo where appropriate.

6. Protect your copyright
Put a copyright notice on every site page, and every downloadable document. Search Google for unique phrases used on your site, to see if anyone has copied them. Unless they are partners or resellers, contact them with instructions to remove the content. If they refuse, get a solicitor to write a legal 'cease and desist' instruction.

One online vendor copied images wholesale from The Gentleman's Shop (www.gentlemans-shop.com). When challenged, he insisted they were his own. Site owner Robert Johnston pointed out that the image sizes and names were the same as his own originals. "The show stopper," Robert explains, "was that some images had our garden as a backdrop!" Faced with the evidence, the offender removed the images.

7. Monitor search advertising
Your competitors may pay search engines to display their own advertisement to everyone who searches for you by name. This can be confusing for customers, as John Sollars of Stinkyink (www.stinkyink.com) discovered. "At one time, if you typed 'Stinkyink' into Google, an advert for one of our competitors appeared at the top", he recalls. "We had customers phoning up asking where their order was, when they had ordered from the competitor."

In the UK you can prevent advertising against your registered trademark, and Google, Yahoo! and MSN have procedures for dealing with infringements.

8. Top the rankings for your brand
Unless there are bigger organisations using the same name in different markets, you should be able to come our top in search engines listings for your own brand. Optimise your home page for your brand name. Use it at least 3-4 times in the text of the page. Include it in the page title, meta description and meta keywords tags, and in text links pointing from other pages to the home page. And make sure

Protecting your brand is important to building your reputation and maintaining trust. So don't let the pressure to win more customers and make more sales push it right off the agenda. Give it the priority it deserves.

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