Keeping the Web garden weeded: managing the elusive URL

Volume 8, Number 4 • April 2000

Keeping the Web garden weeded: managing the elusive URL
by Wallace Koehler

Focuses on ways to manage Web sites. Notes that research suggests a two-year life for Web pages, with somewhat longer periods for Web sites. Identifies two general types of Web pages used by searchers: navigation pages that guide or point to content, and content pages for the fruit of the search. Relates that navigation pages last longer, but change more often than content pages. Describes the five models for dead URL maintenance as do nothing, manual spot checking and response, periodic sweep and elimination, periodic sweep and transfer, and periodic sweep and mark. Provides suggestions for screening for broken links, names software programs for analyzing links, and offers ideas for identifying error messages. Concludes that everyone who creates and maintains a Web resource site has an ethical obligation to maintain the integrity of the site.