This document answers some common issues regarding broken links found by the Monsido scan.
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Links are marked as broken when they are not
There are several possible reasons for links to be flagged as broken or with errors when they are actually not:
The target server was down at the time of the scan.
A re-scan normally fixes the problem. Ignore the link to stop checking this link permanently, or Mark as Fixed if it is a temporary known issue.
The target server might be set to block site scanners and spiders like the Monsido Bot.
Sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and others might block scanners that make many requests to their site. Monsido scans thousands of websites every day and makes many requests to these websites. In most cases, you can safely ignore the link if you know that it is correct.
The target server has an invalid HTTPS certificate.
An invalid certificate causes the link to be marked as dead. Get in touch with the manager of the website and ask them to fix their certificate, or ignore the link if this is impossible.
The link points to a login page.
The link points to a page that requires a login. Such pages are often tagged as 'dead'. Ignore the link to stop checking this link permanently, or Mark as Fixed if it is a temporary (for example, in an unpublished state) known issue.
The same broken link appears in duplicate because of caps in the URL
If the scan flags many duplicate pages where the URLs are only different because of capitalized words within the URL, there is an option turn this off in the scan setup.
Important! In the OFF position, the Monsido scan sees all URLs as lowercase - no matter how they are actually written in the target website. Turn OFF only in rare cases where the target website does not recognize caps and reads all links in lowercase, which results in duplicates in the flagged scan issues. This is an advanced configuration that should normally be left to the default setting.
From the Monsido Domain Overview (Globe icon) click Settings (the gear icon) at the top of the page. The Admin Settings page opens.
Note: The Settings button is only available to site admins.
On the Admin settings page, click Action on the same row as a domain. A drop-down list expands.
Select Edit Domain. The Edit Domain page opens.
Case sensitive URLs: Toggle the switch OFF to instruct the scan to ignore capitalization within links, or ON to instruct the scan to make URL links case-sensitive.
Example OFF: http://monsido.com/Foo/Bar is seen as the same link as http://monsido.com/foo/bar.
Example ON: The same links above will register as two different links.
Important! In the OFF position, the Monsido scan sees all URLs as lowercase - no matter how they are actually written in the target website. Turn OFF only in rare cases where the target website does not recognize caps and reads all links in lowercase, which results in duplicates in the flagged scan issues. This is an advanced configuration that should normally be left to the default setting.
How to mark 403 errors as broken links
Links on pages that return error 403 (forbidden errors) can be classified as broken with this option in Settings.
From the Monsido Domain Overview (Globe icon) click Settings (the gear icon) at the top of the page. The Admin Settings page opens.
Note: The Settings button is only available to site admins.
On the Admin settings page, click Action on the same row as a domain. A drop-down list expands.
Select Edit Domain. The Edit Domain page opens.
Mark 403 as broken link: In the Crawl Options section, toggle the Mark 403 as broken link switch ON. This causes the scan to flag any link that returns this error with the status Broken Link. The changes come into affect once a new domain scan has been completed.
How to reduce the number of 403 errors
Some sites that use shopping features may generate a great many 403 errors. One thing to try is to change the crawl speed from "normal" to "slow". This should resolve this issue and only flag links that are actually broken.
How to instruct the scan to ignore canonical URLs
A canonical URL is the URL of the page that Google determines is most representative, taken from a set of duplicate pages on the website.
From the Monsido Domain Overview (Globe icon) click Settings (the gear icon) at the top of the page. The Admin Settings page opens.
Note: The Settings button is only available to site admins.
On the Admin settings page, click Action on the same row as a domain. A drop-down list expands.
Select Edit Domain. The Edit Domain page opens.
Ignore canonical URLs: In the Crawl Options section, toggle the Ignore canonical URLs switch ON. This causes the scan disregard canonical URLs.
Additional Resources
For more information about Quality Assurance, see the following articles:
For definitions and explanations of acronyms and abbreviations used in the Monsido User Guide, see:
For further assistance, contact the Monsido support team at support@monsido.com or use the Monsido chat and help features inside the application.