Using Xenu Link Sleuth to Spot and Improve External Links in a Domain - External Link Analysis
(Page 4 of 4 )
Note that there are some external links reported that are not real external links. Here are some things to be aware of:
- Ignore those external links whose URLs include a .js extension. These links are JavaScripts, and Google will not crawl links in JavaScript. Common examples of this are Google Ads and analytics scripts, but these can still be picked up by Xenu.
- Also ignore those external links whose reported URL contains a mailto:
- Also ignore any links starting with file://.
To ignore, simple delete the rows of the affected external link URLs. Another very important thing is to accept only those links in standard href syntax:
<a href="http://www.somewebsite.com">Anchor text</a>
Focus only on this type, because it is the one that will be indexed by search engines.
To confirm, go the source code of where these external links are found in your domain, according to the Xenu report. And check to see if it is using the correct hyperlink HTML syntax.
Finally, once all of these links are filtered, you can now judge their quality and relevance. How?
Judge the quality of external links in terms of:
- Usefulness of the link to your visitors- If the link appears to be extremely useful to your visitors, let search engines crawl it. These links are typically valued and will help your rankings. Examples of this kind of link are the ones that support your existing content and are highly related to your website.
- The integrity of the domain- Do not link to websites that appear to be banned and penalized by search engines. To check this, see if they are ranking well for their targeted terms and if their site is indexed by Google. If not, it is likely that they are not a trusted domain.
- The relevance and expertise of the domain in your selected niche- Always link to expert websites. For example, if your web site's goal involves releasing updated news and doing some editorial comments/ opinions, CNN.com or BBC.co.uk are your expert sites.
What if your external links fail on the above criteria? Put a rel=nofollow attribute on the link, on all of the pages that it can be found, as reported by Xenu.
Or you can remove that link, if it is dead or really does not support your website content and functionality.
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
/ 5 
