In addition to reviewing 404 error reports for your site, you can identify broken links using a link checker or validator. Many tools are available for checking Web links. Products range from commercial software to freeware. Some products can be installed on your own computer system so that you can check links before you put a page on the Web. Others operate as online services and can only check links on pages that are accessible from the Internet.
Results are available interactively or by e-mail.
Monitor the results interactively or review them after you receive e-mail notification that the analysis is complete. Results are returned by e-mail in a zip file. Formats vary, but in most cases you will receive a list of links for each page that was checked. The report will show which links produced an error. Link checkers may not validate links within scripts or non-HTTP links such as FTP or mailto links.