That can be a bad thing, particularly if you are trying to sell goods or just reach customers online. From a commerce point of view, a bad link can make a person or a customer disappear off your site. ParaSoft, founded in 1987, started as a small shop specializing in error detection and prevention in Unix systems. With the advent of the Web, the company two years ago turned to Web auditing tools. The Web audit, using SiteRuler, looked at link errors, which are navigational errors such as a missing page or a bad URL, and HTML errors, such as incorrect layout and browser incompatibility, that can force a Web page to be viewed incorrectly.
Some industries fare better than others.
Automakers and pharmaceutical and financial companies were among the worst in the average number of link errors, topping out at a whopping 0.65 per page. Mail and freight delivery companies did the best. They had no link errors. General merchandisers and computer and office supply companies were the worst for HTML coding errors. Inc. All rights reserved.