[Eril-l] policies for fixing broken links

[Babi Hammond]

Is anyone on this list aware of policies regarding fixing broken links in
authored content on their websites? State library staff publish blog posts
with bylines. As these are articles written by specific people, I have
qualms about a website administrator--me!--altering the content when fixing
broken links. Especially since most broken links are "fixed" or removed
without any mention of the edit being left in the text. How does your
library handle such situations?

Generally, my policy has been to fix broken links, without any mention of
the edit, that have an obvious intended target, such as when a state agency
website changes its urls, but the intended page or document can still be
found.

For links to past events, like online conferences or Zoom meetings, I just
remove the hyperlink (leaving the text alone).

For links that have no obvious live replacement, I will try to use instead
a link to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, like
https://web.archive.org/web/20131014212210/https://stackoverflow.com/.

Finally, if there is no obvious live replacement, and no Wayback version
available, I will remove the hyperlink. I have in some instances left a
note in the text saying something like "[broken link removed 11/28/20]",
but I have not been consistent about this. Also, though I have preserved
the text of the link, I have not preserved the actual URL that was linked
to. So clearly the content loses some important information while being
fixed.

Leaving broken links in content is certainly an option, but I don't like
to, as I think it signals to users that the site is poorly maintained, and
broken links can negatively impact SEO (or so I'm told).

If anyone would like to share their thoughts, and any policies their
organization has, about this, please contact me.

Thank you!

Babi Hammond
Digital Experience Consultant
Colorado State Library
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