Understanding the Xenu link error messages
Standard error message format
The standard error reports from the webmaster contain one or more blocks of information. A block lists the page on which the error is found, followed by the link that failed. There may be more than one bad link on a page; if so, they are listed together in the block. e.g.
In the above example, the two errors occurred on page http://www.cpha.ca/fr/portals/hiv/article05.aspx.
The bad links are:
- http://www.criss.org/pdf/vol19no1.pdf
- http://www.rccq.org/fr/index.html
You will have to go to the page with the bad links, http://www.cpha.ca/fr/portals/hiv/article05.aspx, and look for them. Hover over links on the page, and observe the actual address in the browser’s status bar until you locate it.
In rare cases, a link may not be visible. This is most common when a link has not not been completely removed from a page. e.g. by deleting all the text that formed the link, but not instructing the site’s editor to actually remove the link. See the webmaster to locate and remove these.
See the webmaster if you encounter an error not listed here.
Pages not visible to the public
In the event that there is a link to a page that does not have Viewing Permissions set to Everyone, the link will fail. The link checker, however, will be told by the site that this is a login error! You will see something like: http://www.cpha.ca/cms/errors.aspx?aspxerrorpath=/en/members/login.aspx. You may need to consult the webmaster to help locate the reference to the locked page.Common error codes that accompany the bad links
87 (parameter incorrect)
This usually implies an incorrect URL type, specified by the start of the address. e.g. http:/// instead of http://.300 (ambiguous)
The address is for a page or resource that cannot be uniquely defined. This implies really that you have the correct root, but the complete path is not correct.301 (object permanently moved)
Probably they have rebuilt part or all of their website, and the item is no longer at this address. It may exist elsewhere on the site; remove everything after the root, and you will probably see the site’s home page. E.g. in the second example above, try http://www.rccq.org/.400 (no object data)
This link no longer works. It may exist elsewhere on the site; remove everything after the root, and you will probably see the site’s home page. E.g. in the second example above, try http://www.rccq.org/.401 (auth required)
This link requires a login to access. The webmaster, when running the link checks, cancelled the request to see this page or asset. If she doesn’t know the user name and password, then others won’t either, and this item should not normally appear on a publicly-available website.403 (forbidden request)
Click on the bad link. If it works, ignore the error message. It means merely that the link can be accessed in normal browsing, but cannot be accessed by a program that spiders a site.Or, the site may truly be restricted (like share.cpha.ca is restricted to us). If so, we aren’t interested in linking to it, surely.
Occasionally, a website will designate it’s ‘page not found’ page to be forbidden, in which case this error is misleading, and error 404 would have been more appropriate.