What is Links status?

"Links status" is a sub-feature under the "Analytics" section of Document360. This feature is a broken link checker that helps validate and monitor all internal, external, and media file links on the knowledge base. It allows you to fix bad/broken links to improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and enhance the reader experience.

With the following validations, you can run the link validation at a workspace and language level.

  1. Scheduled validation
  2. Manual validation
  3. Article level validation
Link validation

For manual and scheduled validation, all the links at the project level are analyzed to check for broken/unknown/working links.

Validation limits

  • Available on Professional, Business, and Enterprise plans
  • For the "Professional" plan, the links validated are 3000. To increase the links limit, please purchase an Addon where 1 unit = 5000 additional links
  • Document360 automatically validates links at seven day intervals
  • Two manual validations available in a month

Trial project

The link validation limits for a trial project are as follows

  • Scheduled validation is run every three days for the remainder of the trial period
  • Three manual validations are allowed in the trial period

Accessing Links status

  1. From the Knowledge base portal, navigate to the Analytics menu icon on the left side menu
  2. Now select the Links status on the left navigation pane
  3. You can view the Links status overview page
  4. Using the dropdown at the top of the page, you can select the project workspace and language you want to check
  5. You can find the list of all the links used in the selected workspace and the language

1_Screenshot-Links_status-Overview_page

Links status overview page

This page contains all the necessary data regarding the links used in your Knowledge base (selected workspace and language). You have two sections on the page: "Links status tiles" and "Links list."

1. Links status tiles

2_Screenshot-Links_status-Overview_page_tiles

Links classification

  • Total links – The total number of URLs and files (both internal and external) linked in the different articles on your Knowledge base

  • Internal – The total number of Internal URLs (article links and media file links within your Document360 project)

  • External – The total number of External URLs (article links and media file links outside your Document360 project)

  • Ignored - The links you want to ignore in the current validation or upcoming validation

Current state

  • Redirected - When the link has been temporarily or permanently routed to a different URL

  • Working – The link works fine and points to an intended webpage or file (Internal and External).

  • Broken – A broken or dead link is a hyperlink in the article that no longer works.; because it's encountering one or more issues like URL changes, incorrect URL, page or item removed, or restricted/private knowledge base article URL. Broken status applies to URLs and media files.

  • Unknown – The link that does not return a status

Reader's point-of-view

  • Link – When the reader clicks on a broken link, a 404-page error or similar message explaining that the webpage is unavailable is displayed.
    8_Screenshot-Links_status_404_error_page

  • Media files – In case of an image or video file, a broken image thumbnail icon would be displayed in place of it in the article.
    9_Screenshot-Links_status_Broken_media_file

2. Links list

Below, the Links status section on the links list appears. You can find the following info columns for each link.

3_Screenshot-Links_status-Overview_page_Link_list

Field Description
Article name The article name in the knowledge base containing the link
Link type Links: Internal link, External link, Secured link, Unsecured link
Media files: Internal file, and External file
URL The actual link (destination URL)
Redirect URL If the existing source path has been redirected to a new destination
Status Indicating the status of the link. Working, Broken, Redirected, or Ignored

If you have deleted an article after the validation and the report has been generated, the article is grayed out. A trash icon appears next to the article.

Pagination

You can easily navigate to the desired page. Navigating to the desired page consumes much time when you have bulk links. With the help of this option, you can save time.

  1. Type in the desired page number in the page number field at the bottom and press the Enter/Return key
  2. You are navigated to the desired page

3. Filter list

The filter option at the top of the Links list section would be useful when you have a more significant number of links. You can filter links based on four parameters: the Source, Visibility, Link type, and Status.
You can view the applied filters at the top of the list.

4_Screenshot-Links_status-Overview_page_Link_list_filters

You can also apply filters directly by clicking on one of the Link status tiles

For example, when you click on the Broken or External, the respective links with the link type or status are displayed in the list.

4. Export CSV

Export the Links list and status into a .csv (Comma-separated values) file.

  1. Click on the Export CSV option next to the Filter
  2. Wait for a few seconds, and a Download icon appears next to the Export CSV
  3. Click on the Download icon, and the exported file is downloaded onto your local computer storage
  4. This file can be viewed on any CSV file-supported application like Microsoft Excel and others

Actions and Controls

Above the Links status sections, you can find the controls and data regarding the link analytics.

1_Screenshot-actions_and_control_general_top_view

a. Validation type

The validation types are Scheduled validation, Manual validation, and Article level validation

b.Report date

  • The date of the reports generated would be loaded here. The validation reports are named as per the generation date.

  • When you hover over the 'i' (info) icon adjacent to the Report data dropdown, you can view the next or upcoming Scheduled link validation date.

c. Validate links

This button initiates the Manual link validation process when you click on it at a project level.

d. Manage links

  • Thus button open Manage links window

  • This window contains information about the links that are ignored or included in the validations.

e. Manual validation usage:

  • This progress bar shows your project's available Manual validation limit depending on your plan. The limit resets every month.
  • Customers of all price tiers can opt for a link limit increase anytime based on their requirement for a nominal charge.
  • Just contact our support team to help you out.

f. Link analytics usage

This progress bar shows the stats on the link limit used out of the total given limit for your project.

Links analytics limit exceeded

When the links count is higher than the total given limit for your project, the Links analytics limit exceeded message appears instead of the Link analytics usage

  • When the link analytics limit is exceeded, and the links validation (both Scheduled and Manual validation) takes place, only the links under the total given limit are validated.
  • The extra links that exceed the limit are not validated. Article level validation is also not possible for those links.

For example, your total link limit is 10000, but the total links count in your project is 10500. Only the first 10000 links are validated when you perform the links validation. The recently added 500 links are not validated.

  • To validate all the links in your project, contact our support team to increase the limit.

Link validation

You can run the link validation at a workspace and language level with the following types of validations.

  1. Scheduled validation
  2. Manual validation
  3. Article level validation
Link validation

For manual and scheduled validation, all the links at the project level are analyzed to check for broken/unknown/working links.

1. Scheduled validation

As the name suggests, this is an automated link validation that runs on a Schedule based on your plan tier.

How will you perform schedule validation?

  1. Click on the Analytics menu icon on the left side menu

  2. Now select the last option Links status on the left navigation pane

  3. You can see the Links status overview page with all the data in Link statuses

  4. At the top, you can find the Validation type drop-down menu, select the Scheduled validation (Which would be the default setting in your projects)

  5. You can find the recently generated Scheduled link validation

  6. If you want to look into any previous reports, select the Report date drop-down and select the report date you wish to view

  7. When you hover over the 'i' (info) icon adjacent to the Report date dropdown, you can view the next or upcoming scheduled link validation date

2. Manual validation

How will you perform manual validation?

  1. Click on the Analytics menu icon on the left side menu

  2. Now select the last option Links status on the left navigation pane

  3. You can see the Links status overview page with all the data in Link statuses

  4. At the top, you can find the Validation type drop-down menu, select Manual validation

  5. You can find the latest Manual validation report on the Link status overview page

  6. Click on the Validate Project Links button, and a new manual validation process can be run anytime

Multiple manual validations in 24 hours

The analytics report for links is generated every 24 hours (UTC 00:00). If you run consecutive Manual validations within 24 hours, the already run manual validation reports are overwritten with the latest validation data (Data cannot be retrieved).

  1. Once the validation is complete, a mail is sent to your registered email, and you can view the analytics report on the overview page

What happens when a user exceeds the Manual validation limit?

The Validate project links button will be disabled. The manual validation resets on the first day of every month, and the button is enabled again.

Team role permissions

Only team member roles with the Validate link analytics permission can perform link validations.

3. Article level validation

When choosing the Article level validation from the Validation type drop-down menu, you can view the article/category-page link validations you have already run. This overview page will be empty if you haven't validated links at the article/category page level.

How to validate links at article/category-page level?

The article/category-page level link validation can be done from the article editor section.

  1. Navigate to the desired article/category page in the portal

  2. Click the View analytics button on the right side of the editor

  3. Expand the Links status section and click the Validate now button

The article/category-page link validation is unlimited.

Manage links

Click the Manage links button on the Links status overview page. The Manage links window with all the ignored link information would appear

2_ScreenGIF-Manage_link_page

This section provides a high-level view of all the top metrics in the broken links.

a. Search - You can search for a specific URL

b. Link type - Refers whether the link is External or Internal URL

c. Dependency - The number of times the link has been referenced in the knowledge base articles

d. Status - Choose the options from Ignored or Included

Add link(s) to ignored list

In the manage links window, select the links with the status 'included', and an Ignore button appears at the top of the list.

3_Screenshot-adding_ignoring_link

  1. Check the desired links box to be avoided from the following validation and click on the Ignore button

  2. Else, change the status from included to Ignored

Export ignored links report

You can export the ignored and included links list and status into .xlsx (Excel spreadsheet).

  1. Click on the Export CSV option above the filter option

  2. Wait for a few seconds, and a Download icon appears next to the Export CSV

  3. Click on the Download icon, and the exported file is downloaded onto your local computer storage

  4. This file can be viewed on any application for spreadsheets like Microsoft Excel and others