I've been using an external link checking svc. (called SEVENtwentyfour.com) for a few years.

It costs $229.00 per year.

They e-mail me each Monday with the following (here's a real report):

Site statistics:
    Domain name: www.cooljools.com
    Configuration: Case Sensitive
    Scan completed: Monday, November 06, 2006 at 2:18:44 AM
    496 of 496 URLs were scanned
    8,129 total links
    0 broken links
    0 warnings


Internal links:
    7,621 internal links
    0 internal link errors
    0 links to moved internal pages
    0 internal links with warnings


Outbound links (from your site to others):
    508 external links
    0 external link errors
    0 links to moved external pages
    0 external warnings


Inbound links (from other sites to yours):
    Inbound links to 23 orphaned URLs were scanned
    272 links from other sites to this one
    7 links from other sites to this one with errors

Broken links within your site (up to 250 shown here):

Links to moved pages (up to 50 shown here):

Links with warnings:

The following broken links have been corrected since our last report:

END OF REPORT.......

My question is, should I renew their service? Or is this info available for free from G and AltaV?

Yeah there are plenty of ways to do so and the money is best spent elsewhere (on me for example.. Wine and Cheese?)

If U sign up on my pseronal site ( all free... no spam.. no AdSense.. jus me :0) once loged in there is a users menu with 'SEO Tools' there are TONs of free ones listed from around the web :0)

PM for any help with that stuff... save yer money

Personally I would not spend money on an external link checking service because nothing they can tell you is anything that you can't figure out for yourself with just a little examination of your server logs.  Just install AwStats on your server, its free.

Ok guys, a big thank you! You've saved me a nice chunk of change!

This link checking svc. keeps e-mailing me, trying to get me to renew. Here's their pitch:

QUOTE
Did you know Google lowers your ranking if it sees broken
links on your site, and that Yahoo! won’t even list sites
in its directory unless the links are perfect? Link errors
aren’t just cosmetic. They cost you ranking, traffic and
money.

Our LinkChecking service has helped protect your business
and reputation by spotting errors in your web site before
the search engines or your customers do. Our 28-billion
link map of over 160 million web sites not only warns you
of errors within your site, but also detects errors from
elsewhere on the Web TO your site.

Aren’t you glad you heard about these problems from us
rather than your customers? UNQUOTE

Is any of this stuff actually true??

ARGGGGGGGGG.... hey there may be some TINY aspect that may 'affect' ones rankings but what? A .0000345 move?? Yeesh

As mentioned many easy and free ways are available to do this, and it is well down the line of SEO activities one should be focused on. MAYBE when all is running along and U have little left to do on the site.

... or when pigs fly!

Just install AwStats on your server, its free.

M1 - I have AW on my site - how does it work on identifying links?

Oh My!
That is terrible. It just goes to prove the internet is swarming with scams.
I really feel for you and I am sad you had to go through this.
There is so much FREE software on the web for you to do this yourself.
Try WebCeo the free version is amazing(for being free) http://www.webceo.com/download/
And no this is not an affiliate link if you were wondering. I have just found this to be amazingly helpful to me.
There is a free SEO training course that comes with it too along with alot of email lessons.
Sure helped me, I hope it does the same for you!
Just thought of this cool link checker and page ranker http://tools.summitmedia.co.uk/spider/
Try it out FREE also. Sounds much like what you have been paying for.
Happy Holidays SR. My best year ever due in part to your kindness, encouragement and advice!
Dan

Thanks, Muti, I'll look into that. Appreciate the suggestion!

Dan, thank you as well. What a sweetheart you are. Actually, you ALL are!

Ya know,... it just goes to show, judging from this little learning experince of mine, that ignorance can be expensive. I will follow all suggestions in this thread.

And since you are all being so generous with your advice, may I venture one more question?

I'm paying $50 per month for a Live Chat Svc., so that shoppers on my web site can ask q's. I've had this svc. for about 3 yrs., and the thing is, almost no customers ever use it!

Should I heave it?

As a male shopper(most of us share this trait), I usually want to get in and get out. The little chatty things take a while to download sometimes and I'll lose my patience and leave. Personally I prefer an FAQ or Help page. I don't know some shoppers might feel differently.
IMO
Dan

Thx Dan.

I'm gonna start a new thread on this q. I want to see what other shoppers think too.

I am usign a free instant chat tool - see here

It's been there for 5 weeks or so - no one has used it yet either! (Also on every email)

I had a Syke in number for the USA and had one call in six months.

I am VERY surprised - I though people would have used tools to get quick reponses...but no, email is the way.

I apologize for posting so much today. I promise to keep my mouth shut after this post (gag).

Matt, I totally hear you. I was shocked by the lack of use of this svc on my site.

You know when you walk into a store, and it's busy, and you can't find someone to help you? You don't buy from them, you leave, right? Maybe even leave a bit miffed!

As they say in New York,... "go figure....".

I've started a new thread on this, in this forum. Let's see what the rest of the gang says!

matte wrote:

Just install AwStats on your server, its free.

M1 - I have AW on my site - how does it work on identifying links?

well if you look at your webstats it will show you the requests where your server returned a 404, if the referrer of that request is one of your pages look on that page and fix the broken link

true it only shows you the broken links that get clicked on, but the other ones don't really matter do they ?

requests where your server returned a 404

Oh broken links on MY site...from my site...

I thought it somehow showed where THEIR links were no longer there.

oh no - sorry - thats not what I meant

saw this post the other day and it just occured to me that there's a firefox extension called web developer, under the tools menu there's a broken link checker!

http://chrispederick.com/work/webdeveloper/

comes with validation tools and much much more, oh, it's free too!

mobtex and dann... thanks for the tools suggestions... dann, the optimizer from the uk is very helpful... always looking for overseas tools to determine load times, et al.

mobtex wrote:

saw this post the other day and it just occured to me that there's a firefox extension called web developer, under the tools menu there's a broken link checker!

http://chrispederick.com/work/webdeveloper/

comes with validation tools and much much more, oh, it's free too!

Thanks, mobtex, that's great to know. Appreciate it! Sorry for bumping this topic up again but didn't want to be rude. Thanks for everyone's suggestions.