Answer:
I would recommend going to your favorite shareware sites and searching on "hyperlink checker", "link checker" and similar terms. This will take you to some programs that will do this for you. If you use a multi-purpose program for your site authoring tool, it may have a program applet to do link verifications for you. FrontPage does.
What these programs will tell you is if the link is valid. Some will alert you if a page is updated. None I know of will tell you if the content has changed and is no longer tasteful or acceptable to you. So, while automation will allow you to verify the links in minutes, the quality review is still up to an individual.
This depends on the links you go to. Some will be deemed extremely stable while others may change content regularly. You need to periodically look and see if the content has gone from reference material to adult material or, for example, a consumer product site has begun accepting banner ads from your competitors. You don't want to refer your customer who is looking for car prices to a site that offers car financing at terms better than yours.
I would recommend checking on the validity of the links quarterly or semiannually and the content of the links semiannually to annually. Certainly, there is no harm in doing this more often in today's changing Web environment. These are the longest times I would recommend.
You should also consider having an e-mail link so that your users can provide feedback if they find a site that you would be interested in or objectionable. A year ago a link to Yahoo would have been thought of as fine. Then, a few months ago there was a lot of press that created a "porn scandal" about Yahoo. That could cause you to rethink the link.
First published on BankersOnline.com 8/6/01
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