Website Investigator – Stellar IT Solutions

Website Investigator is a program which scans your website for common issues, which can range from serious problems to relatively benign symptoms based on stylistic choices.

Stellar IT Solutions can examine the content of your website with our Website Investigator, even if we do not host or maintain your website. This service can alert you to conditions like broken links, accidentally exposed internal documents, undecoded utf-8 characters and spelling errors.

You can then use this information to remedy the situation and request a periodic review by Website Investigator to make sure your website stays error-free.

Our Website Investigator traverses your website and reports on seventeen conditions:

Pages, images and other files that are served correctly
Pages that are missing (broken links)
Links of type file
Webserver directory indecies
Use of frames
Use of image maps
Links which are IP addresses
Mismatch of www usage
Domain case mismatch
Domain equivalents
Forms
Undecoded utf-8 characters
Links of type mailto
Links of type javascript
Links which are external to your website
Cookies
Misspelled words

Pages, images and other files that are served correctly

Website Investigator shows not only what may be wrong with your website but also what is working correctly, giving you a full inventory of your website as your visitors see it.

Pages that are missing (broken links)

Certainly the most common problem with links is out-of-date links due to removal of pages or other website reorganization. This issue can give visitors to your website the impression that you are not maintaining your website, or that the content is not fresh.

Links of type file

Links that begin with file:// can accidentally creep into your website during the development stage of page creation. If they are not corrected before the page goes live they can show up as broken links or even expose your website’s entire hard disk to savvy web surfers. Website Investigator reports this uncommon but serious problem if it exists on your website.

Webserver directory indecies

Our Website Investigator crawler evaluates the likelihood that website visitors can walk your directory structure by taking advantage of unprotected directories. Some webmasters use directory indecies as a shortcut to providing easy access to large numbers of files but this can also be a security risk if it is not accounted for.

Use of frames and image maps

Frames can be handy tools in content presentation but can also confuse search engines as well as introduce a variety of other issues for website visitors. Image maps can also confuse search engines. Website Investigator reports the use of frames and image maps so you can evaluate the pros and cons associated with each.

Links which are IP addresses

Your website’s IP address should probably not be exposed in a URL. But sometimes web development tools can inadvertently introduce this problem into your webpages. Website Investigator points this out so you can correct the situation.

Mismatch of www usage

The use of ‘www’ is not required for your website to operate correctly, but a mixture of using it and not using it can really confuse some statistics programs and search engines. Website Investigator points this out so you can correct the situation.

Domain case mismatch

Domain case mismatch can confuse visitors, search engines and statistical programs.

Domain equivalents

If your website has domain equivalents, this report will help you consolidate them.

Use of forms and links of type mailto and javascript

As an informational resource, Website Investigator summarizes the forms, mailto addresses, and javascript calls on your website.

Undecoded utf-8 characters

Undecoded utf-8 characters can creep into your website during the content creation process, when text is cut and pasted between various word processor programs and/or operating systems. These characters can then be incorrectly displayed in a browser (especially for international visitors) or be further mis-translated when cut and pasted FROM your website.

Links which are external to your site

Website Investigator shows which links are external to your website so you can easily decide whether this content is still relevant to your audience.

Cookies

Cookies that your webserver is passing to your visitors.

Spelling check

Website Investigator has a spelling checker built into it. We can setup a custom dictionary just for your domain, and regularly scan your website for spelling errors.