• New Zealand Government Web Standards 2.0

• New Zealand Government Web Standards 1.0
  • » 1. Images
  • » 2. Colour
  • » 3. Site Markup
  • » 4. Special Purpose Documents
  • » 5. Writing Content
  • » 6. Site Content
  • » 7. Page Layout
  • » 8. Navigation
    • 8.1 Identify the target of each link
    • 8.2 External and internal links are valid
    • 8.3 Compulsory links on every web page
    • 8.4 Navigation access keys
    • Recommendation 8.1.1 Use navigation mechanisms in a consistent manner
    • Recommendation 8.1.2 Differing searches for skill levels if searching provided
    • Recommendation 8.1.3 Non-government links not an endorsement
  • » 9. Style Sheets
  • » 10. Dynamic Content
  • » 11. Tables
  • » 12. Frames
  • » 13. Scripting and Applets
  • » 14. Page Refreshing
  • » 15. Site Behaviour
  • » 16. Site Layout
  • » 17. Archiving
  • » 18. Quality Assurance
  • » 19. Data Tracking
  • » 20. Authentication
  • » 21. Security
  • » 22. Online Forms
  • » 23. Tendering and Contracting
  • » 30. Site Delivery
  • » 31. Operational
  • » 32. Web Strategy

8.2 External and internal links are valid

The Standard

8.2 All links, external and internal, are valid and working.

Guide to this standard

External and internal links should be checked regularly, or incorporate an automatic checking process to ensure that the links are valid. Broken or 'moved' links should be corrected, removed or the linking text updated accordingly.

Invalid links can be:

• a non-existent site/page
• a valid page, but not that intended by the link

Rationale for this standard

The usefulness of a site diminishes if an external link references an invalid or non-existent link. It also hinders the quality of the site from a user perspective.