--- title: "FAQ broken links troubleshooting" date: "2022-03-16T11:22:35+00:00" summary: "Troubleshoot broken links in Web Governance scans. Learn why links are flagged, how to handle duplicates, and configure scan settings." image: type: "article" url: "/web-governance/help/59206-faq-broken-links-troubleshooting" id: "fef37b7f-2987-4359-9916-48d7d074c30f" --- This document answers some common issues regarding broken links found by the Web Governance scan. Table of contents will be added Links are marked as broken when they are not -------------------------------------------- There are several possible reasons for links to be flagged as broken or with errors when they are actually not: * The target server was down at the time of the scan. A re-scan normally fixes the problem. _Ignore_ the link to stop checking this link permanently, or _Mark as Fixed_ if it is a temporary known issue. * The target server might be set to block site scanners and spiders such as ours. Sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and others block scanners that make many requests to their site. We scan thousands of websites every day and make many requests to these websites and they do often block our scanner. This can cause the scan to hang or stop. In most cases, you can safely ignore the link if you know that it is correct. The Web Governance scan is configured to ignore these links automatically when they are reported to us. For more information, see the User Guide article: [Links that the Scan Automatically Ignores](/en/articles/9344520-links-that-the-scan-automatically-ignores). * The target server has an invalid HTTPS certificate. An invalid certificate causes the link to be marked as dead. Get in touch with the manager of the website and ask them to fix their certificate, or ignore the link if this is impossible. * The link points to a login page. The link points to a page that requires a login. Such pages are often tagged as 'dead'. _Ignore_ the link to stop checking this link permanently, or _Mark as Fixed_ if it is a temporary (for example, in an unpublished state) known issue. The same broken link appears in duplicate because of caps in the URL -------------------------------------------------------------------- If the scan flags many duplicate pages where the URLs are only different because of capitalized words within the URL, there is an option turn this off in the scan setup. Important In the **OFF** position, the Web Governance scan sees all URLs as lowercase - no matter how they are actually written in the target website. Turn **OFF** only in rare cases where the target website does not recognize caps and reads all links in lowercase, which results in duplicates in the flagged scan issues. This is an advanced configuration that should normally be left to the default setting. 1. From the Web Governance Domain Overview (Globe icon) click **Settings** (the gear icon) at the top of the page. The _Admin Settings_ page opens. Note The _Settings_ button is only available to site admins. ![The location of the Admin Settings button on the main menu bar.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/44dfb321-2b2f-48da-8d3d-d42d738df888/web/WebGov_MainToolbar-AdminSettingsButton.png) 2. On the _Admin settings_ page, click **Action** on the same row as a domain. A drop-down list expands. ![The Action menu on the same row as a domain in the Admin Settings view.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/ee8e2906-7b13-4f46-80b9-0e4510875c99/web/Mon_AdminSettings-ActionMenu.png) 3. Select **Edit Domain**. The _Edit Domain_ page opens. 4. **Case sensitive URLs**: Toggle the switch **OFF** to instruct the scan to ignore capitalization within links, or **ON** to instruct the scan to make URL links case-sensitive. ![The location of the Case-Sensitive URLs button in the Crawl Options section on the Edit Domain page.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/19d8bfa1-b35a-4148-8203-9a9e02db28cc/web/Mon_Opt_AdminSettings-EditDomain-CrawlOptions-CaseSensitiveURLs.png) Example **OFF**: [http://monsido.com/Foo/Bar](http://monsido.com/Foo/Bar) is seen as the same link as [http://monsido.com/foo/bar](http://monsido.com/foo/bar). Example **ON**: The same links above will register as two different links. Important In the **OFF** position, the Web Governance scan sees all URLs as lowercase - no matter how they are actually written in the target website. Turn **OFF** only in rare cases where the target website does not recognize caps and reads all links in lowercase, which results in duplicates in the flagged scan issues. This is an advanced configuration that should normally be left to the default setting. **How to mark 403 errors as broken links** ------------------------------------------ Links on pages that return error 403 (forbidden errors) can be classified as broken with this option in **Settings**. 1. From the Web Governance Domain Overview (Globe icon) click **Settings** (the gear icon) at the top of the page. The _Admin Settings_ page opens. Note The _Settings_ button is only available to site admins. ![The location of the Admin Settings button on the main menu bar.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/44dfb321-2b2f-48da-8d3d-d42d738df888/web/WebGov_MainToolbar-AdminSettingsButton.png) 2. On the _Admin settings_ page, click **Action** on the same row as a domain. A drop-down list expands. ![The Action menu on the same row as a domain in the Admin Settings view.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/ee8e2906-7b13-4f46-80b9-0e4510875c99/web/Mon_AdminSettings-ActionMenu.png) 3. Select **Edit Domain**. The _Edit Domain_ page opens. ![The location of the Mark 403 as Broken Link button in the Crawl Options section on the Edit Domain page.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/76913f92-3923-42e2-9af6-5f19e56a63fb/web/Mon_Opt_AdminSettings-EditDomain-CrawlOptions-Mark403AsBrokenLink.png) 4. **Mark 403 as broken link**: In the _Crawl Options_ section, toggle the **Mark 403 as broken link** switch **ON**. This causes the scan to flag any link that returns this error with the status _Broken Link_. The changes come into effect once a new domain scan has been completed. How to reduce the number of 403 errors -------------------------------------- Some sites that use shopping features may generate a great many 403 errors. One thing to try is to change the crawl speed from "normal" to "slow". This should resolve this issue and only flag links that are actually broken. How to instruct the scan to ignore canonical URLs ------------------------------------------------- A canonical URL is the URL of the page that Google determines is most representative, taken from a set of duplicate pages on the website. 1. From the Web Governance Domain Overview (Globe icon) click **Settings** (the gear icon) at the top of the page. The _Admin Settings_ page opens. Note The _Settings_ button is only available to site admins. ![The location of the Admin Settings button on the main menu bar.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/44dfb321-2b2f-48da-8d3d-d42d738df888/web/WebGov_MainToolbar-AdminSettingsButton.png) 2. On the _Admin settings_ page, click **Action** on the same row as a domain. A drop-down list expands. ![The Action menu on the same row as a domain in the Admin Settings view.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/ee8e2906-7b13-4f46-80b9-0e4510875c99/web/Mon_AdminSettings-ActionMenu.png) 3. Select **Edit Domain**. The _Edit Domain_ page opens. ![The location of the Ignore Canonical URLs button on the Edit Domain page.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/d47ec262-9d57-4a0a-adc6-df61b6fa5b91/web/Mon_Opt_AdminSettings-EditDomain-CrawlOptions-IgnoreCanonicalURLs.png) 4. **Ignore canonical URLs**: In the _Crawl Options_ section, toggle the **Ignore canonical URLs** switch **ON**. This causes the scan disregard canonical URLs. Additional **Resources** ------------------------ For more information about Quality Assurance, see the following articles: * [Quality Assurance: Links](/en/articles/5591093-qa-links) * [PageCorrect](/en/articles/5879734-pagecorrect) * [Web Browser Extension](/web-governance/web-governance-browser-extension "Web Governance Browser Extension") * [Quick Guide: Fix Broken Links](/en/articles/6086670-quick-guide-fix-broken-links) * [How Web Governance Scans Links on your Website](/en/articles/8015840-how-monsido-scans-links-on-your-website) * [Links that the Scan Automatically Ignores](/en/articles/9344520-links-that-the-scan-automatically-ignores).