Fixing broken links

Log in to DubBot

Access DubBot through myBoiseState.

Tip: Log in to WordPress too

To simplify the update process later on, we recommend you also log in to WordPress in another browser tab.

Find your website dashboard

When you log in to DubBot, you’ll see a list of Boise State dashboards. Use the “Select a Site or Page Set” dropdown, to filter to your site name. Click on the link for your site to view your dashboard.

Example of Dashboard after logging to DubBot and use the dropdown menu to find your site dashboard — Use the drop-down menu and pick “Select a Site or Page Set” to find your site on the Dashboard.

Find broken links

Major issue categories appear at the top of your dashboard display. Look for the “Broken Links” category and click on the pages link to view a list of pages with broken links on your website.

Example screenshot of Major issue categories panel

Select the page with the broken link

Click on the page URL to view the details for the broken link.

All pages with broken links, arrow pointing at first URL on list, and broken links outlined in box

How to review and resolve broken link errors on a page

Step 1

On the details page, click on the Broken Links icon on the left sidebar and a panel will slide to the right to display issues. Click on the down arrow caret to display details about the issue.

Step 2

In this scenario, DubBot reports the issue as “Reason: Not Found (HTTP_404)” [2]. This means the link on the page for “Global Citizen of the Year”, leads to a 404 page (page not found).

Detail page with broken link issue details expanded, displaying location of broken link on webpage.

Step 3

FYI, when you clicked on the issue link to see more details, the location of the issue on the preview page was also highlighted. [3]

Step 4

The issue detail information displays a link for “Open in new window” [4]. This link opens the published page in a new browser tab in the same browser session.

Fix the broken link in WordPress

There are two quick options for opening WordPress to fix the broken link on your page:

Option 1: Click on the link for “Open in new window” (from Step 4), to open your webpage in a new browser tab in the same browser session.

Option 2: Click on the URL at the top of the details page to also open the webpage in a new browser tab in the same browser session.

Red arrow pointing to URL to page with issue at the top of a detail page

For both of these options, if you are already logged in to WordPress, the WordPress toolbar will display at the top of the page. Clicking on “edit page” or “edit post” will open the block editor so that you can fix the broken link.

WordPress top toolbar with Edit Post tool circled in red

Tip

If you suspect that a broken link is a false positive, you can skip it, and the WordPress Support Team will take care of it in their next global review.