A client just came to us after launching their new site and had a big problem. A large online reseller had posted their entire product directory with links to their old website addresses, but all the links have changed. As a result links to their web site generated thousands of "404 - Page Not Found" errors--dead ends for customers. 

Naturally, the ideal solution is to send the reseller an updated product directory with new links, but with such a large catalog, that could take days or even weeks. We needed a short term solution. Otherwise, we would have to divert all the 404 errors to the home page. 

Search 404

At the beginning our this new project, we had installed the Search 404 module for Drupal. Its purpose is to catch missing links, search for an applicable page and reroute to it. It wasn't working in this case because the old links also included an obscure key code and a .ASPX extension. So we needed to make some adjustments. All we had to do was to add the key code to the "ignore" list and add .ASPX to the extension list. Suddenly, hundreds of previously broken links were finding their way to their respective new updated product pages.  

Killing Broken Links

This solution can work with lots of different scenarios, most especially where links have changed due to a web site remodel or over the course of time, but also where links are just plain erroneous. 

In fact, you can make up a fake URL yourself and type it in, and the system will still direct you, if your link contains relevant words. For example, if you enter the URL http://mydomain.com/about, the system will recognize you want the "About Us" page and take you there directly. 

Things it won't work with are:

• The link is misspelled so that the system cannot recognize the terms used. 
• The link uses only numbers or codes and not relevant words or part numbers
• The link contains only "index" in the filename and no other information.