Here's an example... The top 15 searches at my site this week were:

search engines marketing plan goto jeeves jim daniels make money direct email domain registration advertising affiliate program ebusiness free publicity marketing shania twain classified

So what does this report tell me? Well for starters, first few search words show me that my articles on search engines and marketing maintenance have brought lots of visitors to my site. That's still something that lots of web marketers are interested in learning about so I'll write more about my experiences in those areas.

Next, many of terms searched on were exact matches to keywords I bid on at goto.com. Specifically, "make money" and "direct email" are keywords I just increased my bids on at goto. It was nice to see those efforts bring immediate visitors. It's also great to give these surfers a quick search tool so that can find exactly what they're looking for at my site as soon as they arrive.

Next, searches on domain registration prompted me to move my report on "how to select and register a domain name for your business", to top of that results page. All searches on domain registration now indirectly lead visitors to my "domain name wizard" and then onto my domain name registration services. Hey, this Atomz search tool is a great little marketing tool!

Controlling search results at your site is a powerful way to market specific products and services. Atomz realizes this and offers their "Target Meta Tag", an exclusive Atomz.com search feature. You simply list words in "content" part of "target meta tag" and page is promoted to top of your search results ranking. You can also use your keywords tag to influence your Atomz.com Search results.

As I work my way down my first Atomz report, I not only learn what my visitors are searching for, I learn what my site is lacking. Over time, these reports will be invaluable to me and my efforts to help my website visitors and e-newsletter subscribers who return to my site.

And oh yeah, I learned one more thing from my Atomz reports... I may need to do a little research on this Shania Twain person. ;-)

To learn more about Atomz and get your own free search engine, visit http://atomz.com/design

Net Mechanic http://www.netmechanic.com

Dr. Watson http://watson.addy.com

Link Checking Software:

Software solutions are ideal for larger sites allowing you to perform link checks through your own computer. I tried a number of programs this week and ended up settling on InfoLink Link Checker by http://www.biggbyte.com/ - it gives you 50 full uses of program before you have to pay a dime. If you plan to use it beyond that you can register it for a small fee.

Some other software programs that will run link checks at your site are:

LinkScan http://www.elsop.com/

WebAnayzer http://www.incontext.com/

Create a Safety Net for Internal Links:

One more tip I recommend is to add a customized error page to your site. No matter how well you maintain your internal links, there will always be surfers who enter a URL incorrectly and get dreaded 404 error page. You can keep your visitors from getting that ugly error message by simply creating a customized error page.

In a nutshell, it is same as creating any other web page. Just create a page that tells your visitors they are a little lost and invite them to click a link to your home page. For an example of an effective custom error page, go to this bogus web page at my website: http://www.bizweb2000.com/asdf

See how it gets folks back on track quickly, rather than losing them to another website?

Here's another 404 error page that does trick: http://www.WebBusinessToday.com/goofsarepeopletoo.html

As far as technical aspects of making it work, it is simple. Just create a web page then contact your web host and they'll tell you exactly how make it work on your server.

If you need some ideas for a 404 error page of your own, check out: http://www.cool404.com - each time you reload page a new customized 404 page will pop up.

Remember, dead links are a bigger deal than you may be making them out to be. They will compromise your website visitors' experience severely. Visitors may even click away from your site never to return. Take your website maintenance seriously if you want your site to be taken seriously!