Dead links are not only SEO technically a problem. If you have created a QR code that points to a Web page that is no longer available, you will leave a negative user experience in the visitors mind. Probably he will also avoid to scan any QR Code in the future.

Dynamic QR Codes help to overcome this issue. When using a dynamic QR Code you can change the destination URL in case the link is broken. But what if you do not notice that the link is no longer available?

With at qrd°by you are always on the safe side. The target URLs of the QR Codes are reviewed regularly. If the URL is no longer valid, you will receive an e-mail, which lists all QR Codes that redirect to a broken URL.

Automatic Notification on broken links

With at qrd°by you are always on the safe side. The target URLs of the QR Codes are reviewed regularly. If the URL is no longer valid, you will receive an e-mail, which lists all QR Codes that redirect to a broken URL.

If you get an E-Mail with this warning, please log into your account immediately. You will see the broken links marked red.

Now click on options and edit the target URL. Change the broken URL to a working link. Done.

HTTP Error Codes

qrd°by is parsing the URLs in the QR Codes for the following error codes:

404 Not Found

The requested resource was not found. Links, which refer to such error pages, also referred to as dead links.

410 Gone

The requested resource is no longer available and has been permanently removed.

500 Internal Server Error

This is the default status code for an unexpected server error.

502 Bad Gateway

The server could not fulfill its function as a gateway or proxy, because he has in turn received an invalid response.

503 Service Unavailable

The server is temporarily unavailable, for example due to overloading or maintenance.

If one of the above error code was returned when verifying the links, a warning to the owner of the QR Code is sent and the QR Code is marked in his account until the URL has been modified.

False Positives

If you get an error message that your page has not been found, it might be that this is a False Positive. That means our system detected an error even your website is running fine. If this is the case, you might want to turn off the URL Check function for that specific QR Code in the options menu like shown in the screenshot below:

6,8% of all QR Codes redirect to a 404 Page Not Found

During our response code scans it turned out, that about 6,8% of all QR Codes point to non existing websites and 0,6% of the QR Codes redirect to a page with an Internal Server Error.

You can set up a free account and create dynamic QR Codes with automated broken link checking here:

QR Code Manager

Merken