Wikipedia:Link rot
How to prevent or repair broken links / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This page is about (primarily) link rot in external links. For broken section links within Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Database reports/Broken section anchors. For internal links which point to deleted or non-existent articles, see WP:REDLINKS. For other uses, see Wikipedia:Citing sources § Preventing and repairing dead links.
"WP:LR" redirects here. For Lua requests, see Wikipedia:Lua requests.
To request URL changes, see WP:Link rot/URL change requests.
Like most large websites, Wikipedia suffers from the phenomenon known as link rot, where external links become dead, as the linked web pages or complete websites disappear, change their content, or move without HTTP redirection. This presents a significant threat to Wikipedia's reliability policy and its source citation guideline.
This help page is a how-to guide. It details processes or procedures of some aspect(s) of Wikipedia's norms and practices. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, and may reflect varying levels of consensus and vetting. |
This page in a nutshell: Steps may be taken to reduce or repair dead external links. Do not remove citations simply because they have URLs which no longer work. |
In general, do not delete cited information solely because the URL to the source does not work any longer. Tools, procedures, and processes are available as outlined in this document.