If a previously published link refers to a page on my site which is now missing, I get an error message. How do I find out what the URL was?

Question: If a previously published link refers to a page on my site which is now missing, I get an error message. How do I find out what URL was? Can I find it somewhere in an error log?

 

Answer: We cannot change the error page and there is no log available to customers that can display the information. However, there is a simple online tool available to help you:

The tool actually follows the chain of redirects ... the redirect.aspx page redirects to the non-existing product, which redirects to /error. Only the first redirect (under "301 Moved permanently") is relevant to figuring out what the old product or page was.

 

Please note: Since these are 301 redirects, if you change the redirect, you will have to clear your browser cache before you'll be able to see it work in your own browser.

 

For more information on redirects please refer to the chapter Ch. 065 URL Redirects (B2C and Informational Websites)