As with most web design firms, a percentage of our projects involve re-designing/updating an existing website. Typically, the site has been online for a few years and needs an upgrade. Of course, (just like the guys on Extreme Makeover) we are excited to get our hands on the subject and gloriously transform its outward appearance. But before we get started, one of the first things we need to know is – how many actual URLs (pages) are on the site?

We need this for 3 main reasons -

1. To determine the size of the project
2. To ensure that we properly duplicate or redirect the URLs on the new site (to preserve SEO value)
3. To weed out old broken links and redirect them to useful pages

While there are several web-based tools for this task, our favorite one is desktop based – good ‘ol Xenu. It’s free, and still does its job well after all these years. In a matter of seconds, Xenu crawls your site, uncovering even the most hidden of pages and groups them accordingly. The software was developed for PC users, but if you have a Mac, simply install WineBottler, and then install Xenu.