How do we speel check an entire web sight?

January 30, 2009 9:06 AM

How do we spell check (and link check) an entire web site?

So I look after a number of sites and we're starting to consider how we spell check an entire web site. The site uses a content management system and a number of other applications that deliver content to the user. We have things in place to spell check in the editor window of the CMS, but we're looking at a way to crawl the site and report errors. If the toolset also did link checking and validation, we'd be even happier. Got any recommendations?

posted by advicepig to computers & internet (8 answers total)

I've always found that checking by hand is most reliable, as a simple spell check will catch incorrectly-spelled words but not homonyms, incomplete words that still spell something, grammatical errors, etc. Also checking links by had will help to ensure that it's indeed the desired target.
posted by sadiehawkinstein at 9:09 AM on January 30, 2009

It doesn't check spelling, but for link checking and validation, I like Xenu's link sleuth.
posted by phoenixy at 9:16 AM on January 30, 2009 [1 favorite]

Another linkchecker here: checklink.

(but it doesn't spellcheck).

Depending on the size, I might do a "wget --mirror" to grab a local copy of the site(s) if you don't already have them, and then run something like aspell recursively on the contents (being aware it'll squawk at the html markup unless you add those to the dictionary).
posted by devbrain at 9:30 AM on January 30, 2009

The application which will most accurately perform the tasks you're looking for is called "an intern."
posted by toomuchpete at 9:33 AM on January 30, 2009 [3 favorites]

toomuchpete has it, or, failing that, hire a proofreader
posted by libraryhead at 9:52 AM on January 30, 2009

We build a lot of websites for our clients. The only foolproof way is to have someone read every page, in detail, and click every link. We routinely do this for websites with hundreds of pages. Its time-consuming, but it's the only real backstop, and worth it if the client's paying thousands of pounds for their site - one spelling mistake can completely change how someone perceives you and your company.
posted by Happy Dave at 3:07 AM on January 31, 2009

We totally understand that it won't be perfect, but we a tool that pulls up some of the more obvious is a great start. I think wgetting it and spell checking it may be our best bet.

Sadly adding staff or interns won't be happening anytime soon.
posted by advicepig at 8:02 PM on February 1, 2009

So we're also looking at two other solutions. One is a desktop application called DeepTrawl. It's available for the Mac and Windows. The other is a web application called SiteCheck by SiteImprove. DeepTrawl seems to be a bargain and works pretty well from what we can tell from the demo.
posted by advicepig at 11:53 AM on February 3, 2009