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June 28, 2017
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Sometimes a small, simple change can make a big difference. Tonight's release includes a number of enhancements and fixes, and one tiny one that we'll explore here: the title of incorrect urls in your community now includes the words "Page Not Found".
When you click on a broken or mistyped link in Igloo, the link resolves to the url that was entered, and shows a page not found screen, instead of returning a traditional error. This makes it easy for people to navigate somewhere else in the community, and preserves the look and feel of your community even when they wind up in the wrong place.
This can make it challenging for link checking services to crawl the community looking for broken links, however. Most online link checkers are looking for that 404 error, and return the places where they found it. That's still the case with basic link-checking services, but Google Analytics can now offer insights into any broken links in your community.
As ever, the Navigation Summary is an incredible tool. Head to the Behaviour tab, and select All Pages from the Site Content menu to reach the view. From there, you can use the Navigation Summary to trace the Page Not Found title through the following steps:
Following those steps should lead you to a page like the image below. From there, you can see the areas with broken links in the Previous Page Path area, and export them to various formats using the Export dropdown.
For an easier path and clearer display, you can set up a custom report. Custom Reports can be created under the Customization menu in the sidebar, and are used to assess metrics across various dimensions. Creating one with the below settings will provide a few that shows where people came from, the erroneous destination they were sent to, and the unique pageviews, showing you how many people have followed that link.
Either of the options above can be integrated into an existing Google Analytics Dashboard, or added to a new one, letting you combine other insights from your Igloo community with the Page Not Found options, including Navigation Summaries from other areas in the community, Page or Space analytics, or any other element that works for you.
It's pretty exciting what can be accomplished with three small words. For more information about using Google Analytics in Igloo ask a question in the Community area.