Levinshtein link fixer (aka the Levinator) code, now available
Well, after spending 45 minutes trying to figure out github, I’ve realized I’m not as much of a nerd as I thought.
So, in the mean time, here’s a nice ZIPped archive of the code for the Levenshtein link redirector I’ve written in PHP. I’ve named it the Levinator – Dr. Doofenshmirtz would be proud.
I’ve talked about it before, but here’s the rundown.
What it does
This tool compares a list of good URLs and 404 URLs.
Then, using Levenshtein distance calculation, it figures out the closest-matching good URL for each broken one.
Finally, it generates a list of 301 redirects, .htaccess-style, so you can set up redirection.
Requirements
You’ll need:
- PHP
- Basic knowledge of coding (very basic)
- A list of good URLs on your site
- And a list of 404 errors – easy to get from Google Webmaster Tools
License
I’m releasing this under Creative Commons Share-Alike and require attribution.
The Levinator by Ian Lurie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Have at it:
[ Download the Levinator ]
Portent's Founder & CEO
Ian Lurie is founder and CEO of Portent Inc., an internet marketing agency that has provided internet marketing, including PPC, SEO, social and analytics services, since 1995. more >
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This looks like a very handy tool. How exactly does it find the closest-matching URL? Can you explain that in a bit more detail, or maybe give an example?
Use Forrst.com or something… github can even do simple code snippets just to share if you want to do that route. Forrst is cool tho.
Have an invite if you need it.. email me if you do.
@Christian it uses Levenshtein distance calculation. You can read up on it on Wikipedia.
Great tool…nice to know other parents are familiar with Dr. Doofenshmirtz.
I’m probably also not much of a nerd either, or maybe it’s just too early in the morning: I don’t quite understand what problem this Levinator solves, or in what situations this might come in handy? Is this for people that frequently have links with typos on their site?
@Roger Often when other sites link to yours, they’ll put in typos. Either they leave out part of a URL (because it wraps) or they otherwise screw up the link.
If you have a large site, these external links can number in the hundreds or thousands.
The Levinator tries to match them up with working URLs.