Link Rot Forecast Calculator

How to use this tool

1. Enter how many outbound links the site has today and how many you add each month. A crawl of the site gives you the first number; your publishing pace gives you the second.
2. Set the annual rot rate. If you have two past audits, divide the dead links found by the total links and scale to a year; otherwise start with the default and refine later.
3. Choose scheduled audits or continuous monitoring, set the interval and fix time, and compare how many dead links are live at any moment under each option.

What the math assumes

• The annual rot rate is applied evenly across the year to the current link count; it is an input with a default of 5% that you should replace with your own measured rate.
• Dead links appear at a steady pace, so under scheduled audits a link waits on average half the audit interval before it is detected.
• Continuous monitoring is modeled as same day detection, so the only delay is your fix time.
• The 12 month total assumes new links are added at a constant monthly pace and start rotting at the same annual rate from the month after they are added.
• A month is treated as 365.25 divided by 12 days, and links already dead today are not counted in the forecast.