How to audit links and redirects before an event campaign launches

You've approved the announcement, scheduled the email and sent the booking link to your venue. Everything looks ready. Then someone opens the partner newsletter and lands on last year's event. The page loads perfectly. It even has a ticket button. It's just selling the wrong thing.

Checking an event website for broken links involves more than finding pages that return an error. Before a campaign launches, follow the actual links buyers will use, confirm they reach the right event and ticket, and complete the purchase journey. Check redirects, tracking and confirmation along the way. A working address is only the beginning.

The first thing you want to do is collect the places sending people to your event. Your website matters, but so do ads, emails, performer pages, calendar listings and printed codes. Test those entry points in the conditions buyers will encounter. Then fix the mistakes that could stop or mislead a purchase before spending money sending people there.

You don't need to become a developer to organize this. You need a clear idea of what each link should do, someone who can make the necessary changes, and a record showing which routes actually passed. Here's how to get there without turning your launch into an endless website project.

Start with the purchase you want someone to make

Before opening a link checker, write down the intended destination. Include the event name, edition, location, date, available ticket or session, and the point where a buyer can purchase. When several performances share a name, include the specific performance. Otherwise, a tester can approve a page that looks familiar while missing the mistake that matters.

Suppose you're launching a ticketed photography workshop with separate morning and afternoon sessions. The afternoon email should reach the afternoon booking option or a page where that choice is clear. Sending everyone to the general workshop calendar might technically work, but it asks the buyer to repeat a decision your message already helped them make.

Decide what should happen when the advertised option is unavailable. A sold out session can remain visible with an honest explanation and alternatives. It shouldn't quietly become another session with a different time. If a link carries a discount, confirm which ticket qualifies and when the offer applies. The destination needs to support the promise people just read.

Our guide to keeping event listings consistent covers the facts that should match across publishers. This audit checks what happens when someone acts on those facts. You'll use the approved event information as the reference, then follow each route far enough to confirm the purchase matches it.

Keep the scope tied to launch. A misleading ticket link deserves attention now. An old editorial article with an unrelated broken reference can wait for ordinary maintenance. If you mix those jobs together, you can spend the afternoon repairing forgotten pages while the campaign button still opens an expired presale.

Make a list of the links you're about to distribute

Start with the materials already approved or scheduled. Collect the website buttons, email links, ad destinations, social profile links, event listings and partner placements. Include image links as well as text buttons. Someone may tap the poster in an email instead of the booking button underneath it, and those can lead to different places.

For each placement, record where the link appears, the exact address supplied, its intended destination and who can change it. Add the person testing it and the result. An existing shared spreadsheet is enough. Keep the full address in the working record, including anything after the question mark, because those extra characters may control tracking or an offer.

Separate the address you supplied from the address a publisher actually used. A partner may have copied an earlier version, shortened it or connected their own tracking service. Testing your original message won't reveal that. Ask for the live placement or a usable preview, then start your test there rather than pasting your preferred destination into a browser.

Include printed material before approving production. Scan the code on the actual artwork, check the written address and confirm who controls any redirect behind it. Once posters are distributed, changing the destination may be possible only if someone retains access to that redirect. A correct code connected to an inaccessible account is an avoidable maintenance problem.

Group placements that use the same final page, but don't erase their differences. Several emails may share a destination while applying different tracking or discounts. You can inspect the event page once in detail, then test each distinct incoming address. Record which checks are shared and which still need their own result.

Use a crawler to find errors, then inspect what it missed

A website crawler follows discoverable links and reports what the server returns. That makes it useful for finding dead pages, broken internal links and repeated redirects. Ask your website manager to run the tool they already use against the campaign pages. You need the affected address and where it was found, not just an overall health score.

Google's guide to HTTP status codes explains the responses behind these reports. A 404 indicates that a page wasn't found. A 5xx response indicates a server problem. A successful response still doesn't prove that the content is useful or correct. Read the destination before marking the buyer's route as passed.

The distinction matters for recurring events. Last year's page may return a successful response and display an attractive description, while its booking button leads to closed inventory. An empty page can also look successful to a basic checker. Your manual review should confirm the current edition and a usable next step, not simply the absence of a browser error.

A crawler also can't approve everything distributed outside your website. It may never see an unsent email, an ad preview, a partner's private campaign or a code embedded in artwork. Login requirements and automated traffic blocks can produce ambiguous results. Label those routes unverified until someone tests them appropriately. Don't count them as passed because the tool couldn't inspect them.

Avoid treating every flagged address as a reason to remove a link. A temporary access block needs investigation, while a genuine typo needs correction. Ask the website manager to explain uncertain results in plain language. The useful question is whether an ordinary buyer can reach the intended content, and whether the same destination works for required advertising checks.

Open the actual email, ad or listing

Now test how the link behaves in its published context. Send the email through your normal test process, open the delivered version and tap each purchase link. An editor preview can hide a mistake introduced by tracking, formatting or a copied image. The message that arrives in an inbox is the version your buyer will use.

For ads, inspect the final destination and any tracking template in the campaign setup. Use the platform's destination testing or preview tools where available. Don't repeatedly click your own paid ads to test them. Record which creative and placement you checked, especially when several ads were duplicated from an earlier event and may retain different addresses.

Google Ads has its own destination requirements, including working pages and rules about destination mismatches. Have whoever manages the account check redirects and tracking against that policy. A link that opens on your laptop can still need correction before the advertising platform accepts it or buyers in the targeted location can use it.

For partner pages, open the public listing and follow the link yourself. If the page isn't live, request the preview that will become public and agree a final check after release. Write down any limitation. "Partner confirmed" and "public link tested" describe different evidence, and your launch record should make that difference obvious.

Check the surrounding promise while you're there. Does a button saying "Buy Friday tickets" reach Friday? Does an announcement offering a workshop bundle reach a place where that bundle is available? A correct address can still be connected to misleading wording. Our event landing page guide explains how to make the destination understandable once someone arrives.

Check redirects without changing what the buyer expects

A redirect sends someone from one address to another. You may need one because a page moved, a short address is easier to print, or an old campaign link still receives traffic. The audit should identify each redirect, its owner and its final destination. If several redirects follow each other, ask why each one remains necessary.

Google's documentation on redirects distinguishes permanent moves from temporary ones. Use the type that matches the actual situation, with your website manager handling implementation. You don't need to choose a server setting from memory. You do need to explain whether the old address has moved for good or should eventually return to its original purpose.

Consider an old workshop page that now points to your current season. If the old page contains useful attendee information, redirecting it automatically may confuse existing ticket holders. Keeping an archive with a clear current booking link can be more helpful. Decide what the visitor is trying to do before turning every outdated event address into a promotion for the next one.

When a genuine replacement exists, send people to the closest relevant destination. Redirecting a specific evening performance to your homepage forces buyers to search again and may conceal the fact that the performance changed. If there is no equivalent offer, explain that honestly. A sold out or cancelled event needs an appropriate message, not a silent substitution.

Where you control a campaign placement, update it to the approved current destination instead of relying on an unnecessary chain. Retain necessary redirects for addresses already distributed elsewhere. Test both the updated placement and the older address afterward. Repairing the new route shouldn't accidentally break the printed poster that people are still scanning.

Keep tracking intact through every handoff

Campaign tracking helps you identify where visits came from. In Google Analytics, UTM parameters are labels added to a link for details such as source, medium and campaign. Google's campaign URL guidance explains their use and notes that parameter values are case sensitive. Agree your naming before partners start building their own versions.

For example, decide whether a venue newsletter uses a consistent source name and how that campaign differs from your own email. Keep those decisions in the link record. Otherwise, two spellings can split what should be one report. This is reporting hygiene, not proof that a particular placement caused every purchase attributed to it.

Open the complete tracked link and inspect the journey after each redirect. If your labels disappear, ask the person responsible for that redirect to investigate whether the reporting still receives them correctly. Don't assume that an address looking shorter means tracking is broken, or that visible labels guarantee a recorded purchase. Check the relevant report using the system's supported testing process.

When the buyer moves between your website and another booking domain, ask how measurement handles that move. Google documents cross-domain measurement for supported setups. Have the person managing analytics confirm whether your particular ticketing arrangement supports it. A hosted checkout or embedded booking page doesn't automatically establish a complete measurement connection.

Never paste buyer names, email addresses or other personal details into campaign labels. Use a placement name or campaign identifier that doesn't identify an attendee. Keep payment and ticket records as the reference for completed orders, then use analytics to understand the route. If the reports disagree, investigate the setup before moving budget away from a channel that may be selling.

Test on a phone as a new buyer

Open the important routes on a phone without your organizer account already signed in. Your admin session may let you see an unpublished page that ordinary visitors can't access. A fresh browser session helps expose that mistake. It doesn't reproduce every buyer's device, so include the devices and browsers that matter for your audience where you can.

Try the browser inside a social or email app when that's how people will arrive. Check that the event opens, the booking control remains usable and any handoff to another page makes sense. A page can work in your usual browser while an embedded experience creates a problem. Record the actual app and device when reporting that difference.

Look for things that cover or interrupt the purchase control. A cookie notice, sticky banner or chat window may leave the button visible on a wide screen and obscure it on a narrow one. Rotate or resize only when it helps reproduce the issue. The person fixing it needs the conditions that caused the problem, not a general complaint that mobile feels awkward.

Use the links without relying on their colour alone. Can you identify the booking action and understand where it goes? W3C's guidance on link purpose explains why link text and its context should make the purpose understandable. Replace an ambiguous repeated label when it leaves buyers guessing between tickets, the programme and venue information.

Also try the route with the ordinary privacy choices your site offers. If declining optional analytics changes reporting, note that limitation. If it prevents someone from buying, investigate the purchase problem separately. You want the team to distinguish missing measurement from an unusable checkout, because they require different fixes and lead to different decisions about launching.

Follow the ticket through checkout and confirmation

Reaching the correct event page is not the end of the test. Choose the advertised ticket or session, check the quantity and follow the supported checkout process. Confirm the offer, date, restrictions and price presented to the buyer. A link audit can expose a purchase problem even when every address in the route works.

Use your platform's supported testing method where available. If a genuine paid order is needed, agree who can authorize it, how it will be reconciled and how any refund will affect fees and reporting. Don't invent a free ticket and treat that as proof that payment works. Those flows may exercise different parts of the system.

Test the offer that the campaign actually promises. A general admission purchase won't verify a bundle, a timed entry selection or a promotional code. Include relevant conditions such as the code's eligibility and expiry. Where several options share the same checkout, focus additional testing on the settings that change the buyer's choice rather than repeating identical steps without a reason.

Then inspect the confirmation and ticket delivery. Does the order show the right performance? Can the buyer retrieve the ticket through the supported method? Does the confirmation send them to the correct practical information? A successful payment followed by a confusing message creates support work and uncertainty, so include the steps after payment in your approval.

If you use Loopyah to sell tickets, its event pages and website embeds provide supported ways to present the booking experience. Test the route you've chosen in the place buyers encounter it. Keep the external campaign checks in your launch process too. Your ticketing setup cannot correct a partner who copied the wrong event address into their newsletter.

Turn findings into fixes someone can verify

Write each problem so another person can reproduce it. Include the placement, exact incoming link, expected result, actual result, test conditions and the person responsible for the change. Attach a screenshot when it clarifies what happened. "Booking broken" is difficult to act on. "Afternoon email opens the morning session on mobile" tells someone what to investigate.

Distinguish the person coordinating the audit from the person who controls the faulty part. Your campaign lead may own the launch decision, while a venue editor controls a listing and a developer controls a redirect. Assign the repair to the person who can make it. Keep a named coordinator responsible for checking that all required repairs return for verification.

Prioritize by the consequence for buyers and the exposure you're about to create. A route selling the wrong performance or preventing payment should stop that route from launching. A tracking error needs attention before you rely on its reports. An unrelated footer link can usually wait. Write the consequence beside the issue so priority doesn't depend on who complains most loudly.

After a repair, start from the original placement again. Don't approve a replacement destination pasted into a chat if the scheduled email still contains the old link. Follow the full route under the conditions that produced the problem. Mark the result with the time and tester, and record any remaining limitation instead of changing an ambiguous result to passed.

Sometimes the external publisher can't make the change before launch. Decide whether a controlled redirect can honestly resolve the problem, whether that placement can wait, or whether it should be removed from the immediate campaign. Don't promise a workaround until the person controlling it has confirmed it can work and you have tested the public route.

Check the links buyers reuse later

Some campaign links will still receive visits after your immediate launch is over. People save emails, forward invitations and return to bookmarks. Before approving a short address for repeated use, decide whether it always represents the current event or a particular edition. Those are different promises, and the words around the link should make the choice clear.

A general season address can reasonably show the current programme if that's what you advertised. An address described as a ticket for a particular performance needs to preserve enough context for someone returning later. When it stops selling, show the event's status and the relevant next step. Don't turn an existing buyer's saved link into an unexplained page for another date.

Check practical links in confirmation messages too. A ticket holder may return for venue directions, accessibility information or arrival times. Those links have a different purpose from the purchase button in your campaign. If you change the booking address, confirm that the change doesn't remove information people need to attend. Your customer support team should know where to send them.

Pay attention to links restricted by an offer or audience. An invitation for a private presale may require a particular access method. Test it as an eligible buyer using the supported process, then confirm what an ineligible visitor sees. A clear explanation can be the correct result. Quietly exposing a restricted offer or showing a meaningless error isn't an acceptable substitute.

For location or language variations, check the routes you've actually promised to serve. A buyer travelling abroad may encounter a different destination from the one your local team sees. Ask the responsible provider about any restriction you can't reproduce. Record an untested condition honestly rather than assuming a successful local check covers every country and language.

Keep a short launch approval record

You can make the final review easier by collecting the evidence in one place. The record doesn't need a complicated scoring system. It needs to show the campaign lead what was tested, which repairs passed and whether any unresolved issue affects a placement that's about to go live. Use these prompts when reviewing each important route.

• Where will the buyer start? Name the actual email, ad, listing, website control or printed material. Include its version so a later edit doesn't get confused with the material that passed.

• Where should the buyer finish? Identify the correct event, session and ticket offer, plus the confirmation or retrieval step that proves the supported purchase process completed as expected.

• What changed during the test? Record redirects, tracking handoffs and relevant access conditions. Explain any uncertainty in ordinary language, including the part your team couldn't verify directly.

• Who fixed the problem, and who retested it? Keep the repair and verification distinct. Add when the retest happened and whether it started from the original campaign placement.

• What decision follows? Approve the route, hold it back or document the specific reporting limitation someone has accepted. Name the person responsible for that decision and any follow-up check.

Keep this record where the campaign team can find it during launch. A repair buried in a private message is difficult to verify when someone else takes over. Share the approved destination with partners after changes, and ask them to stop circulating superseded versions. You can't control every forwarded message, but you can stop your own team distributing an address you already know is wrong.

Agree how the team will respond if a route fails during the launch itself. Someone needs access to pause the affected message or placement, someone needs to repair the destination, and someone needs to confirm the repair before distribution resumes. Check that those people can be reached by your campaign team while the announcement goes out. If the only person with access is unavailable, change the timing or arrange cover. Keep the correct booking address ready for customer support, so they can help a buyer without guessing which version to send. When the problem is resolved, record what changed and test any other placements that used the same faulty address before assuming the issue affected only the first report.

Work through a launch example

Imagine a hypothetical paid workshop with morning and afternoon sessions. Your website, venue newsletter, social campaign and printed poster are ready. The website purchase button opens the current event. The newsletter opens last season's page. The social link reaches the afternoon session but loses the campaign labels. The poster code points to a short address controlled by a former contractor.

Those findings need different decisions. Ask the venue to replace the newsletter address before sending. Have the analytics owner investigate the social route and confirm what reporting will remain available. Resolve control of the poster destination before printing. Meanwhile, test the website purchase through confirmation, because a correct landing page hasn't yet proved that checkout is ready.

Suppose the venue updates its preview, but the delivered test still opens the earlier page. Keep the issue open. The preview is evidence about the editor, while the received email is evidence about what readers get. Ask the venue to inspect the actual button and linked image, then send another test through the same delivery process.

Now suppose the social tracking issue remains unresolved while buyers can complete a correct purchase. You might choose to launch that route with a documented reporting limitation, depending on how you'll manage spend. That's a conscious commercial decision. Launching a route that sells the wrong session is a different problem because the purchase itself fails the campaign's promise.

Finish the example by testing the approved poster artwork and documenting access to its destination. Have the campaign lead review the remaining issues and approve only the routes that meet the agreed conditions. The result should be a clear account of what works, what remains uncertain and which placements are being held back, rather than a misleading declaration that the entire website is fine.

Recheck after the changes that can break a working route

An audit describes what you tested at a particular time. A later page rename, ticket release, event duplication or campaign edit can change the result. Agree which changes require another check, and make that check part of the change itself. Otherwise, someone can accidentally undo the repair while updating perfectly legitimate event information.

Ticket releases deserve particular attention. When an early offer closes, open the incoming links again and see what buyers encounter. Do they understand the currently available choice, or does the page still promote something they can no longer buy? Keep the original offer's conditions honest while making the next available option clear. Don't leave that decision to an unexplained error message.

For recurring events, review copied materials before every launch. Old dates and old booking addresses can survive in a saved email, a duplicated ad or a venue's template. Update the shared record, distribute the approved links and test the copies that will actually go out. Reusing a successful campaign is useful only if it points to the event you're selling now.

After launch, keep an eye on buyer messages, failed route reports and unusual gaps between visits and completed orders. Those are reasons to investigate, not automatic proof that a link is broken. Ask for the original placement and device details when someone reports a problem. Reproduce it before deciding whether the cause is the link, the page or the purchase process.

Your next step is to open the material scheduled to send first and follow its booking route as a buyer. Record what should happen, test through confirmation and resolve any mismatch with the person who controls it. Approve the campaign when the actual purchase routes work and everyone responsible for launch understands the remaining limits.