Find current links that still promote a retired download

Identify the document before searching for its references

A document title is not a unique address. The same named report may have been uploaded more than once, while an unchanged URL may now serve a different file. Start from the withdrawal record: the document’s public URL, the product or batch it describes, its printed date or version, the retirement date, and the recorded reason. Keep a copy of the withdrawn original with that record instead of overwriting the only historical copy.

Search the site’s content records for the exact address, filename, and document title. Include product descriptions, resource pages, articles, buttons, reusable page sections, and navigation. Use an existing crawl or link report where available, then open the matches on the live site. A match in a draft is different from a reference currently visible to visitors. Record alternate public addresses for the same file so a corrected link does not leave another copy promoted.

Read what the linking page promises

For every active reference, read the sentence before and after the link as well as the button label. Determine whether the page offers a current product document, describes a dated historical record, or makes a claim that the document no longer supports. Record the actual words and the product or batch they concern. A working link answers whether a file opens; it does not establish that the file supports the current offer.

FTC truth-in-advertising guidance calls for advertising to be truthful, nonmisleading, and substantiated across media, including websites. Use that principle to examine the entire presentation. Changing the link destination while leaving an unsupported claim beside it does not resolve the evidence mismatch. The guidance does not decide whether a particular phrase or retirement notice is legally sufficient.

Choose a correction for the reference and an outcome for the file

When a genuine replacement exists, compare its product identifier, scope, and date with the current claim before linking it. Label the replacement accurately and retain the old document in the historical record. A newer file for a different batch is not automatically support for the same claim. If there is no replacement, revise or withdraw the unsupported statement and explain the document’s retirement where that context is needed.

Decide separately what a direct visit to the old URL should receive. An accurate historical page or notice can distinguish the withdrawn document from current evidence. A redirect should lead to a genuinely relevant replacement whose differences are clear. If the file is no longer to be public and no relevant replacement exists, arrange an appropriate missing-content response while retaining the original privately. Do not leave a misleading file publicly promoted merely to preserve history, and do not erase the history to make the retirement appear never to have happened.

Verify both ends of the correction

After publication, revisit each active linking page and follow its actual link. Record the visible claim, the destination, any redirect, the HTTP response reported by the site maintainer, and the observation date. Also check the old address directly. The correction is unfinished if the page still describes a withdrawn file as current, even when the new destination works.

Google documents that a success response does not guarantee indexing, that error wording returned with a success status can become a soft 404, and that redirects lead to content Google processes at the destination. Missing-content responses such as 404 or 410 can lead to removal from the index over time. None supplies an immediate search-removal promise. External references remain outside your editing control; record them separately from the current pages you can correct.

For a scoped Prism website-review consultation, identify the public pages, the document’s retirement status, and the remaining claim question. Scope, fees, and terms are discussed before work. Send the website, products, and question through the contact form without private documents, customer records, passwords, or payment details. Follow-up is by email; the request does not book an appointment, buy a review, or submit a processing application.

Download retirement map

Complete one copy for each withdrawn document, adding every active linking page to your own working record. Use public addresses only. A correction is complete only when the claim, destination, and direct response at the old address have each been checked; an unexamined reference stays unresolved.

Worksheet entries are not submitted by Prism’s worksheet and are not saved by the site. Use record types, availability, anonymized observations, or match/mismatch results. Do not enter government identifiers, customer names or addresses, customer messages, receipt-access links, card or bank details, passwords, or keys. Send sensitive documents only through the provider’s verified secure channel.

These are temporary notes. Leaving or reloading this page may clear them. Worksheet entries are not sent automatically. If you copy notes into the consultation message and submit the form, Prism receives them as part of your request.