I can add to the sample size here and have found similar results. I wrote an SEO test piece a while ago which inadvertently became quite popular[0] (and did ran

I can add to the sample size here and have found similar results. I wrote an SEO test piece a while ago which inadvertently became quite popular[0] (and did rank well for the targeted terms). In updating it recently (couple months ago) I found many of the links simply 404'd, not even any redirect at all. Wikipedia was pretty bad for this too as the author found. I took to hosting all the files I linked to myself to at least be sure they'd stay around but it is a bit of a losing battle with regard to linking to normal webpages. I might look to link to an archive.org page instead in the future if the link rot keeps happening. Perhaps that would be a more stable option. [0] http://josharcher.uk/blog/why-margaret-thatcher-is-hated/ http://josharcher.uk/blog/why-margaret-thatcher-is-hated/