Ghost Site

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What Does Ghost Site Mean?

A ghost site is a slang term for a website that remains live but is no longer updated or maintained, or on which updates are very infrequent. Unlike a site that is no longer available, ghost sites do not produce a 404 error when users attempt to access them.

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Techopedia Explains Ghost Site

Websites typically strive for relevant information that is timely and current. For whatever reason, a ghost site has not been maintained or updated by its owner. The problem is that ghost sites are hard to detect, because it can be difficult to determine exactly how frequently a site is maintained. Depending on the nature of the content, it may or may not matter. For example, a reference site with timeless content that isn’t updated is less of an issue than a website that deals with more time-sensitive subject matter.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.