Link Checker Module¶

Module ID: links | Type: Conditional (always included) | Profiles: All profiles

The Link Checker module performs HTML-level link quality analysis: classifying internal vs external links, validating anchor fragments, checking mailto and tel links, and verifying rel attributes.

What It Checks¶

Check	What It Looks For
Internal links	Links to the same domain, checking for broken anchors
External links	Links to other domains
Anchor fragments	`#section` links that reference valid IDs on the page
Mailto links	Valid email addresses in `href="mailto:..."`
Tel links	Valid phone numbers in `href="tel:..."`
Rel noopener	`rel="noopener"` on `target="_blank"` external links
Rel nofollow	Identifies nofollow usage patterns
Empty links	Links with no text content or aria-label
JavaScript links	`href="javascript:..."` anti-pattern
Hash-only links	`href="#"` placeholder links

Scoring Breakdown¶

Criterion	Deduction	Condition
Broken anchor fragments	-3 per link	Links to non-existent IDs
External links without noopener	-2 per link	Up to -10 total
Empty links	-3 per link	Up to -9 total
JavaScript href	-5 per link	Up to -15 total
Hash-only links	-2 per link	Up to -6 total
Invalid mailto	-3 per link	Malformed email addresses
Invalid tel	-3 per link	Malformed phone numbers

Auto-Detection¶

The links module is universally useful and is included in every audit by default. It activates alongside the core modules.

Example Findings¶

P2 MEDIUM: 3 broken anchor links
  Links point to #pricing, #team, and #faq but no elements with those
  IDs exist on the page.
  Fix: Either add id="pricing", id="team", id="faq" to the target
       elements, or update the links.
  Effort: Low

P2 MEDIUM: 5 external links missing rel="noopener"
  Links with target="_blank" without rel="noopener" expose the opener
  to window.opener access from the target page.
  Fix: Add rel="noopener" (or rel="noopener noreferrer") to all
       target="_blank" links.
  Effort: Low