Internal link checker

Q: What's wrong with href="#" or javascript:void(0) ?

Both are placeholder hrefs that don't navigate anywhere. href="#" scrolls to the top of the page; javascript:void(0) does nothing. Users often click and nothing happens (or something unexpected happens). Screen readers announce them as links with no destination. Crawlers follow them to nowhere. If the element triggers a JS handler without navigating, the correct HTML is <button> , not <a> . If it should navigate, set a real URL.

Check internal links on your page: anchors, nofollow, and total count

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This check only covers internal links. For a full picture of your page, run a page audit.

For issues across your whole site — duplicate titles, orphan pages, broken internal links — run a site audit.

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What are internal links and why they matter

Internal links point from one page on your site to another page on the same site. They form the crawl graph search engines use to discover content, distribute ranking signals (PageRank) across pages, and help both users and bots understand which pages are important. A site with good internal linking gets indexed faster, ranks individual pages more effectively, and gives users a clearer path through the content.

What this tool checks

Internal link count — how many links to same-origin URLs were found
Placeholder links — href="#", href="", or javascript:* that don't navigate anywhere
Empty anchors — <a> tags with no text and no image
Generic anchor text — "click here", "read more", "learn more" that give crawlers no topical signal
Nofollow on internal links — rel="nofollow" that blocks internal ranking-signal flow
File links without target="_blank" — PDF/ZIP/docs that open in the current tab

The role of anchor text

The anchor is the clickable text of the link. Google uses anchor text as a strong signal for what the target page is about — both your own text (for other pages on your site) and text from external sites linking to you. Descriptive anchors like "our 2026 SEO audit checklist" outperform vague ones like "click here" because they tell search engines and users what to expect before the click. Generic anchors waste a linking opportunity.

Nofollow on internal links

The rel="nofollow" attribute tells search engines not to pass ranking signals through the link. On external links, nofollow is a common and reasonable practice (comments, paid placements, untrusted content). On internal links, nofollow is almost always counterproductive — it blocks your own PageRank from flowing between your pages. Legitimate exceptions: login forms, shopping carts, and account pages that shouldn't be indexed anyway.

Good vs bad examples

Good — descriptive anchor pointing to a specific topical page:

<a href="/seo-audit-checklist">Our complete SEO audit checklist</a>

Good — image-only link with alt text (screen readers read the alt as the link label):

<a href="/about"><img src="/logo.png" alt="Seorado homepage"></a>

Good — download link correctly opening in a new tab:

<a href="/report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2026 trends report (PDF)</a>

Bad — placeholder link that navigates nowhere:

<a href="#">Click me</a>

Bad — empty anchor (screen reader says "link" with nothing else):

<a href="/article"></a>

Bad — generic anchor text (Google gets no signal about the target):

<a href="/article-123">Read more</a>

Common mistakes

Placeholder hrefs left from prototyping — href="#" is fine in a Figma mockup, terrible in production. Use <button> when you need a JS handler without navigation
"Click here" for every inline link — every major SEO guide flags this; replace with text that names the destination
Icon-only links with no alt / aria-label — the clickable target is accessible but the label isn't; screen-reader users can't tell where it goes
Nofollow on internal links site-wide — usually a plugin misconfiguration; internal PageRank should flow freely
PDF and ZIP links opening in the current tab — users navigate away and don't return; add target="_blank" rel="noopener"
Orphan pages (no internal links pointing to them) — they're harder to discover. Not detected by a single-page audit; requires a full site crawl.

Frequently asked questions

How many internal links should a page have?

There's no hard limit, but Google recommends "a reasonable number." For a typical article, 3-10 internal links is a good benchmark. The key is that links should be useful to users and lead to relevant pages.

Should internal links have nofollow?

In most cases, no. Nofollow on internal links prevents link equity transfer between your site's pages. Use it only for utility pages that don't need indexing: login, cart, account pages.

Why are empty anchors a problem?

A link without anchor text or an alt-described image is inaccessible: screen readers announce "link" with no destination, and Google gets no topical signal about the target page. The most common cause is a link wrapping an image without an alt attribute. Fix it by adding descriptive link text, or by giving the child <img> an alt that describes the destination (e.g. alt="Seorado homepage", not alt="logo").

What's wrong with href="#" or javascript:void(0)?

Both are placeholder hrefs that don't navigate anywhere. href="#" scrolls to the top of the page; javascript:void(0) does nothing. Users often click and nothing happens (or something unexpected happens). Screen readers announce them as links with no destination. Crawlers follow them to nowhere. If the element triggers a JS handler without navigating, the correct HTML is <button>, not <a>. If it should navigate, set a real URL.

Are "click here" and "read more" really that bad?

They work — users can still click — but they waste the anchor text as a ranking signal. Google uses anchor text as a strong indicator of what the target page is about. "Read our 2026 SEO trends report" tells Google the target page is about 2026 SEO trends; "read more" tells it nothing. Over hundreds of links across a site, descriptive anchors compound. They're also better for accessibility — screen-reader users often navigate by tabbing through links, and a list of "read more, read more, read more" is useless.