Internal links without a valid href
Links without a usable href — empty, "#", or javascript:. They look like links and lead nowhere a crawler can follow. If they are the only way to a page, that page is not found.
WarningLINK-003 · Links · checked on every page
Where it usually comes from
Menus and buttons built with JavaScript click handlers on links with href="#", or links whose address is filled in by a script later.
How to fix it
- Give every navigation link a real address in its href.
- Keep javascript: and # for actions that are not navigation, such as opening a menu — and use a <button> for those.
- If a script fills the address in later, have the server print it in the HTML from the start.
How to check it yourself
Hover the link and look at the address in the browser's status bar: a bare # or javascript: means crawlers cannot follow it.
What it looks like in a report
Warning 9 links have no valid href. · evidence: href="#"
The menu opens with a script on a link; crawlers cannot follow it to the categories. (An example shop; the numbers are illustrative.)
How the audit counts it
LINK-003 is a warning in the links category, and weighs lightly in that category’s score. When it appears on many pages built from the same template, the report shows it once, with the number of pages it covers — because one change in the template fixes all of them.
If the finding is deliberate on your site, it can be accepted as intentional in the report. It then leaves the list and the score, and comes back on its own if what it shows changes.
Other links checks
- Too many links on the page · LINK-001
- Generic anchor text · LINK-002
- Internal links to dead pages · LINK-004
- Orphan pages · LINK-005
- Internal links written to another address of the site · LINK-006
- Pages reached by one internal link only · LINK-007
Find it on your site
A Trakis audit runs this check and the other 65 on your site, and tells you on how many pages each one sits. Or go back to all the rules.