Glossary · Indexing and discovery
dead anchor
A link to a fragment, such as /pricing#fix, whose target id does not exist on the page. The page loads and the browser stays at the top, so nothing reports an error; a link check that follows the URL and ignores the fragment passes it.
What dead anchor means
A link to a fragment, such as /pricing#fix, whose target id does not exist on the page. The page loads and the browser stays at the top, so nothing reports an error; a link check that follows the URL and ignores the fragment passes it. It is found by reading the target page's ids.
What dead anchor can and cannot support
| It can support | It cannot support |
|---|---|
| It is found by reading the target page's ids. | A link to a fragment, such as /pricing#fix, whose target id does not exist on the page. The page loads and the browser stays at the top, so nothing reports an error; a link check that follows the URL and ignores the fragment passes it. |
How CrawlCheck measures dead anchor
One finding code in the scanner read this. The share of all scans carrying each is computed from the live corpus when this page is served, not typed into it.
| Finding code | Share of scans | Guide |
|---|---|---|
BROKEN_INTERNAL_LINK | 2% | dataset |
Every code, its rule and its current rate: the dataset page. Scan a site to see which apply to it.
Where dead anchor comes up on this site
- How to find broken internal links and dead anchor linksMost internal link audits are a crawl and a list of non-200 responses.
- Internal link audit: 2,260 links checked, 4 went nowhereThe anchor we reported missing that was there During the audit we first listed a fourth dead anchor, #site , on the whole-site row.
Related terms in Indexing and discovery
Whether a page can be found and kept, separately from whether it can be fetched.
index coverage · canonical · noindex · X-Robots-Tag · orphan page · E-E-A-T · E-E-A-T proxies · topical authority · Soft 404 · case consistency · accessibility structure · landmark region · accessible name · skip link · main landmark · alt attribute · form control name · duplicate id · IndexNow · faceted navigation · thin content · duplicate content · near-duplicate · boilerplate · MinHash · shingle · placeholder content · image placeholder · alt text · EXIF
Questions about dead anchor
What is dead anchor?
A link to a fragment, such as /pricing#fix, whose target id does not exist on the page. The page loads and the browser stays at the top, so nothing reports an error; a link check that follows the URL and ignores the fragment passes it.
What does dead anchor not show or guarantee?
A link to a fragment, such as /pricing#fix, whose target id does not exist on the page. The page loads and the browser stays at the top, so nothing reports an error; a link check that follows the URL and ignores the fragment passes it.
How does CrawlCheck measure dead anchor?
Through the finding code BROKEN_INTERNAL_LINK, each with a stated rule, evidence bytes and a live share of scans on the dataset page.
Which area of the glossary does dead anchor belong to?
Indexing and discovery: Whether a page can be found and kept, separately from whether it can be fetched.
← shingle · placeholder content →
See it in the full glossary · 668 terms across 19 areas.