Audit rules

Unresolvable Link Href

An <a href> value cannot be resolved to a usable URL: it is empty, or it is a malformed http(s) URL (missing or empty host, "http:/x", spaces in the host, unbalanced brackets). In a QuikSEO audit, a failure has warning severity and counts against the score. The exact condition, its exceptions and its sources follow below.

01 — Definition

How This Rule Is Checked

The rule is a pure function of the fetched page: no extra requests, no account settings. The same input always gives the same result.

Rule Severity and Score

Rule id: links.unresolvable_href
Group: Links
Severity of a failure: Warning
Counts in the score: Yes, whenever it applies to the page
Required for a score: No

Condition and Exceptions

Condition: <a href> values that cannot be resolved to a usable URL: empty, # excluded (pass), malformed (http://, https:///x, http:/x, spaces in the host, unbalanced brackets) → fail with examples; javascript:, mailto:, tel: are not unresolvable
Exceptions: No links → not_applicable

Sources and Project Decision

Sources: Link best practices for Google (Google Search Central, Q35)
URL Standard (section 4.4 URL parsing) (WHATWG, Q63)
Project decision: Severity warning is a project decision [D]. An empty href is reported; a lone "#" is excluded. Other schemes (javascript:, mailto:, tel:, ...) and relative paths are never reported.

02 — Links

Other Rules in This Group

The other checks of the same group, each with its own condition and sources.

External Link Countlinks.external_count
Internal Link Countlinks.internal_count
Unsafe External Target Blank Linkslinks.unsafe_target_blank