Questions about Link Signals, answered

No access is needed. Link Signals reads what any visitor or search engine can read, and reports on it.

Normally not. Link Signals reads pages a few at a time, identifies itself, and after the first full pass monitoring reads only what changed.

Only what a visitor or crawler can see. Inline script text is read and decoded, but nothing is run, so links built while a page runs can be missed.

Use the sitemap index if you have one, or paste the bare domain and let Link Signals look. Only pages listed in a sitemap are scanned.

A large site is read as a sample spread across the whole sitemap, and the report says so. Monitoring then covers more of it over time.

You need an account, which is created from your email address, but not a card. The free plan runs real scans with the same checks as the paid plans, within smaller limits.

Link Signals stores your scans, monitoring records and choices so the service can work. Removing a site deletes its stored record, and you can ask for anything else to be deleted.

On a paid plan, yes, from the Feedback page. On the free plan you can still report problems, ask questions and vote on every idea on the roadmap.

Accurate enough for triage, not a final ruling. A blocklist hit is strong evidence, and anything weaker is marked for a person to decide.

No. It does report broken links, but it also asks where each link leads now and whether it belongs on the page.

Seven verdicts describe each link. Some say a person should look, some say the page could not be read, and none of the unsettled ones is treated as broken.

Findings are put in a fixed order so the urgent ones come first. The order sorts the report, the overview and the scan email, and it never changes what counts as a problem.

Link Signals reports on links in your own reports, and it does not run the blocklists it reads. A wrong finding can be ignored or reviewed, and reported so it can be looked at.

A hidden link sits in the code of a page where visitors cannot see it. It is a signal to look closer, not proof of a hack.

The same link can be fine on one page and wrong on another. Link Signals judges each risky link against the page that carries it.

The page your link pointed to is gone, and so is the domain. Anyone can register it and answer your visitors with whatever they like.

The page loads, so it is not broken, but the site you meant is gone. Visitors land on an advert that looks like part of your recommendation.

A broken link is a dead end for visitors. By itself it is minor, which is why it ranks fourth, but it is worth clearing out regularly.

Links to sources you stand behind can be followed. Nofollow, sponsored and ugc are for the ones you cannot or will not vouch for.

Links to good, relevant sites are normal. The concern is spam, hidden links and links you cannot vouch for, and Link Signals shows you which of those you have.

A panel beside the LinkSignal score that counts followed links pointing at flagged destinations. It counts links, shows a share, and adds no points of its own.

A flag is a prompt to look, not a sentence. Each kind of finding has a usual fix, and a link you want to keep has a proper way to be kept.

Your word is not enough, and it should not be. Link Signals reads the page again and records what it saw.

Ignoring is for links you have checked and are happy with. It changes how a finding is counted, never what was found.

A rescan asks what the whole site looks like now. A re-check asks whether the links you fixed are fixed.

You add a sitemap once. Link Signals records a baseline, then keeps checking and tells you only what is new or worse.

Most missing alerts have a plain reason: the baseline was still running, the finding was already there, or the next check had not run yet.

Besides the links on your pages, a scan looks at the site it scanned: whether its domain and certificate are close to running out, and whether HTTPS is set up properly.

One number to glance at, with every lost point explained. When it moves, something that was found or checked is different.

A finished report can be shared as a private link. The reader needs no account, sees that one report only, and you can switch the link off at any time.

Choose CSV at the top right of a report’s table to download its saved findings as a spreadsheet file. Clean links are counted but not listed.