Every finding belongs to one of five priorities: parked, not registered, out of context, broken and needs review, in that order by default. A finding is counted in the first priority it matches, so each link appears once, and the order is the order to work in.
The priority is a rank, not a score. It says what to look at first, and it does not say how bad a link is on a scale.
The five priorities
| Priority | What it is | Why it ranks here |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Parked | The domain is for sale and the site you linked to has gone. | Visitors already land on an advert. |
| 2 Not registered | Nobody holds the domain, or its registration has expired. | Anyone can register it and receive your visitors. |
| 3 Out of context | Hidden from visitors, shown only to search engines, written by encoded script, or unrelated to its page. | The usual sign of injected spam. |
| 4 Broken (404) | The page returns 404 or 410. | A dead end for visitors. |
| 5 Needs review | Anything else flagged as risky or unsafe. | It needs a person to decide. |
Why a parked link is above one that is not registered
A parked link is already doing harm: the page loads, and what it shows is an advert that looks like part of your recommendation. A domain nobody holds is a risk that has not happened yet. Both are urgent, and the parked one is the one visitors are reaching today.
Why a broken link is not first
A 404 on a domain that still exists is the least dangerous of the group. It is a dead end, but it does not hand your visitors to someone else. See do broken links hurt my site for more.
Why Needs review cannot be moved
Needs review catches whatever is flagged but is not one of the other four. If it sat higher it would take their findings, so it always stays last.
Changing the order
The free plan uses the standard order. On the paid plans (Starter, Pro and Scale) the first four can be reordered from the report’s Overview tab, and the new order applies to every report and email on the account. Back to the standard order undoes it. The steps are in set your priority order.
What the order does not change
- It does not hide anything. Every finding is listed whatever the order, and the counts are the same.
- It does not change what is a problem. It only changes sort order, the order of the overview cards, and which finding the report headline and the scan email lead with.
- It does not change your LinkSignal. The score is worked out in the standard order for everyone, so the same scan gives the same number. LinkSignal is Link Signals’ own metric, based only on this tool’s findings and not connected to any search engine or third-party score. See what is LinkSignal.
A priority cannot be switched off. A finding you have judged fine can be marked reviewed, or ignored on a monitored site, but the order itself only moves things up and down.
Questions
Can one link be in two priorities?
No. A link that is parked and also hidden is counted once, under whichever comes first in your order. That is why the tabs add up to the flagged total and the headline, cards and email always agree.
Does a shared report use my order?
Yes. A shared report uses the owner’s order, so the person you send it to sees the findings sorted the way you do.
Which finding does the scan email lead with?
The most urgent one in the current order, which is the same one the report headline names. Change the order and both follow it.
Do links with no priority appear?
Links that are fine, or that a site refused to show the crawler, have no priority because they are not findings. They are counted in the inventory, not in the action plan.
Run a scan and the report puts the most urgent links at the top.
