Guides to using Link Signals

One number to glance at, with its working shown. It is built only from what this tool found and checked, and it is Link Signals’ own scale, not a search engine’s measure.

Link Signals starts from your XML sitemap. Most platforms publish one automatically at a predictable address. This guide lists them and shows what to do when yours isn’t there.

A scan can return hundreds of links. The report is built so the ones worth your time come first, in a set order. This guide explains each part.

The CSV export puts every finding into a spreadsheet for a client report, a fix list or an audit trail. This guide explains each column.

Link Signals only requests pages that someone gives it a sitemap for, and the pages those pages link to. If you’d rather it didn’t touch your site, this is exactly what works and what doesn’t.

Set up takes a minute: paste your sitemap address, pick a schedule, and wait for the first check. These are the steps and what each control on the Monitoring page does.

Monitoring uses the date each page has in your sitemap to decide what to read again. A two-minute check tells you whether those dates are trustworthy.

Some flagged links are fine, such as a page about blocklists linking to a blocklist project. Ignoring one removes it from your count and your alerts without hiding it.

You don’t need to keep a scan open. It runs on our servers, saves what it finds as it goes, and emails you when it’s done.

Google asks site owners to mark links they don’t vouch for. These are the three values, when each one fits, and how to fix a flagged link.

A shared report is one finished scan, readable by anyone you give the link to. You can switch the link off at any time.

After a free scan you can have one site checked every day for a few days, to see what monitoring does before you choose a plan.

A site goes down if its domain lapses or its certificate expires. Each scan reads both dates for the site you scanned and warns you when they are close.

One scan is a snapshot. The Sites page puts your checks side by side so you can see whether a site is getting cleaner or worse, and what changed.

Every finding belongs to one of five priorities. They start in a standard order, and a paid plan can change it to match what matters most on your site.

Reviewed doesn’t mean fixed. Link Signals checks each reviewed link again on the next scan before it calls it resolved.

Load your sitemap and we compare its size with your plan. If your plan covers the site, we say so. If it doesn’t, we recommend the smallest plan that does.

Tell us what is wrong, or, on a paid plan, what you’d like next. We read everything, publish what we can act on, and email you when it ships.

You don’t need a full scan to find out whether a fix worked. Re-check just the flagged links, and you get a new report set against the one you started from.

A rescan is labelled as one, counted the same way as the scan it repeats, and compared with it link by link. Nothing in the comparison is guessed.

A scan that reaches its link limit is saved but did not read everything. Here is how it is labelled, how to avoid one, and what to do when it happens.

A client logo or partner link can be genuine and still be flagged. On a paid plan you can trust it, so later scans count it as safe while it stays no more serious.