Links Spy Autor: Keral Patel

Links Spy finds the broken links on any web page and colour-codes every other link by where it goes. Click the toolbar icon to outline internal, external, nofollow and dead-end links, then check every destination's HTTP status in a single pass.

<strong>Finding broken links</strong>
<ul>
<li>Broken - answered 4xx or 5xx</li>
<li>Redirected - does not go where the markup says it does</li>
<li>Unreachable - DNS failure, refused connection or timeout</li>
<li>Reachable - confirmed working</li>
</ul>
Each unique URL is checked once, results appear as they arrive, and a badge on the toolbar icon counts how many links need attention.

<strong>Where every link goes</strong>
<ul>
<li>Internal - elsewhere on the same site</li>
<li>Subdomain - same root domain, different host</li>
<li>External - leaves your site entirely</li>
<li>Anchor - jumps to a section of the current page</li>
<li>Mail and phone - mailto:, tel:, sms:</li>
<li>File download - PDF, ZIP, DOC and similar</li>
<li>Dead end - no href, an empty href, "#" or javascript:</li>
</ul>

<strong>Problems it flags</strong>
<ul>
<li>Nofollow, sponsored and UGC links that pass no ranking signal</li>
<li>Duplicate destinations, where one URL is linked several times over</li>
<li>Insecure http:// links sitting on an https:// page</li>
<li>Links with no anchor text, invisible to screen readers and search engines</li>
<li>target="_blank" without rel="noopener"</li>
</ul>
A panel in the corner keeps a live count of everything found. Click any row to isolate just those links and hide the rest.

<strong>Stays out of the way</strong>
<ul>
<li>Highlighting is fully removable. Your page styles are never modified.</li>
<li>Outline mode does not shift the layout. Switch to a background tint if you prefer.</li>
<li>Toggle on and off with Ctrl+Shift+L, no page reload needed.</li>
<li>Every colour is configurable and any category can be switched off.</li>
<li>Follows your light or dark theme.</li>
</ul>

<strong>Privacy and permissions</strong>

No account, no analytics, no servers. Links Spy collects nothing and transmits nothing. Your settings stay in your own browser.

Access to other websites is an <em>optional</em> permission, never requested at install. It is asked for only if you choose to status-check links that point off-site. Links on the site you are already viewing can be checked without granting anything extra.

<strong>Who it is for</strong>

SEO audits, site migrations, content QA, accessibility reviews, and anyone who needs to know that a page's links still work.