Broken Link Checker (HTML)

What this offline check actually catches: Counts every anchor href in pasted HTML and flags the obvious failures that never leave the browser: empty href equals empty string, single hash for placeholder, hash bang, and javascript colon schemes used for buttons. A five-link footer with one hash reports one broken-looking link plus total five. This mirrors what QA sees in staging from Austin to Manhattan before any crawl, saving hours over manual clicks.

Why placeholder anchors break USA user experience: Hash links scroll to top and confuse checkout flows on Shopify stores from Miami to Los Angeles, triggering back-button frustration and rage clicks. Empty href reloads the page and wipes form data on lead gen funnels in Chicago real estate. Javascript colon links fail when CSP blocks inline scripts for banks in New York. Screen readers announce broken links as visited with no destination, violating WCAG across federal sites.

How markup-only differs from full 404 crawling: This tool never fetches URLs, so it cannot confirm server 404s, 500s, redirects, or timeouts that require network crawlers like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb on thousands of URLs. Use it as a fast pre-publish gate before deploy, then schedule weekly crawls for live status across Texas and California CDNs. Combine results: fix markup flags first, then chase live 404 lists from logs.

Typical USA footer and nav patterns it fixes: Coming soon links left as href hash in footers before Black Friday launches. Social icons templated with href empty when handle missing. Pagination with javascript colon void zero for React handlers that should be buttons. Breadcrumbs where current page links to hashtag. Replace each with real URLs, remove href entirely for non-links, or convert to button elements for correct semantics.

Workflow for large USA sites before deploy: Export rendered HTML from WordPress, Webflow, or Next.js via view source, paste the chunk for header, footer, and main separately to isolate sections, and note broken counts per template. Track counts in Jira tickets with dates like 09/09/2026. For 50-page client audits in Illinois agencies, sample ten templates that cover ninety percent of links rather than pasting entire sitemaps at once.

Privacy, limits, and pairing for USA QA: All parsing stays local with no fetches or uploads, safe for pre-launch embargoed pages and investor decks from Austin to Manhattan. Live checks need crawlers for redirect chains that defeat placeholder hints because this tool reads source only. Pair with canonical checker that validates href targets and with sitemap validator that counts loc entries to ensure kept links point to canonical USA destinations for strong consolidation and clean indexing.