If your internal links rely on JavaScript click handlers instead of real <a href> tags, or use patterns crawlers can't follow, search engines may never discover the pages those links point to — no matter how good that content is, it stays invisible if nothing crawlable links to it.
Google follows standard <a href> links to discover pages. Links built with JavaScript onclick handlers or buttons are often not crawled, leaving parts of your site invisible.
Crawlable links specifically refers to ensuring your site's internal navigation and links use standard, genuinely crawlable HTML link markup rather than JavaScript-dependent or otherwise non-standard implementations that search engine crawlers might fail to properly discover and follow during their crawling process.
This check addresses a genuine, sometimes subtle technical risk — modern web development techniques, particularly heavily JavaScript-driven interfaces, can inadvertently implement navigation in ways that work perfectly for human visitors using a full browser, while creating genuine obstacles for search engine crawlers attempting to discover your site's complete link structure and content.
The genuine consequence of non-crawlable links extends beyond the specific link itself — content only reachable through these problematic link implementations may never be discovered by search engines at all, regardless of that content's actual quality or relevance, since crawlers cannot follow a path they cannot technically recognize as a genuine, followable link.
Verification here typically involves checking whether your site's actual navigation and internal links use standard anchor tag implementation that crawlers reliably recognize, versus non-standard implementations dependent on JavaScript execution or other techniques that introduce genuine risk of crawlers failing to discover the full scope of your site's actual content and structure.
All important pages are reachable via real, crawlable <a href> links from elsewhere on the site.
Fix it, then re-scan — the check confirms itself. No manual checkbox, the scan is the truth.
Run this check in H.I.V.E. →