mislinking

Mislinking is the act or condition in which a hyperlink points to an incorrect resource or destination. Unlike broken links that simply fail to load, mislinks direct users to content that is unrelated or misleading given the link label or context. Mislinking can occur in websites, wikis, emails, and other hypertext documents, and is a common issue during content updates, migrations, or collaborative editing.

Causes include human error during authoring or editing, changes to URLs without updating references, migrations between systems, or automated imports that remap anchors to the wrong pages. Mislinks can arise from ambiguous anchor text, mislabeling, or confusion between similarly named pages or products. Dynamic routing or multilingual sites may also produce mislinks if translations point to the wrong locale or version.

Types of mislinking include incorrect destination due to mislabeled anchor text, a destination that has moved without a proper redirect, or a link that points to a different section of the same site than intended.

Effects are primarily user confusion and potential misinformation; in web contexts they can undermine trust, hinder information retrieval, and, in some cases, affect search engine optimization by signaling poor navigability.

Detection and measurement rely on link-checking tools, crawlers, and manual audits that verify that anchors resolve to relevant, expected destinations. They may assess the match between anchor text and destination, page titles, and content.

Prevention and remediation involve content governance, routine link auditing, and the use of redirects when destinations change. Publishing workflows should include link verification, versioning, and documentation of changes to minimize mislinking.