---
title: "Broken Links: \"Ignore\" or \"Mark as fixed\"?"
date: "2021-02-08T15:01:17+00:00"
summary: "Understand the difference between \"Ignore\" and \"Mark as fixed\" for broken links in Web Governance. Improve your site's compliance score."
image:
type: "article"
url: "/web-governance/help/59056-broken-links-ignore-or-mark-fixed"
id: "e1e5db81-686e-4ea7-9dcc-f48145b9fab6"
---

**What is the difference between Ignore and Mark as Fixed for broken links?**

When you view a list of broken links such as the list of unique broken links, you can click the gear icon and choose either _Ignore_ or _Mark as fixed_. This document provides an explanation for how each option works:

*   **Ignore** indicates to Web Governance that you don't want to see an error for this link ever again. When this option is selected, the link disappears from the list of broken links and will not return even after the next scan. Use this option if [links are marked as dead when really they are not](/web-governance/help/59206-faq-broken-links-troubleshooting "FAQ broken links troubleshooting"). You can also choose to ignore spelling issues on a single page basis, and all other issues on a domain level. Ignoring issues will result in a recalculated compliance score, as the system will regard these ‘ignored’ issues as being non-existent. If you ignore a flagged issue, it is not factored into future scans, and this will permanently affect the compliance score.
*   **Mark as fixed** is used when you have actually fixed the problem on your website HTML and want to remove the link from the lists. Do this to "check off" that link so you have a better overview of the next tasks you need to complete. If we find this dead link on subsequent scans it will be back in the list and factored into the compliance score.

Note

The following is the crucial difference between the issues that you mark as fixed and issues that you mark as ignore:

*   Issues that are marked as fixed are flagged upon future scans
    
*   Issues that are set to ignore are permanently omitted from future scans and future compliance score calculations, as long as the link gives the same broken error.
    

Ignored links are displayed on the scan again if the status of the link changes. For example, a link previously marked as broken with a 404 status and ignored is reset if the link later receives a new "Ok" status, such as 200. If the same link starts to return a 404 error in the future, it is displayed on the broken links report again.

For information on how to set up the scan to exclude a link so that it is never considered, visit:

*   [Path constraints and link exclusions](/web-governance/path-constraints-and-link-exclusions "Path constraints and link exclusions").

**The information from this document is included in the** Web Governance **documents:**

[Quality Assurance: Links](/web-governance/quality-assurance-links "Quality Assurance Links")

[Quick Guide: Fix Broken Links](/web-governance/fix-broken-links "Fix broken links")