diff --git a/lib/html-proofer/check/links.rb b/lib/html-proofer/check/links.rb
index 58f332a3..e35c1879 100644
--- a/lib/html-proofer/check/links.rb
+++ b/lib/html-proofer/check/links.rb
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ def run
 
         add_to_external_urls(@link.href)
         next
-      elsif !@link.remote? && !@link.exists?
+      elsif @link.internal? && !@link.exists?
         add_issue("internally linking to #{@link.href}, which does not exist", line: line, content: content)
       end
 
diff --git a/lib/html-proofer/element.rb b/lib/html-proofer/element.rb
index d792206e..6d1229fd 100644
--- a/lib/html-proofer/element.rb
+++ b/lib/html-proofer/element.rb
@@ -139,9 +139,22 @@ def external?
       !internal?
     end
 
-    # path is an anchor, a query or refers to root
     def internal?
-      hash_link || param_link || slash_link
+      relative_link? || internal_absolute_link?
+    end
+
+    def internal_absolute_link?
+      url.start_with?('/')
+    end
+
+    def relative_link?
+      return false if remote?
+
+      hash_link || param_link || url.start_with?('.') || url =~ /^\w/
+    end
+
+    def link_points_to_same_page?
+      hash_link || param_link
     end
 
     def hash_link
@@ -152,10 +165,6 @@ def param_link
       url.start_with?('?')
     end
 
-    def slash_link
-      url.start_with?('/')
-    end
-
     def file_path
       return if path.nil? || path.empty?
 
@@ -226,9 +235,9 @@ def base
 
     def html
       # If link is on the same page, then URL is on the current page so can use the same HTML as for current page
-      if hash_link || param_link
+      if link_points_to_same_page?
         @html
-      elsif slash_link
+      elsif relative_link?
         # link on another page, e.g. /about#Team - need to get HTML from the other page
         create_nokogiri(absolute_path)
       end
diff --git a/lib/html-proofer/middleware.rb b/lib/html-proofer/middleware.rb
index 87ff5511..b3e2a704 100644
--- a/lib/html-proofer/middleware.rb
+++ b/lib/html-proofer/middleware.rb
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 
 module HTMLProofer
   class Middleware
+    include HTMLProofer::Utils
+
     class InvalidHtmlError < StandardError
       def initialize(failures)
         @failures = failures
@@ -67,7 +69,7 @@ def call(env)
           'response',
           Middleware.options
         ).check_parsed(
-          Nokogiri::HTML(Utils.clean_content(html)), 'response'
+          Nokogiri::HTML(clean_content(html)), 'response'
         )
 
         raise InvalidHtmlError, parsed[:failures] unless parsed[:failures].empty?
diff --git a/lib/html-proofer/utils.rb b/lib/html-proofer/utils.rb
index 56fa513d..d792ad08 100644
--- a/lib/html-proofer/utils.rb
+++ b/lib/html-proofer/utils.rb
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ def pluralize(count, single, plural)
       "#{count} #{(count == 1 ? single : plural)}"
     end
 
-    def self.create_nokogiri(path)
+    def create_nokogiri(path)
       content = if File.exist?(path) && !File.directory?(path)
                   File.open(path).read
                 else
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ def self.create_nokogiri(path)
       Nokogiri::HTML(clean_content(content))
     end
 
-    def self.swap(href, replacement)
+    def swap(href, replacement)
       replacement.each do |link, replace|
         href = href.gsub(link, replace)
       end
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ def self.swap(href, replacement)
     # address a problem with Nokogiri's parsing URL entities
     # problem from http://git.io/vBYU1
     # solution from http://git.io/vBYUi
-    def self.clean_content(string)
+    def clean_content(string)
       string.gsub(%r{(?:https?:)?//([^>]+)}i) do |url|
         url.gsub(/&(?!amp;)/, '&amp;')
       end
diff --git a/spec/html-proofer/links_spec.rb b/spec/html-proofer/links_spec.rb
index d3060c79..45a3a353 100644
--- a/spec/html-proofer/links_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/html-proofer/links_spec.rb
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
   it 'fails for broken internal hash (even if the file exists)' do
     broken_hash_external_filepath = "#{FIXTURES_DIR}/links/broken_hash_external.html"
     proofer = run_proofer(broken_hash_external_filepath, :file)
-    expect(proofer.failed_tests.last).to match(%r{linking to ../images/missing_image_alt.html#asdfasfdkafl, but asdfasfdkafl does not exist})
+    expect(proofer.failed_tests.last).to match(/linking to internal hash #asdfasfdkafl that does not exist/)
   end
 
   it 'fails for broken hashes on the web when asked (even if the file exists)' do
diff --git a/spec/html-proofer/utils_spec.rb b/spec/html-proofer/utils_spec.rb
index 8059a67d..655863ce 100644
--- a/spec/html-proofer/utils_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/html-proofer/utils_spec.rb
@@ -4,18 +4,20 @@
 
 describe HTMLProofer::Utils do
   describe '::create_nokogiri' do
+    include HTMLProofer::Utils
+
     it 'passes for a string' do
-      noko = HTMLProofer::Utils.create_nokogiri '<html lang="jp">'
+      noko = create_nokogiri '<html lang="jp">'
       expect(noko.css('html').first['lang']).to eq 'jp'
     end
 
     it 'passes for a file' do
-      noko = HTMLProofer::Utils.create_nokogiri "#{FIXTURES_DIR}/utils/lang-jp.html"
+      noko = create_nokogiri "#{FIXTURES_DIR}/utils/lang-jp.html"
       expect(noko.css('html').first['lang']).to eq 'jp'
     end
 
     it 'ignores directories' do
-      noko = HTMLProofer::Utils.create_nokogiri "#{FIXTURES_DIR}/utils"
+      noko = create_nokogiri "#{FIXTURES_DIR}/utils"
       expect(noko.content).to eq 'spec/html-proofer/fixtures/utils'
     end
   end