diff --git a/src/node/markdown/plugins/link.ts b/src/node/markdown/plugins/link.ts
index e44c043a..eb23d298 100644
--- a/src/node/markdown/plugins/link.ts
+++ b/src/node/markdown/plugins/link.ts
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 import MarkdownIt from 'markdown-it'
 import { MarkdownRenderer } from '../markdown'
 import { URL } from 'url'
-import { EXTERNAL_URL_RE } from '../../shared'
+import { EXTERNAL_URL_RE, LOCALHOST_URL_RE } from '../../shared'
 
 const indexRE = /(^|.*\/)index.md(#?.*)$/i
 
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ export const linkPlugin = (
           token.attrSet(key, val)
         })
         // catch localhost links as dead link
-        if (url.replace(EXTERNAL_URL_RE, '').startsWith('//localhost:')) {
+        if (LOCALHOST_URL_RE.test(url)) {
           pushLink(url)
         }
       } else if (
diff --git a/src/node/markdownToVue.ts b/src/node/markdownToVue.ts
index a596e22b..56dbf130 100644
--- a/src/node/markdownToVue.ts
+++ b/src/node/markdownToVue.ts
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import matter from 'gray-matter'
 import LRUCache from 'lru-cache'
 import { createMarkdownRenderer, MarkdownOptions } from './markdown/markdown'
 import { deeplyParseHeader } from './utils/parseHeader'
-import { PageData, HeadConfig, EXTERNAL_URL_RE } from './shared'
+import { PageData, HeadConfig, LOCALHOST_URL_RE } from './shared'
 import { slash } from './utils/slash'
 import chalk from 'chalk'
 import _debug from 'debug'
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ export function createMarkdownToVueRenderFn(
     if (data.links) {
       const dir = path.dirname(file)
       for (let url of data.links) {
-        if (url.replace(EXTERNAL_URL_RE, '').startsWith('//localhost:')) {
+        if (LOCALHOST_URL_RE.test(url)) {
           recordDeadLink(url)
           continue
         }
diff --git a/src/shared/shared.ts b/src/shared/shared.ts
index ce83d83b..e4cd3169 100644
--- a/src/shared/shared.ts
+++ b/src/shared/shared.ts
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ export type {
 } from '../../types/shared'
 
 export const EXTERNAL_URL_RE = /:\/\/|\.(?!html|md)\w+$/i
+export const LOCALHOST_URL_RE = /:\/\/localhost:/
 
 // @ts-ignore
 export const inBrowser = typeof window !== 'undefined'