A computer-based method and system for processing links in a markup language document are provided. The method includes providing a specification in computer memory, the specification including at least one link description rule and at least one link processing rule for processing links which satisfy the link description rule. A markup language document is input to computer memory and links in the markup language document are processed in accordance with the link description rule(s) and link processing rule(s) of the specification to generate processed data. The processed data includes at least one of a modified markup language document and data derived from the markup language document.