diff --git a/crawl4ai/link_preview.py b/crawl4ai/link_preview.py
index 3ed29666e..ecfc60072 100644
--- a/crawl4ai/link_preview.py
+++ b/crawl4ai/link_preview.py
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ async def extract_link_heads(
         
         if not filtered_urls:
             self._log("info", "No links matched filtering criteria")
-            return links
+            return self._merge_head_data(links, [], config)
         
         self._log("info", "Extracting head content for {count} filtered links",
                   params={"count": len(filtered_urls)})
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_link_preview_filter_scoring.py b/tests/unit/test_link_preview_filter_scoring.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3ece36241
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/unit/test_link_preview_filter_scoring.py
@@ -0,0 +1,140 @@
+"""Public-entry coverage for total scores when preview filters skip links."""
+
+import asyncio
+from types import SimpleNamespace
+from unittest.mock import AsyncMock
+
+import pytest
+
+from crawl4ai.async_configs import CrawlerRunConfig, LinkPreviewConfig
+from crawl4ai.link_preview import LinkPreview
+from crawl4ai.models import Link, Links
+
+INTERNAL_URL = "https://example.com/docs/guide"
+EXTERNAL_URL = "https://example.net/reference"
+
+
+def make_links(external_only=False):
+    return Links(
+        internal=(
+            []
+            if external_only
+            else [Link(href=INTERNAL_URL, text="Guide", intrinsic_score=6.0)]
+        ),
+        external=[Link(href=EXTERNAL_URL, text="Reference", intrinsic_score=4.0)],
+    )
+
+
+def extract_links(links, preview_config, head_results=(), score_links=True):
+    config = CrawlerRunConfig(
+        score_links=score_links,
+        link_preview_config=preview_config,
+    )
+    fetch = AsyncMock(return_value=list(head_results))
+    preview = LinkPreview()
+    # Replace only the fetch boundary with a caller-owned, initialized seeder.
+    preview.seeder = SimpleNamespace(extract_head_for_urls=fetch)
+    updated = asyncio.run(preview.extract_link_heads(links, config))
+    return updated, fetch
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "preview_options,external_only",
+    [
+        ({"include_external": True, "exclude_patterns": ["*"]}, False),
+        ({"include_external": True, "include_patterns": ["*/not-present/*"]}, False),
+        ({}, True),
+    ],
+    ids=["exclude-all", "include-miss", "external-only-default-preview"],
+)
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("query", [None, "guide"])
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("score_links", [True, False])
+def test_no_selected_links_receive_fallback_scores_without_fetching(
+    preview_options, external_only, query, score_links
+):
+    links = make_links(external_only)
+    updated, fetch = extract_links(
+        links,
+        LinkPreviewConfig(query=query, **preview_options),
+        score_links=score_links,
+    )
+
+    fetch.assert_not_awaited()
+    assert [link.href for link in updated.internal] == [
+        link.href for link in links.internal
+    ]
+    assert [link.href for link in updated.external] == [
+        link.href for link in links.external
+    ]
+    for link in updated.internal + updated.external:
+        assert link.total_score == (link.intrinsic_score if score_links else 5.0)
+        assert link.head_data is None
+        assert link.head_extraction_status is None
+        assert link.contextual_score is None
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("explicit_failure", [False, True], ids=["missing", "failed"])
+def test_selected_links_with_no_head_score_keep_intrinsic_fallback(explicit_failure):
+    head_results = (
+        [
+            {"url": url, "status": "failed", "error": "Head extraction failed"}
+            for url in (INTERNAL_URL, EXTERNAL_URL)
+        ]
+        if explicit_failure
+        else []
+    )
+    updated, fetch = extract_links(
+        make_links(),
+        LinkPreviewConfig(include_external=True, query="guide"),
+        head_results,
+    )
+
+    fetch.assert_awaited_once()
+    assert fetch.call_args.kwargs["urls"] == [INTERNAL_URL, EXTERNAL_URL]
+    assert [link.total_score for link in updated.internal + updated.external] == [
+        6.0,
+        4.0,
+    ]
+    if explicit_failure:
+        assert all(
+            link.head_extraction_status == "failed"
+            for link in updated.internal + updated.external
+        )
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "preview_options",
+    [{}, {"include_external": True, "exclude_patterns": ["https://example.net/*"]}],
+    ids=["exclude-by-category", "exclude-by-pattern"],
+)
+def test_selected_links_keep_weighted_scores_and_unselected_links_keep_fallback(
+    preview_options,
+):
+    updated, fetch = extract_links(
+        make_links(),
+        LinkPreviewConfig(query="guide", **preview_options),
+        [
+            {
+                "url": INTERNAL_URL,
+                "status": "valid",
+                "head_data": {"title": "Guide"},
+                "relevance_score": 0.8,
+            }
+        ],
+    )
+
+    fetch.assert_awaited_once()
+    assert fetch.call_args.kwargs["urls"] == [INTERNAL_URL]
+    assert updated.internal[0].total_score == pytest.approx(6.6)
+    assert updated.internal[0].contextual_score == 0.8
+    assert updated.internal[0].head_extraction_status == "valid"
+    assert updated.external[0].total_score == 4.0
+    assert updated.external[0].head_data is None
+    assert updated.external[0].head_extraction_status is None
+
+
+def test_empty_links_stay_empty_without_fetching():
+    updated, fetch = extract_links(Links(), LinkPreviewConfig(query="guide"))
+
+    fetch.assert_not_awaited()
+    assert updated == Links()