- HTML Links: How to create Links to other Web Pages
- Link Targets
- Jump Links
- Add an ID to the Link Target
- Create the Hyperlink
- Email Links
- Base href
- HTML Links
- HTML Links — Hyperlinks
- HTML Links — Syntax
- Example
- HTML Links — The target Attribute
- Example
- Absolute URLs vs. Relative URLs
- Example
- Absolute URLs
- Relative URLs
- HTML Links — Use an Image as a Link
- Example
- Link to an Email Address
- Example
- Button as a Link
- Example
- Link Titles
- : The Anchor element
- Try it
- Attributes
- Deprecated attributes
HTML Links: How to create Links to other Web Pages
This article explains how to create a link from one page to another. It also outlines the different types of hyperlinks.
Links, otherwise known as , are defined using the tag — otherwise known as the element.
Hypertext references can use URLS, URLs, or URLs.
This refers to a URL where the full path is provided. For example:
This refers to a URL where the path, relative to the current location, is provided.
For example, if we want to reference the https://www.quackit.com/html/tutorial/ URL, and our current location is https://www.quackit.com/html/ , we would use this:
This refers to a URL where the path, relative to the domain’s root, is provided.
For example, if we want to reference the https://www.quackit.com/html/tutorial/ URL, and the current location is https://www.quackit.com/html/ , we could use this:
The forward slash indicates the domain’s root. No matter where your file is located, you can always use this method to specify the path, even if you don’t know what the domain name will eventually be (as long as you know the full path from the root).
Link Targets
You can nominate whether to open the URL in a new window or the current window. You do this with the target attribute. For example, target=»_blank» opens the URL in a new window.
The target attribute can have the following possible values:
_blank | Opens the URL in a new browser window. |
_self | Loads the URL in the current browser window. |
_parent | Loads the URL into the parent frame (still within the current browser window). This is only applicable when using frames. |
_top | Loads the URL in the current browser window, but cancelling out any frames. Therefore, if frames were being used, they aren’t any longer. |
Jump Links
You can make your links «jump» to other sections within the same page (or another page). These used to be called «named anchors», but they’re often referred to as jump links, bookmarks, or fragment identifiers.
Here’s how to link to the same page:
Add an ID to the Link Target
Add an ID to the part of the page that you want the user to end up. To do this, use the id attribute. The value should be some short descriptive text. The id attribute is a commonly used attribute in HTML.
Create the Hyperlink
Now create the hyperlink (that the user will click on). This is done by using the id of the link target, preceded by a hash ( # ) symbol:
So these two pieces of code are placed in different parts of the document. Something like this:
It doesn’t have to be the same page. You can use this method to jump to an ID of any page. To do this, simply add the destination URL before the hash ( # ) symbol. Example:
Of course, this assumes that there’s an ID with that value on the page.
Email Links
You can create a hyperlink to an email address. To do this, use the mailto attribute in your anchor tag.
Clicking on this link should result in your default email client opening up with the email address already filled out.
You can go a step further than this. You can auto-complete the subject line for your users, and even the body of the email. You do this appending subject and body parameters to the email address.
Base href
You can specify a default URL for all links on the page to start with. You do this by placing the base tag (in conjunction with the href attribute) in the document’s .
HTML Links
Links are found in nearly all web pages. Links allow users to click their way from page to page.
HTML Links — Hyperlinks
HTML links are hyperlinks.
You can click on a link and jump to another document.
When you move the mouse over a link, the mouse arrow will turn into a little hand.
Note: A link does not have to be text. A link can be an image or any other HTML element!
HTML Links — Syntax
The link text is the part that will be visible to the reader.
Clicking on the link text, will send the reader to the specified URL address.
Example
This example shows how to create a link to W3Schools.com:
By default, links will appear as follows in all browsers:
- An unvisited link is underlined and blue
- A visited link is underlined and purple
- An active link is underlined and red
Tip: Links can of course be styled with CSS, to get another look!
HTML Links — The target Attribute
By default, the linked page will be displayed in the current browser window. To change this, you must specify another target for the link.
The target attribute specifies where to open the linked document.
The target attribute can have one of the following values:
- _self — Default. Opens the document in the same window/tab as it was clicked
- _blank — Opens the document in a new window or tab
- _parent — Opens the document in the parent frame
- _top — Opens the document in the full body of the window
Example
Use target=»_blank» to open the linked document in a new browser window or tab:
Absolute URLs vs. Relative URLs
Both examples above are using an absolute URL (a full web address) in the href attribute.
A local link (a link to a page within the same website) is specified with a relative URL (without the «https://www» part):
Example
Absolute URLs
W3C
Relative URLs
HTML Images
CSS Tutorial
HTML Links — Use an Image as a Link
To use an image as a link, just put the tag inside the tag:
Example
Link to an Email Address
Use mailto: inside the href attribute to create a link that opens the user’s email program (to let them send a new email):
Example
Button as a Link
To use an HTML button as a link, you have to add some JavaScript code.
JavaScript allows you to specify what happens at certain events, such as a click of a button:
Example
Tip: Learn more about JavaScript in our JavaScript Tutorial.
Link Titles
The title attribute specifies extra information about an element. The information is most often shown as a tooltip text when the mouse moves over the element.
: The Anchor element
The HTML element (or anchor element), with its href attribute, creates a hyperlink to web pages, files, email addresses, locations in the same page, or anything else a URL can address.
Try it
Attributes
This element’s attributes include the global attributes.
Causes the browser to treat the linked URL as a download. Can be used with or without a filename value:
- Without a value, the browser will suggest a filename/extension, generated from various sources:
- The Content-Disposition HTTP header
- The final segment in the URL path
- The media type (from the Content-Type header, the start of a data: URL, or Blob.type for a blob: URL)
- download only works for same-origin URLs, or the blob: and data: schemes.
- How browsers treat downloads varies by browser, user settings, and other factors. The user may be prompted before a download starts, or the file may be saved automatically, or it may open automatically, either in an external application or in the browser itself.
- If the Content-Disposition header has different information from the download attribute, resulting behavior may differ:
- If the header specifies a filename , it takes priority over a filename specified in the download attribute.
- If the header specifies a disposition of inline , Chrome and Firefox prioritize the attribute and treat it as a download. Old Firefox versions (before 82) prioritize the header and will display the content inline.
The URL that the hyperlink points to. Links are not restricted to HTTP-based URLs — they can use any URL scheme supported by browsers:
- Sections of a page with document fragments
- Specific text portions with text fragments
- Pieces of media files with media fragments
- Telephone numbers with tel: URLs
- Email addresses with mailto: URLs
- While web browsers may not support other URL schemes, websites can with registerProtocolHandler()
Hints at the human language of the linked URL. No built-in functionality. Allowed values are the same as the global lang attribute.
A space-separated list of URLs. When the link is followed, the browser will send POST requests with the body PING to the URLs. Typically for tracking.
How much of the referrer to send when following the link.
- no-referrer : The Referer header will not be sent.
- no-referrer-when-downgrade : The Referer header will not be sent to origins without TLS (HTTPS).
- origin : The sent referrer will be limited to the origin of the referring page: its scheme, host, and port.
- origin-when-cross-origin : The referrer sent to other origins will be limited to the scheme, the host, and the port. Navigations on the same origin will still include the path.
- same-origin : A referrer will be sent for same origin, but cross-origin requests will contain no referrer information.
- strict-origin : Only send the origin of the document as the referrer when the protocol security level stays the same (HTTPS→HTTPS), but don’t send it to a less secure destination (HTTPS→HTTP).
- strict-origin-when-cross-origin (default): Send a full URL when performing a same-origin request, only send the origin when the protocol security level stays the same (HTTPS→HTTPS), and send no header to a less secure destination (HTTPS→HTTP).
- unsafe-url : The referrer will include the origin and the path (but not the fragment, password, or username). This value is unsafe, because it leaks origins and paths from TLS-protected resources to insecure origins.
The relationship of the linked URL as space-separated link types.
Where to display the linked URL, as the name for a browsing context (a tab, window, or ). The following keywords have special meanings for where to load the URL:
- _self : the current browsing context. (Default)
- _blank : usually a new tab, but users can configure browsers to open a new window instead.
- _parent : the parent browsing context of the current one. If no parent, behaves as _self .
- _top : the topmost browsing context (the «highest» context that’s an ancestor of the current one). If no ancestors, behaves as _self .
Note: Setting target=»_blank» on elements implicitly provides the same rel behavior as setting rel=»noopener» which does not set window.opener .
Hints at the linked URL’s format with a MIME type. No built-in functionality.
Deprecated attributes
Hinted at the character encoding of the linked URL.
Note: This attribute is deprecated and should not be used by authors. Use the HTTP Content-Type header on the linked URL.
Used with the shape attribute. A comma-separated list of coordinates.
Was required to define a possible target location in a page. In HTML 4.01, id and name could both be used on , as long as they had identical values.
Note: Use the global attribute id instead.
Specified a reverse link; the opposite of the rel attribute. Deprecated for being very confusing.
The shape of the hyperlink’s region in an image map.