<a>: The Anchor element

The HTML <a> element (or anchor element), along with it's href attribute, creates a hyperlink to other web pages, files, locations within the same page, email addresses, or any other URL.

The <a>'s indicates the link's destination.

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Attributes

This element's attributes include the global attributes.

downloadHTML5

This attribute instructs browsers to download a URL instead of navigating to it, so the user will be prompted to save it as a local file. If the attribute has a value, it is used as the pre-filled file name in the Save prompt (the user can still change the file name if they want). There are no restrictions on allowed values, though / and \ are converted to underscores. Most file systems limit some punctuation in file names, and browsers will adjust the suggested name accordingly.

Notes:

• This attribute only works for same-origin URLs.
• Although HTTP(s) URLs need to be in the same-origin, blob: URLs and data: URLs are allowed so that content generated by JavaScript, such as pictures created in an image-editor Web app, can be downloaded.
• If the HTTP header Content-Disposition: gives a different filename than this attribute, the HTTP header takes priority over this attribute.
• If Content-Disposition: is set to inline, Firefox prioritizes Content-Disposition, like the filename case, while Chrome prioritizes the download attribute.

href

Contains a URL or a URL fragment that the hyperlink points to. URLs are not restricted to Web (HTTP)-based documents, but can use any protocol supported by the browser. For example, file:, ftp:, and mailto: work in most browsers. A URL fragment is a name preceded by a hash mark (#), which specifies an internal target location (an id of an HTML element) within the current document. See the examples with URLs, URL fragments, and multiple protocols below.

Note: You can use href="#top" or the empty fragment href="#" to link to the top of the current page. This behavior is defined in the HTML specification.

hreflang

This attribute indicates the human language of the linked resource. It is purely advisory, with no built-in functionality. Allowed values are determined by BCP47.

ping

Contains a space-separated list of URLs to which, when the hyperlink is followed, POST requests with the body PING will be sent by the browser (in the background). Typically used for tracking.

referrerpolicy 

Indicates which referrer to send when fetching the URL:

• 'no-referrer' means the Referer: header will not be sent.
• 'no-referrer-when-downgrade' means no Referer: header will be sent when navigating to an origin without HTTPS. This is the default behavior.
• 'origin' means the referrer will be the origin of the page, not including information after the domain.
• 'origin-when-cross-origin' meaning that navigations to other origins will be limited to the scheme, the host and the port, while navigations on the same origin will include the referrer's path.
• 'strict-origin-when-cross-origin'
• 'unsafe-url' means the referrer will include the origin and path, but not the fragment, password, or username. This is unsafe because it can leak data from secure URLs to insecure ones.

rel

Specifies the relationship of the target object to the link object. The value is a space-separated list of link types.

target

Specifies where to display the linked URL. It is a name of, or keyword for, a browsing context: a tab, window, or <iframe>. The following keywords have special meanings:

• _self: Load the URL into the same browsing context as the current one. This is the default behavior.
• _blank: Load the URL into a new browsing context. This is usually a tab, but users can configure browsers to use new windows instead.
• _parent: Load the URL into the parent browsing context of the current one. If there is no parent, this behaves the same way as _self.
• _top: Load the URL into the top-level browsing context (that is, the "highest" browsing context that is an ancestor of the current one, and has no parent). If there is no parent, this behaves the same way as _self.

Note: When using target, consider adding rel="noreferrer" to avoid exploitation of the window.opener API. See Security concerns section

Note: Linking to another page using target="_blank" will run the new page on the same process as your page. If the new page is executing expensive JS, your page's performance may suffer. To avoid this use rel="noopener".

type

Specifies the media type in the form of a MIME type for the linked URL. It is purely advisory, with no built-in functionality.

Obsolete attributes

charsetObsolete since HTML5

This attribute defined the character encoding of the linked URL. The value should be a space- and/or comma-delimited list of character sets defined in RFC 2045. The default value is ISO-8859-1.

Usage note: This attribute is obsolete in HTML5 and should not be used by authors. To achieve its effect, use the HTTP Content-Type: header on the linked URL.

coordsHTML 4 onlyObsolete since HTML5

For use with the below shape attribute, this attribute used a comma-separated list of numbers to define the coordinates of the link on the page.

nameHTML 4 onlyObsolete since HTML5

This attribute was required for anchors defining a possible target location within a page. In HTML 4.01, id and name could be used simultaneously on a <a> element as long as they have identical values.

Usage note: This attribute is obsolete in HTML5, use the global attribute id instead.

revHTML 4 onlyObsolete since HTML5

This attribute specified a reverse link, the inverse relationship of the rel attribute. It was deprecated for being very confusing.

Note: Currently the W3C HTML 5.2 spec states that rev is no longer obsolete, whereas the WHATWG living standard still has it labeled obsolete. Until this discrepancy is resolved, you should still assume it is obsolete.

shapeHTML 4 onlyObsolete since HTML5

This attribute was used to define a region for hyperlinks to create an image map. The values are circle, default, polygon, and rect. The format of the coords attribute depends on the value of shape. For circle, the value is x,y,r where x and y are the pixel coordinates for the center of the circle and r is the radius value in pixels. For rect, the coords attribute should be x,y,w,h. The x,y values define the upper-left-hand corner of the rectangle, while w and h define the width and height respectively. A value of polygon for shape requires x1,y1,x2,y2,... values for coords. Each of the x,y pairs defines a point in the polygon, with successive points being joined by straight lines and the last point joined to the first. The value default for shape requires that the entire enclosed area, typically an image, be used.

Note: Use the usemap attribute for the <img> element and the associated <map> element to define hotspots instead of the shape attribute.

Properties

Examples

Linking to an external location

<!-- anchor linking to external file -->
<a href="https://www.mozilla.com/">
External Link
</a>

Result

External Link

Linking to another section on the same page

<!-- links to element on this page with id="attr-href" -->
<a href="#attr-href">
Description of Same-Page Links
</a>

Result

Description of Same Page Links

Creating an email link

It's common to create links that open in the user's email program to allow them to send a new message. This is done with a mailto: link. Here's a simple example:

<a href="mailto:nowhere@mozilla.org">Send email to nowhere</a>

Result

Send email to nowhere

For additional details about the mailto URL scheme, such as including the subject, body, or other predetermined content, see Email links or RFC 6068.

Creating a phone link

Offering phone links is helpful for users viewing web documents and laptops connected to phones.

<a href="tel:+491570156">+49 157 0156</a>

For additional details about the tel URL scheme, see RFC 3966.

Using the download attribute to save a <canvas> as a PNG

If you want to let users download an HTML <canvas> element as an image, you can create a link with a download attribute and the canvas data as a file URL:

var link = document.createElement('a');
link.textContent = 'download image';

link.addEventListener('click', function(ev) {
    link.href = canvas.toDataURL();
    link.download = "mypainting.png";
}, false);

document.body.appendChild(link);

You can see this in action at jsfiddle.net/codepo8/V6ufG/2/.

Security and privacy concerns

Although <a> elements have many innocent uses, they can have undesirable consequences for user security and privacy. See Referer header: privacy and security concerns for more information and mitigations.

Using target="_blank" without rel="noreferrer" and rel="noopener" makes the website vulnerable to window.opener API exploitation attacks, see the links section for description.

Accessibility concerns

onclick events

Anchor tags are often abused with the onclick event to create pseudo-buttons by setting href to "#" or "javascript:void(0)" to prevent the page from refreshing.

These values cause unexpected behavior when copying/dragging links, opening links in a new tab/window, bookmarking, and when JavaScript is still downloading, errors out, or is disabled. This also conveys incorrect semantics to assistive technologies (e.g., screen readers). In these cases, it is recommended to use a <button> instead. In general you should only use an anchor for navigation using a proper URL.

External links and linking to non-HTML resources

Both links that open in a new tab or window via the target="_blank" declaration and links to whose href value points to a file resource should include an indicator about the behavior that will occur when the link is activated.

People experiencing low vision conditions, who are navigating with the aid of screen reading technology, or who have cognitive concerns may become confused when the new tab, window, or application is opened unexpectedly. Older versions of screen reading software may not even announce the behavior.

Link that opens a new tab or window

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.wikipedia.org/">Wikipedia (opens in a new window)</a>

Link to a non-HTML resource

<a target="_blank" href="2017-annual-report.ppt">2017 Annual Report (PowerPoint)</a>

If an icon is used in place of text to signify this kind of links behavior, make sure it includes an alternate description.

• WebAIM: Links and Hypertext - Hypertext Links
• MDN Understanding WCAG, Guideline 3.2 explanations
• G200: Opening new windows and tabs from a link only when necessary | W3C Techniques for WCAG 2.0
• G201: Giving users advanced warning when opening a new window | W3C Techniques for WCAG 2.0

Skip links

A skip link, also known as skipnav, is an a element placed as close as possible to the opening <body> element that links to the beginning of the page's main content. This link allows people to bypass content repeated throughout multiple pages on a website, such as a website's header and primary navigation.

Skip links are especially useful for people who navigate with the aid of assistive technology such as switch control, voice command, or mouth sticks/head wands, where the act of moving through repetitive links can be a laborious task.

• WebAIM: "Skip Navigation" Links
• How–to: Use Skip Navigation links - The A11Y Project
• MDN Understanding WCAG, Guideline 2.4 explanations
• Understanding Success Criterion 2.4.1 | W3C Understanding WCAG 2.0

Proximity

Large amounts of interactive content—including anchors—placed in close visual proximity to each other should have space inserted to separate them. This spacing is beneficial for people who are experiencing motor control issues, who may accidentally activate the wrong interactive content while navigating.

Spacing may be created using CSS properties such as margin.

• Hand tremors and the giant-button-problem - Axess Lab

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• Other elements conveying text-level semantics: <abbr>, <em>, <strong>, <small>, <cite>, <q>, <dfn>, <time>, <code>, <var>, <samp>, <kbd>, <sub>, <sup>, <b>, <i>, <mark>, <ruby>, <rp>, <rt>, <bdo>, <span>, <br>, <wbr>.
• See "Target _blank security concerns" for example attack scenarios and mitigation