HTML href Attribute

HTML Tag Groups

HTML HTTP Media Types

The href attribute on an element defines a page or site to link to.

Its value can be an internal URL or an external URL.

Elements that accept this attribute include <a>, <area>, <link>, and <base>.

Example

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An <a> element with an href attribute.
Clicking the link opens a page from an external site in a new browser tab.

Go to Wikipedia

Go to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>

For additional details see our HTML anchor href Reference.

Using href

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The href attribute specifies the URL or path of the linked page or resource.

It accepts any of these URLs:

absolute URL - link to a page on an external website or domain (e.g. https://wikipedia.com)
relative URL - link to an internal page on the same domain (with a shorter url)
anchor URL - link to an anchored section within the same page (with the # notation)

Syntax

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<tagname href="URL" >

Values

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Value	Description
URL	URL or path of the page or resource.

Elements that accept href

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The following elements accept the href attribute.

	Elements	Description
	<a>	Specifies an anchor link -- see example above
	<area>	Creates a clickable area inside an image map.
	<link>	Adds a linked resource to the page.
	<base>	Sets all relative links base URL.

<area> with href

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An <area> tag with an href attribute.

<img src="/img/html/computer-map.png" 
     alt="Computer" 
     usemap="#computermap">

<map name="computermap">
  <area shape="rect" coords="253,142,16,2" alt="Screen" 
        href="javascript:alert('Screen was clicked');">
  <area shape="rect" coords="262,218,0,156" alt="Keyboard" 
        href="javascript:alert('Keyboard was clicked');">
  <area shape="circle" coords="267,234,22" alt="Mouse" 
        href="javascript:alert('Mouse was clicked');">
</map>

For additional details see our HTML area href Reference.

<link> with href

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A <link> tag with an href attribute.
The invisible link loads a stylesheet into the page which is then used to style a paragraph.

Styled using external css.

<link rel="stylesheet" href="/tutorial/style.css">

<p class="aliceblue">Styled using external css.</p>

For additional details see our HTML link href Reference.

<base> with href

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A <base> tag with an href attribute.

<head>
  <base href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/">
</head>

<nav>
  <a href="Vincent_van_Gogh">Vincent Van Gogh</a> <br />
  <a href="Henri_Matisse">Henri Matisse</a> <br />
  <a href="Paul_Cézanne">Paul Cézanne</a>
</nav>

For additional details see our HTML base href Reference.

Browser support

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Here is when href support started for each browser: