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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Use an <a> element with an href attribute to create a link in HTML. Put the destination in href and the words or content readers can activate between the opening and closing tags: <a href="https://example.com">Visit Example</a>. The destination can be another website, a page on your site, a section of a page, an email address, or a telephone number.
The basic HTML link pattern
An HTML link is an anchor element with a destination. The WHATWG HTML Standard defines an <a> element with an href attribute as a hyperlink; an anchor without href is a placeholder, not a link. In practical terms, put the destination in href and give the link a clear, usable label.
<a href="https://example.com">Visit Example</a>The opening tag starts the link, the closing </a> ends it, and “Visit Example” is its visible label. Readers can activate the label to follow the URL. A link label can also contain an image or other suitable phrasing content, but ordinary descriptive text is easiest to understand and maintain.
The href value must be a valid URL. Use quotes around attribute values, and close the anchor around only the content that should act as the link. For example:
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<p>Read the <a href="https://example.com/guide">setup guide</a> before you begin.</p>Only “setup guide” is linked. The paragraph remains ordinary text before and after it.
Link to another website or a page on your site
Choose a destination that matches where the page lives. An absolute URL includes the scheme and host, such as https://example.com/about. A relative URL gives a path that the browser resolves against the current document’s URL. Relative paths are often convenient for links within the same site because the link does not have to repeat the site’s domain. MDN explains these URL forms and their use in its guide to creating links.
External destination
<a href="https://example.com">Visit Example</a>Use the full destination URL when linking to another site. Include the correct scheme, usually https://, and verify that the address points to the intended page.
Another page on the same site
<a href="/about.html">About us</a>A path beginning with / is root-relative: it starts at the site’s root, rather than the directory containing the current page. This is useful when a destination is at a known location in the same site.
A page in a sibling directory
<a href="../contact.html">Contact</a>The .. segment moves up one directory from the current document’s location. For example, if the current page is in a nested directory, this path points to a file one level above it. Check the resulting URL from the actual page where the link appears: changing the page’s directory can change how relative paths resolve.
Use the path that reflects your site’s structure. A root-relative URL such as /about.html starts from the site root; a path such as ../contact.html depends on the current document’s directory. A full URL is appropriate for another host. These forms are not interchangeable in every location.
Link to a section on the same page
To jump to a section, assign an id to the destination element and use the same value in a fragment link. The fragment is the part after # in the URL. MDN’s link guide documents this pairing.
<a href="#pricing">See pricing</a>
<h2 id="pricing">Pricing</h2>When a reader activates “See pricing,” the browser navigates to the element whose id is pricing. The fragment and ID must match exactly. IDs should be unique within the document; if two elements share the same ID, the target is ambiguous and page behavior may not match what you intended.
To link to a section on a different page, put that page’s path before the fragment:
<a href="details.html#specifications">Read the specifications</a>This example navigates to details.html and targets the element with id="specifications" on that page. If the target ID is missing or spelled differently, the page can load without taking the reader to the intended section.
Create email and telephone links
Use a URL scheme in href when the link should start an email or telephone action rather than navigate to a regular web page. The MDN anchor reference covers these anchor destinations.
<a href="mailto:[email protected]">Email us</a>Activating a mailto: link can open the reader’s email application with the address filled in. Whether that works as expected depends on the reader’s device and configured applications. Use a visible label that says what the link does; do not assume that every visitor has an email app configured.
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<a href="tel:+15550102020">Call us at +1 555 010 2020</a>A tel: link can hand the number to a device or application that supports telephone links. It does not guarantee that every device can place a call. Showing the number in the label helps readers understand the action before activating it.
Open a link in a new tab
Add target="_blank" when the intended behavior is to open the destination in a new tab or window. Make that behavior clear in the link text so it is not a surprise.
<a href="https://example.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
Visit Example (opens in a new tab)
</a>In current browsers, target="_blank" implicitly provides noopener behavior. Keeping rel="noopener" explicit can make the intended relationship clearer to people maintaining the markup. See the MDN reference for the anchor element for details on anchor attributes and browsing contexts.
Do not use a new tab just because a destination is external. It is a behavior choice, not a requirement for external links. If you choose it, say so in the visible label, for example “Visit Example (opens in a new tab).”
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Choose useful link text
The label should describe the destination or action. “About us,” “Read the specifications,” and “Email us” give readers more information than “click here.” Descriptive labels also make a page easier to scan when someone reads links out of context, such as in a screen reader’s links list.
- Prefer a short description of the target or action.
- Use the same label consistently when links lead to the same destination.
- Avoid making surrounding sentence text part of the link unless it is useful to activate all of that text.
- For a telephone link, consider including the number in the visible label; for a new-tab link, disclose that behavior in the label.
Text inside the anchor becomes the clickable content. Keep it specific enough to make sense without relying on nearby text, but concise enough to read naturally in the sentence.
Check a link before publishing
- Confirm the element. Use
<a>for a hyperlink and include anhrefvalue. An anchor withouthrefis not a working hyperlink under the HTML Standard’s definition. - Check the destination. For an external link, inspect the full URL. For an internal link, confirm the path is correct relative to the page or the site root.
- Check section targets. Confirm the target has the intended, unique
id, and that the fragment after#matches it exactly. - Check the action and label. Make sure email and telephone links use the intended scheme, and that the visible wording accurately describes the destination or action.
- Activate the link from the page where it appears. This helps catch path mistakes that may not be obvious when reading the HTML alone.
- Review special behavior. If you deliberately open a new tab, confirm the label says so and that the destination is correct.
Troubleshoot a link that does not work
- The text is not clickable: Check that the text is inside an
<a>element and that the opening tag includeshref. A missinghrefleaves the anchor without a hyperlink destination. - The browser goes to the wrong page: Recheck the URL spelling and whether the path is absolute, root-relative, or relative to the current document. A relative path is resolved from the current page’s URL, so moving a page can affect it.
- An in-page link does not jump to the section: Compare the fragment value with the destination’s
id, including spelling and capitalization, and make sure the target element actually exists in the loaded document. - The email or phone action does not start: Confirm that the destination begins with
mailto:ortel:as appropriate. These links depend on the visitor’s device and configured applications; a web browser cannot guarantee an email client or calling capability. - A link opens in a new tab unexpectedly: Look for
target="_blank". Remove it if a new browsing context is not intended, or make the behavior apparent in the link label.
Or skip the browser setup
If you have published a page and want to inspect how its links and surrounding layout render, you can capture the page through ScreenshotNeo instead of setting up a browser automation flow. It does not create or validate HTML links; it captures a rendered website page. One GET request can return an image or PDF. See the ScreenshotNeo documentation for API options.
curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://example.com -o shot.webpScreenshotNeo removes cookie and consent banners, newsletter popups, and chat widgets before capture; each cleanup step can be turned off. Bot checks and CAPTCHAs, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads, and cache hits are not billed, and the response identifies the page verdict and billing status in headers. Its MCP server provides take_screenshot, get_page_info, and capture_pdf tools for AI agents. The Free plan includes 1,000 screenshots per month without a card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000 shots.
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