Tutorial
How To Use the Rel Attribute for Anchor Tags in HTML
Introduction
The rel
attribute inside anchor tags (<a>
) describes the relation of a linked resource. rel
can take one of 14 values. Let’s examine them all:
Prerequisites
- A general knowledge of HTML5. For a comprehensive review of the HTML5 markup language, explore our series, How To Build a Website in HTML.
Using the rel
Attribute Inside Anchor Tags
Here are the 14 values that the rel
attribute can accept:
-
alternate
: Points to an alternate version of the document. -
author
: Points to the author of the document. -
bookmark
: Points to an URL for bookmarking. -
enclosure
: Points to a downloadable asset. -
external
: Points to an URL on a different domain. -
help
: Points to an help document. -
license
: Points to legal, license, or copyright information. -
next
: Points to the next document in a series. -
nofollow
: Indicates to search engines that the document in not endorsed. This is the most commonly used value and should be used for paid links and ads. -
noreferrer
: Indicates to the browser not to send an HTTP referrer header. -
noopener
: Prevent an opener browsing context. It should be used when usingtarget="\_blank"
on a link. Mathias Bynens discussed the security benefits of this and Jake Archibald discussed the performance benefits. -
prev
: Points to the previous document in a series. -
search
: Points to a search function for the document. -
tag
: Points to a document that’s covers a keyword/tag of the current document.
Conclusion
The rel
attribute is an important feature of HTML. See our related tutorial on the Rel Attribute for Link Tags
For a more comprehensive review of the HTML5 markup language, explore our series, How To Build a Website in HTML.