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:
rel
Attribute Inside Anchor TagsHere 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 using target="\_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.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.
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