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 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.

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.