Exploring the (X)HTML Link Element

Updated January 12, 2025

Most Web authors are familiar with the <link> element included within the <head> element of many (X)HTML documents. The <link> element enables authors to associate external resources to the (X)HTML document. <link> element references include various types of metadata, navigation, and styling information. This brief post provides examples of these and other important uses of the (X)HTML <link> element.

<!-- indicate the starting location -->
<link rel="start" href="http://domain.com/directory/" />

<!-- indicate the previous item -->
<link rel="prev" href="http://domain.com/directory/prev/" />

<!-- indicate the next item -->
<link rel="next" href="http://domain.com/directory/next/" />

<!-- indicates the index location -->
<link rel="contents" href="http://domain.com/directory/index.html" />

<!-- indicates location of a help file -->
<link rel="help" href="http://domain.com/directory/help.html" />

<!-- indicates location of a site feed -->
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://domain.com/directory/feed.rdf" />

<!-- indicates location of FOAF metadata -->
<link rel="meta" type="application/rdf+xml" title="FOAF" href="http://domain.com/directory/foaf.xrdf" />

<!-- provides contact information -->
<link rev="made" href="mailto:name@domain.com" title="contact name" />

<!-- indicates location of translated document -->
<link rel="alternate" href="http://domain.com/directory/translated.html" hreflang="fr" title="french translation" />

<!-- provides a link to the stylesheet -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://domain.com/directory/style.css" type="text/css" media="screen" />

For more information, check out the XHTML Document Header Resource.

About the Author

Jeff Starr = Web Developer. Book Author. Secretly Important.