THE WORLD'S LARGEST WEB DEVELOPER SITE

HTML <link> rel Attribute

❮ HTML <link> tag

Example

An external stylesheet:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="theme.css">
Try it Yourself »

Definition and Usage

The required rel attribute specifies the relationship between the current document and the linked document/resource.


Browser Support

Attribute
rel Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Differences Between HTML 4.01 and HTML5

Some HTML 4.01 values are removed from HTML5, and some new values are added to HTML5.


Syntax

<link rel="value">

Attribute Values

Value Description
alternate Provides a link to an alternate version of the document (i.e. print page, translated or mirror).
Example: <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="W3Schools News" href="/blog/news/atom">
author Provides a link to the author of the document
dns-prefetch Specifies that the browser should preemptively perform DNS resolution for the target resource's origin
help Provides a link to a help document. Example: <link rel="help" href="/help/">
icon Imports an icon to represent the document.
Example: <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon">
license Provides a link to copyright information for the document
next Provides a link to the next document in the series
pingback Provides the address of the pingback server that handles pingbacks to the current document
preconnect Specifies that the browser should preemptively connect to the target resource's origin.
prefetch Specifies that the browser should preemptively fetch and cache the target resource as it is likely to be required for a follow-up navigation
preload Specifies that the browser agent must preemptively fetch and cache the target resource for current navigation according to the destination given by the "as" attribute (and the priority associated with that destination).
prerender Specifies that the browser should pre-render (load) the specified webpage in the background. So, if the user navigates to this page, it speeds up the page load (because the page is already loaded). Warning! This waste the user's bandwidth! Only use prerender if it is absolutely sure that the webpage is required at some point in the user journey
prev Indicates that the document is a part of a series, and that the previous document in the series is the referenced document
search Provides a link to a resource that can be used to search through the current document and its related pages.
stylesheet Imports a style sheet

❮ HTML <link> tag