Links in Headings Are Okay
Jens O. Meiert, October 20, 2007 / April 9, 2012.
This entry is filed under Web Development, Usability.
Referring to a recent W3C list question by John, and at the same time responding to a 2004 poll by Mike: Links in headlines are semantically legitimate and hence fine.
The reasoning behind this is summarized quickly:
- The HTML specs do not mandate use of links in headings,
- just about every bit of information can be justified to link to, and
- linking headings can help usability.
So while there’s generally nothing to worry about when using links in headings or even linking headings entirely, it should be kept in mind that doing so should serve a purpose. There are cases in which linking headings makes no sense and should be avoided, for example those heading “permalinks” in articles in which the permalink links to the document already open. This is a general usability issue, not just regarding linking the homepage from the homepage.
Straight-forward case? I’d love to hear additional pro and contra arguments, either as a comment or as a message to public-evangelist.
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Comments
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On June 6, 2008, 3:41 CEST, David Ehmer said:
Placing a link on a heading (usually) changes how it is visually rendered. I see this as having two issues:
1. Looks less appealing as headings are no longer consistently displayed if there are other non-linked headings on the same page.
2. Increases the likely cognitive processing time for users who need to consider if the text is a link or a heading or both.
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