<link/> Tag Syntax
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <?xml-stylesheet ...?> <!DOCTYPE html> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> ... metadata content ... <meta http-equiv="..." content="..."/> ... metadata content ... <title>My Title</title> ... metadata content ... <meta name="..." content="..."/> ... metadata content ... </head> <body> ... flow content ... <meta itemprop="..." content="..."/> ... flow content ... </body> </html>
Rules for coding the HTML link element
Make sure you understand the difference between a tag and element and are familiar with the definitions of namespace and other HTML terms.
<link/> tag as metadata content
- Code any <link> tags in the <head> section of the HTML document where metadata content is expected.
- Each link element consists of a standalone <link/> tag. The element name uses lower case letters and should be in the HTML namespace, which it will pick up automatically from the
xmlns
attribute on the <html> tag. - Include a
rel
attribute within the <link/> tag. The value of the attribute, which is enclosed in double quotes, is the type of relationship between the linked resource and the current document. - Include an
href
attribute within the <link/> tag with the URL of the external resource. - Include any other attributes of the <link/> tag as appropriate.
- Since the link element is a void element, it should always be coded as a self-closing tag terminated with the delimiter string
/>
.
<link/> tag for microdata properties
- Code the <link> tag in the <body> section of the HTML document where phrasing content is expected.
- The link element consists of a standalone <link/> tag. The element name uses lower case letters and should be in the HTML namespace, which it will pick up automatically from the
xmlns
attribute on the <html> tag. - Inside the <link> tag, code an
itemprop
attribute to indicate the link element represents a microdata property. The value of the attribute, which is enclosed in double quotes, is the name or URL of the microdata property. - Inside the <link/> tag, code an
href
attribute with the value of the microdata property in double quotes. - Include any other attributes of the <link/> tag as appropriate.
- Since the
<link/>
tag is a void element, it should always be coded as a self-closing tag terminated with the delimiter string/>
.
<link/> Content Model
Contents of the <link/> Tag
Content: Empty. All properties are coded using attributes.
Since the <link/>
tag is a void element, it is not allowed to have any content, even HTML comments and therefore should always be coded as a self-closing standalone tag, ending with the delimiters />
rather than just >
(<link .../>
).