CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascripthtmlcss
Ali
Ali

Reputation: 267077

Do <link href=""> tags only go in the <head> tag?

Is it possible/good practice to use <link href""> to include stylesheets outside of the <head> tag, or do they only work / should they be only used in <head>?

Upvotes: 30

Views: 16463

Answers (7)

qwr
qwr

Reputation: 10919

In HTML5, it is valid for specifically link type "stylesheet" to go within body element, as from https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/links.html#linkTypes it is body-ok.

Note: html is only permitted to contain two elements, head followed bybody. However if you put link right under html, the standard regrettably allows this in some situations as it allows omitting <head> and <body> start and end tags in some situations. This is due to crappy legacy pages and you should never do this.

Summary: Just put your link in head.

Upvotes: 1

Brian Fisher
Brian Fisher

Reputation: 23989

According to the HTML 4.01 spec, the <link> tag must appear in the head section:

This element defines a link. Unlike A, it may only appear in the HEAD section of a document, although it may appear any number of times. Although LINK has no content, it conveys relationship information that may be rendered by user agents in a variety of ways (e.g., a tool-bar with a drop-down menu of links).

Source W3C: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/links.html#edef-LINK

Upvotes: 5

DarkLeafyGreen
DarkLeafyGreen

Reputation: 70416

The tag defines the relationship between a document and an external resource.

The tag is most used to link to style sheets.

Note: The link element must be embedded in the head section, and it can appear any number of times.

From: http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_link.asp

The LINK element (<link>) is used to add external information related to the HTML document in the header of your document in the HEAD element.

From: http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/use-links

Upvotes: 5

Boris Zbarsky
Boris Zbarsky

Reputation: 35064

It's possible to do it.

It's not recommended to do it, because whatever content comes before the <link> will start rendering and then when the stylesheet is loaded will be rerendered with the new styles. That means that the pageload will be slower (because the browser has to redo all that work) and uglier (because there will be this flash of content with one style that's then restyled to look different).

Upvotes: 22

Alex Waters
Alex Waters

Reputation: 4360

The <link> tag does not define structure of a webpage, so it should stay out of the <body> and <footer>.

I can't think of any reason why you would ever want/need to put it anywhere other than the <head>

Upvotes: 4

otakustay
otakustay

Reputation: 12395

Yes, element is metadata element, whose permitted parent is head, or a element in head.

Upvotes: -1

alex
alex

Reputation: 490233

They are invalid outside of head, though no browser I know of won't apply the styles if not a child of head.

Upvotes: 7

Related Questions