Links: absolute and relative paths / الروابط: المسار المطلق والنسبي

A link lets the visitor move from one place to another with a click or a tap. You write it with the <a> tag — short for "anchor" — and its most important attribute, href, which holds the address it goes to.

An absolute link is a full address, starting with https:// — it works from anywhere, because it names the whole site. A relative link is just the name of a file sitting beside your own page, with no https:// in front — it only makes sense from inside your own project, because the browser looks for it next to the page it is on.

By default a link opens in the same tab, replacing the page the visitor is on. Add target="_blank" to open it in a new tab instead. Save it for links that take the visitor away from something they were doing — a source you are citing, a file to download — not for ordinary navigation on your own site: forcing every link into a new tab fills the visitor's phone with tabs they did not ask for, and the page they expect the "back" button to reach is gone.

Two special prefixes turn a link into an action instead of a page. mailto: followed by an address opens the visitor's email app with that address already filled in as the recipient. tel: followed by a number opens the phone dialer with that number ready to call — most of your visitors are on a phone, so this one link can save them from copying a number by hand.