McFarland Library | Southwest Minnesota State University

SMSU | Southwest Minnesota State University

404 Error {don't panic yet} | Southwest Minnesota State University

Mission, Vision, and Values | Southwest Minnesota State University

SMSU Staff & Department Directory | Southwest Minnesota State University

About | Southwest Minnesota State University

Academics | Southwest Minnesota State University

SMSU Scholarships | Southwest Minnesota State University

Admission | Southwest Minnesota State University

Do not link to an anchor on the page that does not exist. For example:
linking to `#content` without a valid destination such as `<body id="content"></body>`.

A common web design pattern is to use a named anchor to show an element via JavaScript, e.g.

```html
<a href="#foo" onclick="$('.bar').toggle();">Click me</a>
<div class="bar">
    This is some content.
</div>
``` 

In these cases, the anchor (`#foo`) should point to the `id` of the hidden element:

```html
<a href="#foo" onclick="$('#foo').toggle();">Click me</a>
<div id="foo">
    This is some content.
</div>
```

This way the semantic intent of the link is preserved, even without JavaScript. 
Note that doing so may require modification to your script, to prevent automatic 
scrolling to the named anchor.

linking-to-anchor-on-page-that-does-not-exist

February 2025

January 2025

Southwest Minnesota State University

Title / URL	Issues
McFarland Library \| Southwest Minnesota State Universitywww.smsu.edu/library/index.html	2
SMSU \| Southwest Minnesota State Universitywww.smsu.edu/index.html?1	1
404 Error {don't panic yet} \| Southwest Minnesota State Universitywww.smsu.edu/404.html	1
Mission, Vision, and Values \| Southwest Minnesota State Universitywww.smsu.edu/about/mission.html	1
SMSU Staff & Department Directory \| Southwest Minnesota State Universitywww.smsu.edu/directory/index.html	1
SMSU \| Southwest Minnesota State Universitywww.smsu.edu/index.html?mobile	1
About \| Southwest Minnesota State Universitywww.smsu.edu/about/index.html	1
Academics \| Southwest Minnesota State Universitywww.smsu.edu/academics/index.html	1
SMSU Scholarships \| Southwest Minnesota State Universitywww.smsu.edu/scholarships/index.html	1
Admission \| Southwest Minnesota State Universitywww.smsu.edu/admission/index.html	1

Avoid linking to anchors that do not exist

Southwest Minnesota State University

Where this issue has occurred