Jobs and unemployment | CA.gov

Accessibility | CA.gov

Assistance and social programs | CA.gov

Technical help | CA.gov

Get help | CA.gov

Contact | CA.gov

Personal records | CA.gov

California State Portal | CA.gov

404 | CA.gov

Translate this website | CA.gov

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

August 2025

July 2025

State of California

Title / URL	Issues
Jobs and unemployment \| CA.govwww.ca.gov/topics/jobs/	5
Accessibility \| CA.govwww.ca.gov/legal/accessibility/	5
Assistance and social programs \| CA.govwww.ca.gov/topics/assistance/	5
Technical help \| CA.govwww.ca.gov/support/technical-help/	5
Get help \| CA.govwww.ca.gov/support/	5
Contact \| CA.govwww.ca.gov/contact/	5
Personal records \| CA.govwww.ca.gov/topics/personal-records/	5
California State Portal \| CA.govwww.ca.gov/	5
404 \| CA.govwww.ca.gov/invented-url-for-404-page	5
Translate this website \| CA.govwww.ca.gov/translate/	5

Avoid linking to anchors that do not exist

State of California

Where this issue has occurred