First time visit: View without clicking anything

Sitemap | CA.gov

DMV/Auto | CA.gov

About California | CA.gov

Privacy policy | CA.gov

Housing and real estate | CA.gov

Businesses | CA.gov

Jobs and unemployment | CA.gov

Translate this website | CA.gov

404 | 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

July 2025

June 2025

State of California

Title / URL	Issues
First time visit: View without clicking anythingwww.ca.gov/	5
Sitemap \| CA.govwww.ca.gov/about/sitemap/	5
DMV/Auto \| CA.govwww.ca.gov/topics/dmv-auto/	5
About California \| CA.govwww.ca.gov/about-california/	5
Privacy policy \| CA.govwww.ca.gov/legal/privacy-policy/	5
Housing and real estate \| CA.govwww.ca.gov/topics/housing/	5
Businesses \| CA.govwww.ca.gov/topics/businesses/	5
Jobs and unemployment \| CA.govwww.ca.gov/topics/jobs/	5
Translate this website \| CA.govwww.ca.gov/translate/	5
404 \| CA.govwww.ca.gov/invented-url-for-404-page	5

Avoid linking to anchors that do not exist

State of California

Where this issue has occurred