University of Montana | Public Flagship in Missoula

My UM for Students

About

Accessibility

Graduate School | University of Montana

404 - File Not Found

First time visit: View without clicking anything

Academics

Featured News

CyberBear

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

June 2025

May 2025

University of Montana

Title / URL	Issues
University of Montana \| Public Flagship in Missoulawww.umt.edu/	1
My UM for Studentswww.umt.edu/my/	1
Aboutwww.umt.edu/about/	1
Accessibilitywww.umt.edu/accessibility/	1
Graduate School \| University of Montanawww.umt.edu/grad/	1
404 - File Not Foundwww.umt.edu/invented-url-for-404-page	1
First time visit: View without clicking anythingwww.umt.edu/	1
Academicswww.umt.edu/academics/default.php	1
Featured Newswww.umt.edu/news/featured.php	1
CyberBearwww.umt.edu/cyberbear/	1

Avoid linking to anchors that do not exist

University of Montana

Where this issue has occurred